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The psychology of stress and burnout

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Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#111

Post by CocaKoala »

toast_coder wrote: post #98
CocaKoala wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's plenty of mental stress working in a bakery. You have a 100# mix of french bread, and it isn't rising properly. Will it continue to rise if you leave it in the proofer long enough, because the water it was mixed with was too cold? Maybe the guy doing the mix forgot the salt, or the yeast (because trust me, unless you're doing the mixes yourself, those things are going to happen). If the mix will rise eventual…

Point taken, but.... Humans have been baking bread for thousands of years. At this very moment I could find 100 sources of information, free and for sale about the specifics of baking bread. I could get these in the context of baking at home, baking for a group, or baking for commerce. Contrast that with the poster's problem of implementing an architecture for an identity access management system. (I have experience…

>but I am saying running a bakery is less stressful than implementing a functioning computer system.

Has anybody here claimed the opposite?

Somebody (who I suspect has never worked in a bakery) posited that perhaps the stress of food service was physical, as opposed to mental. That's a guess which sounds reasonable, but it turns out that there are a lot of problems that need to be solved in a commercial bakery that are perhaps non-obvious to people who haven't fully considered what goes in to making a successful and financially stable bakery. I wasn't trying to argue that building an operating system is less stressful than a bakery, but I WAS trying to establish that there's plenty of mental stress to go around (in addition to the physical stress of being on your feet and moving around all day) when it comes to working in a bakery.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#112

Post by beachstartup »

rubicon33 wrote: post #93
clifanatic wrote: post #82

I'm in one of those (inescapable) open-office nightmares right now. All day, every day, people are talking right next to me, making it impossible to concentrate. They're not even talking about work, they're talking about cars, or kids, or movies, or inane bullshit. I don't care that they're talking (and apparently management doesn't either, because since we're in a panopticon, if I know it, they know it too), but whe…

I couldn't tell if your post was satire or not but, assuming it's not, why are you still working there?

some people are weak decision makers in real life.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#113

Post by agumonkey »

CocaKoala wrote: post #111
toast_coder wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Point taken, but.... Humans have been baking bread for thousands of years. At this very moment I could find 100 sources of information, free and for sale about the specifics of baking bread. I could get these in the context of baking at home, baking for a group, or baking for commerce. Contrast that with the poster's problem of implementing an architecture for an identity access management system. (I have experience…

>but I am saying running a bakery is less stressful than implementing a functioning computer system. Has anybody here claimed the opposite? Somebody (who I suspect has never worked in a bakery) posited that perhaps the stress of food service was physical, as opposed to mental. That's a guess which sounds reasonable, but it turns out that there are a lot of problems that need to be solved in a commercial bakery that a…

I only worked at a satellite bakery[1], not the bread making part, which is not taxing mentally after 20 days. For the rest I honestly cannot speak.

[1] sandwich preparation, finishing touches for cakes, closer to a starbucks.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#114

Post by 77pt77 »

hasbroslasher wrote: post #109
clifanatic wrote: post #82

I'm in one of those (inescapable) open-office nightmares right now. All day, every day, people are talking right next to me, making it impossible to concentrate. They're not even talking about work, they're talking about cars, or kids, or movies, or inane bullshit. I don't care that they're talking (and apparently management doesn't either, because since we're in a panopticon, if I know it, they know it too), but whe…

I have the same problem. Try listening to really long (unpwards of 10 minutes) songs or albums that really flow together. You want to avoid distraction and listen to things that are repetitive and don't require you to lose focus and fiddle with your music player. Another that I can't recommend enough is listening to old video game music. Something you love and played as a kid. For me it's N64: Zelda, Mario Kart, SM64…

> Another that I can't recommend enough is listening to old video game music.

Amiga games. Can't go wrong.

Also "pink" noise works rather well for me in extreme situations. I can even sleep in busy airports with it.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#115

Post by arjie »

clifanatic wrote: post #95
acron0 wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quick answer: Headphones and music/white noise. Long answer: If you really feel this strongly about your working environment then you should seriously consider telling your manager. It's in their best interests that you're happy/comfortable/working as smoothly as you can. If they can't or won't change your situation, look for another employer. Ten years, Christ.

> look for another employer. Ten years, Christ. Actually I've had 3 over the past ten years. They're all the same. You've never noticed?

