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I need your gentle advice, I am fully burned out, have a great job, where each of my step creates a trouble to someone (in terms of code) Every single line of code I add to codebase, creates lots of bugs/crashes. I work more than 60hours/week, but in terms of productivity probably its 5hours/week. When I sit to coding, I just look at the screen and do not know what to do next.
Leaving my job probably not an option, I have a family. Feeling so depressed.
Then scale back your work to 50 hours per week. Make your work time really focused to get as much quality work completed during your regular work hours.
Test your code prior to committing to the code base.
How much experience do you have? Can you snag a mentor at work? Is pair programming an option?
Try to recharge and get focussed, try slowly reducing your work hours.
When I encounter this situation I try to remember that someone has probably solved the same (or a very similar) issue before. There are enormous amounts of open source code out there that might give you some inspiration. Take 5 minutes to sit back and search for inspiration from similar work. Don't blindly copy-paste, but understand how the author solved the problem and you in turn will have some ideas for solving your own.
Try taking a 3 day weekend to recharge. Then scale back your work to 50 hours per week. Make your work time really focused to get as much quality work completed during your regular work hours. Test your code prior to committing to the code base. How much experience do you have? Can you snag a mentor at work? Is pair programming an option? Try to recharge and get focussed, try slowly reducing your work hours.
And take a week (preferably two) to recharge, not a long weekend. You need to get your brain completely out of work and get it used to being there.
Then spend at least a few hours of your 40 on a regular basis thinking not about your work but about HOW you work. What would improve your code quality? Automated tests? More time spent thinking? A better environment for focus? Then fix the problems you identify.
1.) You should put everything in perspective. You have a job that pays well and a family. A lot of people would be envious.
2.) Working 60 hours a week doesn't do much if you're not productive. I would start coming in 5-10 minutes later or leaving 5-10 minutes earlier each day. See if anyone notices and then keep sliding it. I don't think the hours you put in matter if the productivity doesn't match it.
3.) Look into test suites if possible. Don't go crazy. Just design a few tests for some of the main functions for your software. Add 1 or 2 new tests each time you create a new bug or encounter an issue. It doesn't have to be a formal process with deployment, just something local on your machine to make you feel better.
4.) Leaving your job probably not an option because you need $$$ to keep coming in is my guess. It never hurts to look around. Email a few friends and see if they have openings at their offices.
5.) Smile. I know we've all been in work situations that we really didn't like or enjoy. We gritted our teeth and eventually, things got better. Either we moved on to different jobs or things changed in our current situation.
If it's deadline pressure related, then you may have to try to convince your management that extending a deadline to deliver tested code is better than sticking to those deadlines - which are usually artificial and heavily underestimated anyway - only to create extra unwanted work for everybody.