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I've been working on some tips on burnout for early engs. Would value any feedback: https://www.nemil.com/on-software-engineering/beware-burnout.html https://w

by nemild 7y ago

I've been working on some tips on burnout for early engs. Would value any feedback: https://www.nemil.com/on-software-engineering/beware-burnout.html https://www.nemil.com/on-software-engineering/beware-burnout...

2sk21 7y ago
Very nice write up! This quote stood out: “I wasn’t overworked, but I was exhausted all the time” This strikes a chord in me. I’m beginning to dread a daily fifteen minute scrum - which ought to be no big deal.
- ken 7y ago
  I'm not up on all the current methodologies, but 15 minutes every day sounds hellish no matter how well-rested one is.
  - JohnBooty 7y ago
    Really? Damn, my friend. Assuming you work 40 hours a week (ha, as if anybody works 40 hours) that's about 3% of your working hours. Now, if that's an extra 1.25 hours of meetings tacked onto your existing meeting workload, okay, that's annoying. But the idea behind daily meetings is that you should spend at least, uh, 3% of your time communicating anyway, so let's do some of it in a brief and scheduled way so we do a little bit less of it in an unscheduled, scattershot way.
    - AlexandrB 7y ago
      > Assuming you work 40 hours a week (ha, as if anybody works 40 hours) that's about 3% of your working hours. It kind of makes sense. That's 3% of your work that is often "bullshit time" that you have no control over and adds nothing to your ability to get your job done. Combine with other obligations and tight deadlines and it feels like a pointless chore. True communication is not a matter of a daily meeting with rigid procedures attached.
      - JohnBooty 7y ago
        I'd much rather have scheduled meetings than unscheduled ones. If the meetings are scheduled, I can plan my flow around them... Much better than when I'm trying to get work done and somebody yanks me out of the zone and pulls me into some random meeting that's going to last between one and several zillion minutes. We used to call them "drive-by shootings." There's definitely room for personal preference. For me, I have large numbers of years accumulated doing it both ways, and it's no absolutely no contest. I'll gladly spend 15 minutes of my day on a scheduled meeting, since I know from experience that it's going to save me a bunch of "drive-by shootings."
  - madaxe_again 7y ago
    You’re kidding, right? A 15 minute daily meeting would’ve been wonderful. My average work week usually involved three or more 4am starts to travel, three or more after 3am finishes to catch up, 80+ hours at my desk and at least ten hours of meetings. Some weeks would see me spending every daylight hour sat with clients or development teams, and every dark hour pounding out code, emails and proposals. It took a lot of drugs to keep going. Also, you say “every day”, but I suspect you’re not including weekends and the days people generally take as holidays. I spent far too many Christmases on conference calls, or launching sites (it’s the quietest commerce day between October and February), and weekends were a thing other people had. I only slowed down (and finally quit) when the hospitalisations for starvation and dehydration started getting really frequent. I’m through burnout now and out the other side - I no longer have any interest in being a productive member of society, no ambition, and I’m finally something like happy. Either way, I’m sorry, 15 minutes of scrum a day is not a burden.

by nemild 7y ago

2sk21 7y ago

Very nice write up! This quote stood out: “I wasn’t overworked, but I was exhausted all the time” This strikes a chord in me. I’m beginning to dread a daily fifteen minute scrum - which ought to be no big deal.

ken 7y ago
I'm not up on all the current methodologies, but 15 minutes every day sounds hellish no matter how well-rested one is.
- JohnBooty 7y ago
  Really? Damn, my friend. Assuming you work 40 hours a week (ha, as if anybody works 40 hours) that's about 3% of your working hours. Now, if that's an extra 1.25 hours of meetings tacked onto your existing meeting workload, okay, that's annoying. But the idea behind daily meetings is that you should spend at least, uh, 3% of your time communicating anyway, so let's do some of it in a brief and scheduled way so we do a little bit less of it in an unscheduled, scattershot way.
  - AlexandrB 7y ago
    > Assuming you work 40 hours a week (ha, as if anybody works 40 hours) that's about 3% of your working hours. It kind of makes sense. That's 3% of your work that is often "bullshit time" that you have no control over and adds nothing to your ability to get your job done. Combine with other obligations and tight deadlines and it feels like a pointless chore. True communication is not a matter of a daily meeting with rigid procedures attached.
    - JohnBooty 7y ago
      I'd much rather have scheduled meetings than unscheduled ones. If the meetings are scheduled, I can plan my flow around them... Much better than when I'm trying to get work done and somebody yanks me out of the zone and pulls me into some random meeting that's going to last between one and several zillion minutes. We used to call them "drive-by shootings." There's definitely room for personal preference. For me, I have large numbers of years accumulated doing it both ways, and it's no absolutely no contest. I'll gladly spend 15 minutes of my day on a scheduled meeting, since I know from experience that it's going to save me a bunch of "drive-by shootings."
- madaxe_again 7y ago
  You’re kidding, right? A 15 minute daily meeting would’ve been wonderful. My average work week usually involved three or more 4am starts to travel, three or more after 3am finishes to catch up, 80+ hours at my desk and at least ten hours of meetings. Some weeks would see me spending every daylight hour sat with clients or development teams, and every dark hour pounding out code, emails and proposals. It took a lot of drugs to keep going. Also, you say “every day”, but I suspect you’re not including weekends and the days people generally take as holidays. I spent far too many Christmases on conference calls, or launching sites (it’s the quietest commerce day between October and February), and weekends were a thing other people had. I only slowed down (and finally quit) when the hospitalisations for starvation and dehydration started getting really frequent. I’m through burnout now and out the other side - I no longer have any interest in being a productive member of society, no ambition, and I’m finally something like happy. Either way, I’m sorry, 15 minutes of scrum a day is not a burden.