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Nah. Tech workers burnout for the same reason nurses, cops, accountants and everyone else burns out. The drudgery of the work not meeting your expectations ( c

Nah. Tech workers burnout for the same reason nurses, cops, accountants and everyone else burns out. The drudgery of the work not meeting your expectations ( cool hacker vs office code monkey ), the open-ended nature of the work ( you will be doing this for the next few decades ), the awareness of time ( or how much of it you are wasting away at work ) and the pittance you get relative to what the company gets. Goodness. I can't believe it's already labor day weekend. Where does the time go.

indigochill 8y ago
Maybe in some cases. Having been through leadership ups and downs within the same company (and even same team!) however, for my case it really is about leadership. When I'm happy: We solicit projects from stakeholders on other teams without development resources. They negotiate among each other to decide task prioritization (our manager facilitates). We'll consult on the scope of requests. Usually stakeholders overestimate the work involved and we can make them happy right from the start by promising delivery in a fraction of the time they expected (while still leaving plenty of time for the inevitable unexpected. Projects are usually things that have been a pain for a long time, so people are happy when they're fixed but they're not usually urgent. Is it mundane? Sure, usually. Although we do have the latitude to spice things up if we can fit something cool in within the allotted time. When I'm unhappy: Executives have knee-jerked into another hairbrained scheme that they'll drop in six months (if we're lucky, without another round of layoffs). Nevertheless, it's all hands on deck so we're yanked off everything else to support the "new vision". I do also think sometimes about the value of programmers vs. what they're paid, but I also know that if I think I can do better I'm always free to try. I personally prefer the security of a steady job and freedom from business operation headaches. Maybe one day that'll change, but we'll see.
segmondy 8y ago
Well said, the larger the gulf between reality and expectation, the larger the stress and strain. The longer the stress and strain is prolonged, the more likely burnout will be reached.

indigochill 8y ago

Maybe in some cases. Having been through leadership ups and downs within the same company (and even same team!) however, for my case it really is about leadership. When I'm happy: We solicit projects from stakeholders on other teams without development resources. They negotiate among each other to decide task prioritization (our manager facilitates). We'll consult on the scope of requests. Usually stakeholders overestimate the work involved and we can make them happy right from the start by promising delivery in a fraction of the time they expected (while still leaving plenty of time for the inevitable unexpected. Projects are usually things that have been a pain for a long time, so people are happy when they're fixed but they're not usually urgent. Is it mundane? Sure, usually. Although we do have the latitude to spice things up if we can fit something cool in within the allotted time. When I'm unhappy: Executives have knee-jerked into another hairbrained scheme that they'll drop in six months (if we're lucky, without another round of layoffs). Nevertheless, it's all hands on deck so we're yanked off everything else to support the "new vision". I do also think sometimes about the value of programmers vs. what they're paid, but I also know that if I think I can do better I'm always free to try. I personally prefer the security of a steady job and freedom from business operation headaches. Maybe one day that'll change, but we'll see.

segmondy 8y ago

Well said, the larger the gulf between reality and expectation, the larger the stress and strain. The longer the stress and strain is prolonged, the more likely burnout will be reached.