If it's causing you so much pain and you don't think they're going to change it, here are two suggestions:

* work from home

* rent a private room in a co-working space

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#116

Post by myth_drannon »

agumonkey wrote: post #80
skybrian wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most restaurants fail. It doesn't seem like a way to avoid stress?

You know sometime even a failure in something you like can be healthier and more motivating than safe thing you ended up dreading deeply.

Unless you drain your life savings, end up divorces... etc.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#117

Post by beachstartup »

skybrian wrote: post #73
agumonkey wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's odd, an ex cs classmate went into bakery. Some HS friend in chemistry speaks about leaving all this to open a restaurant. I, too, am thinking about bakery or coffee place. There's something about serving food to people that seems to be the emotional counterpoint of mad tech.

Most restaurants fail. It doesn't seem like a way to avoid stress?

i think stress really just depends on the kind of work, and the expectations of your customers.

yes, most restaurants fail, but most businesses fail, because people think of it as some kind of paid vacation rather than an actual job.

getting up at 5am and making croissants is a very different thing than getting up at 5am and dealing with people screaming at you because an api endpoint isn't functioning.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#118

Post by dschiptsov »

saiya-jin wrote: post #61
dschiptsov wrote: post #16

Are they trying to say that exercises are good to us, until it is too much? What does not kill us makes us stronger.

you can screw up your body in numerous ways if you overdo it, ie grow enlarged heart, screw up joints or spine and end up semi-disabled relatively young. just look at pro lifters, most of them after career end up obese with various health issues, some barely able to walk or lift anything more than sheet of paper. it's a think line to walk, unique to each of us, where you try to grow as much as you can without crossin…

That is what I failed to emphasize - it must be "just right" - not too much and not too little - optimal - slightly better than good-enough.)

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#119

Post by big_youth »

CocaKoala wrote: post #78
quickben wrote: post #24

I have a friend that is to damn good as a developer and allowed one of the big Canadian companies failed projects to burn him out thoroughly. He is looking into opening a bakery now, and by the look of it, no amount of convincing is going to change his mind. So no matter what you do, your mental robustness and coherency comes first. Don't let anybody every come close at touching that. Btw opening a bakery is an amazi…

God please do everything you can to convince him not to open a bakery. The hours are brutal, the money is poor, the margins are slim, and the people are terrible. Customers, employees, vendors, they're all terrible. Baking for friends is a fun way to pass the time. Baking for money is a quick road to a second burn out; it was literally years before I was able to stomach the thought of baking cookies or bread for my w…

My father was a baker for a large portion of his life. It really is difficult work, with insane hours, for low pay.

Maybe it's because I grew up in a working class mexican neighborhood where trades and unskilled work are the majority of occupations, but sitting in an office chair for 7hrs a day is paradise compared to baking, mechanics, or any type of manual labor.

Re: The psychology of stress and burnout

#120

Post by CocaKoala »

agumonkey wrote: post #113
CocaKoala wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>but I am saying running a bakery is less stressful than implementing a functioning computer system. Has anybody here claimed the opposite? Somebody (who I suspect has never worked in a bakery) posited that perhaps the stress of food service was physical, as opposed to mental. That's a guess which sounds reasonable, but it turns out that there are a lot of problems that need to be solved in a commercial bakery that a…

I only worked at a satellite bakery[1], not the bread making part, which is not taxing mentally after 20 days. For the rest I honestly cannot speak. [1] sandwich preparation, finishing touches for cakes, closer to a starbucks.

Ah, okay. My experience was with an independent bakery doing both retail and commercial production; that is, we would bake mix, proof, and bake bread/pastries in house for direct sale to the public, and additionally provide bread and pastries to local restaurants for resale.

I worked there for almost but not quite two years, and by the end I was managing the bread dough for all the mixes (moving things in and out of the proofer and fridge as necessary to make sure they were ready to bake at the right time), mixing all the specialty breads (multi-grain loaf, rye breads, holiday breads, basically everything but the sandwich bread, french bread, hot dog buns, and pizza dough), handling 95 percent of the actual baking, plus I was the person who kept track of the pastry stock, produced and baked pastries, and did the final prep work (frosting the brownies and cakes, etc).

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