Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread • Hacker News Board

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#101

Post by mb_72 » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 3:46 AM UTC

aynsof wrote: post #50

escapecharacter wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crazy idea: what if management was a licensed, regulated career, like traditional engineering, or being a nurse. Like if you have more than 5 "direct reports", you need to get a certification?

I don't think there's any link between certification and competency. Here in Australia we're going mad for certifications. I had a friend who looked after kids in an after school program. A minimum wage job, but one that she loved. She'd been doing it for nearly 20 years. The government mandated that she needed a $2500 certificate in order to continue to do the job she'd been doing for two decades. I don't believe th…

Your friend sounds like an outlier in these circumstances; the certification is more likely to be of benefit to those fresh to the field, and in the field of child-care (and aged care also), I think some bare minimum requirement of capability is warranted.

Professional training organisations may not have direct experience with the subject matter, but given a good curriculum prepared by someone who DOES have experience, I don't see why they couldn't deliver a reasonable result. I agree that any "Q and A" sessions, or questions along the lines of "What is it really like working as a..." would not be that useful, though.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#102

Post by zxcvvcxz » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 3:49 AM UTC

No post body was provided.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#103

Post by EGreg » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 3:58 AM UTC

And what’s more, our society is unwittingly taking the side of corporations and try to push more of it on another 50% of the population, which is already overworked:

http://magarshak.com/blog/?p=286

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#104

Post by Spooky23 » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:03 AM UTC

Gibbon1 wrote: post #76

scottlocklin wrote: post #63

I remember sitting in rapture listening to a retired Chevron executive describing the way white collar work used to be. You basically got hired at a megacorp for life. If things didn't work out after the first couple of years, you were gently taken aside, given nothing new to do, and given a salary and an office for an entire year to find a new position. I was flabbergasted. Only professors with tenure or certain gov…

I talked to a Chevron Exec while stuck on a ski lift 30 years ago. Back then if they canceled or finished a project they just redeployed the workers to other projects. Vastly different than the current system where they just lay everyone off at the end. If things weren't working out bosses would just transfer employees to a role better suited to them. You'll get arguments this is more efficient cause free markets bla…

100% agree with you. The modern organization is so short term focused and so dedicated to purging that they do not develop leadership and cannot handle failure.

The cult of metrics breeds dumb. A big company is more like a Soviet enterprise than a functional business.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#105

Post by mamon » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:07 AM UTC

prestonh wrote: post #93

cracauer wrote: post #21

It's not just companies driving to more productivity. For example, those open office layout are about putting more people per square foot. No matter what they say otherwise. Nobody "communicates" in an open office layout and they know it. This is an example where per-employee productivity is sacrificed for other goals (getting more people into one building). And it is directly affecting stress and burnout.

Huh? People communicate about work all the time in my office and having the ability to initiate conversations fluidly means more efficient collaboration. Fewer meetings, and easier to keep all parties in the know.

There is such thing as too much communication. In my previous company the whole 10 person team sat together on the open space. The result was that my coworkers (sitting 30-40 ft from me) would shout a question to me, because they were too lazy to check project Wiki page to know which environment they should deploy to, for example. Or they would shout totaly useless notifications, like "I've just created pull request, can you review it?". Open plan offices encourage this type of pathological behaviour.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#106

Post by Adamantcheese » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:07 AM UTC

stuaxo wrote: post #55

Should we stop calling it burnout and just say depression ?

I've seen the term "moral injury" be used, which I think is a better description of what usually happens.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#107

Post by jammygit » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:33 AM UTC

This topic is important, but this article is weak. They cite a statement about doctor burnout, and a single study about employer statements about the topic. Most of the content is anecdotal, and in that sense they're just going for an 'I hear you' reaction instead of adding anything to the discussion. Disappointing imo.

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#108

Post by jammygit » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:39 AM UTC

If one was a founder who wanted to have their startup succeed without crushing your teams mental/physical health, how would you do it? I understand the founder accepting it as a cost themselves, but when the company's existence depends on speed, how do you balance the push with survival?

Are there any good case studies?

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#109

Post by pm90 » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:43 AM UTC

Spooky23 wrote: post #104

Gibbon1 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I talked to a Chevron Exec while stuck on a ski lift 30 years ago. Back then if they canceled or finished a project they just redeployed the workers to other projects. Vastly different than the current system where they just lay everyone off at the end. If things weren't working out bosses would just transfer employees to a role better suited to them. You'll get arguments this is more efficient cause free markets bla…

100% agree with you. The modern organization is so short term focused and so dedicated to purging that they do not develop leadership and cannot handle failure. The cult of metrics breeds dumb. A big company is more like a Soviet enterprise than a functional business.

I am very interested to know what you mean by the cult of metrics?

Re: Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread

#110

Post by Tempest1981 » Sun, Mar 31, 2019, 4:52 AM UTC

Zenst wrote: post #43

kartan wrote: post #7

> Burnout caused by chronic stress is widespread We are making employees lives miserable to reduce the need of planning for companies. Quite often management lacks the emotional maturity needed in their positions that hides normal mistakes that are part of the job, push for unrealistic schedules and sometimes even get into bulling as a way of getting what they want. 8 hours plus commute time, that has increased as ci…

For many the commute more than hits your daily stress quota, even before work contributes. So you can end up starting your day stressed, be that public transport sardines and delays or playing car upon roads so gridlocked that the terminology car park seems more apt. This to reach an office at some arbitrary time everybody seems to follow of the 8/9am start. Hence you have this sudden rush into cities around that tim…

Why aren't more "knowledge workers" able to work from home 2 or 3 days a week?

I know some people have noisy kids/distractions at home, but seems like it would work for many engineers. Yet every company I've been at, I suggest it, and people give me a sarcastic look like, "yeah, right, we can't do that!"

Possibly a fear that not being seen at work will hamper advancement?