Recovering from Burnout and Depression
kierantie.com
Recovering from Burnout and Depression
1–10 of 266 posts
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#2Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#3Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
It's a pretty big problem for healthcare workers:
http://journals.lww.com/co-criticalcare/Abstract/2007/10000/...
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#4Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
Maybe they're too busy to write about it? ;)
I think your point about devs/designers/PMs/etc. having a unique culture is spot on. It's a field that tends to attract a lot of high achievers, and a field that people tend to tie themselves a lot to their work. That was one of my main problems - over a few years, I started to define myself based on the work I was doing. It's taken me a lot longer to dig out of it than I thought.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#5Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
It's a pretty big problem for healthcare workers: http://journals.lww.com/co-criticalcare/Abstract/2007/10000/...
Also see Christina Maslach's books on burnout. She doesn't focus exclusively on health workers, but they are noted as a group which is particularly prone to burnout.
(Edit: I just read the article, and see that the author cited Maslach already.)
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#6Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
It probably depends on what you read. Lawyers complain a lot about burn-out. At least the lawyers I know make much more money than the average software dev so it's a little easier to bear. They also have more job security and don't have to worry about age discrimination.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#7Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's a pretty big problem for healthcare workers: http://journals.lww.com/co-criticalcare/Abstract/2007/10000/...
Also see Christina Maslach's books on burnout. She doesn't focus exclusively on health workers, but they are noted as a group which is particularly prone to burnout. (Edit: I just read the article, and see that the author cited Maslach already.)
Yep - I mentioned Christina's book in my article as a great resource. My wife is a therapist, and she sees a lot of other people in the field struggling with the same issues, especially for those who work with high-risk groups.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#8This is also a huge problem for social workers, especially working with high risk clients. A lot of times the departments are unfunded so the workers also do not get the treatment/counseling they really need.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#9Why do I never read articles targeted at other high-stress jobs (lawyer, med student, etc etc)? Do software engineers have a unique culture that identifies this danger? Or are we the only ones that get burned out, maybe because of some self-selection into the field?
I think a cursory search of "finance suicide" will demonstrate that we are far from unique. We just express it in ways, and within bubbles, shared by our peers, so it's very visible to us.
Re: Recovering from Burnout and Depression
#10This hit spot on for me. I believe I'm currently dealing with and realized not long ago that Burnout was real and not an arbitrary term that people through around.