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Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

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Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#11
post #2

If you were a professional painter and every couple of months, someone snuck into your art studio, threw out all your brushes, paint, canvas, and then dumped a huge load of requests for you to "fix" your old paintings, I'm pretty sure you'd get burned out pretty quick.

Is maintenance the cause of burnout then?

Can you name another profession that throws out its tools so often?

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#12

This is why I have a tough time putting much weight into the soft-sciences. I don't see any operational definition of "Burnout" so this is like asking people if they feel "fast". How about something like "How many times a week do you feel like not coming into work?" But these subjective terms are useless.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occupational_burnout

Burnout is not just a subjective term. It is a highly researched syndrome and can be tested for.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#13
post #2

If you were a professional painter and every couple of months, someone snuck into your art studio, threw out all your brushes, paint, canvas, and then dumped a huge load of requests for you to "fix" your old paintings, I'm pretty sure you'd get burned out pretty quick.

Stop using esoteric tools and trendy frameworks and use more robust solutions. That might prevent the burnout.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#14
A large part of the problem is that management doesn’t realize that writing software is a creative endeavor. You don’t get more creative output by working people harder, you do it by giving them more freedom. I may create more value with one spark of insight than months if trudging along, yet almost all management is meant to optimize the trudge and not the spark. This also adds to the very low quality of most code (also cited in the study).

We see a lot of VCs blog about how you can’t succeeded if you don’t work long, hard hours but the truth is the complete opposite. You can’t operate at peak coding performance if you’re not rested, motivated and feeling creative.

4 day work weeks (or less), 100% flexible schedules, wfh and far fewer meetings are some ways you can combat burnout.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#15
post #2

If you were a professional painter and every couple of months, someone snuck into your art studio, threw out all your brushes, paint, canvas, and then dumped a huge load of requests for you to "fix" your old paintings, I'm pretty sure you'd get burned out pretty quick.

The difference is that if you were a professional painter you'd also have a second job in order to survive.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#18
post #16

Developers are getting too spoiled. Did someone do the same research for teachers for example.

This myth of "spoiled developers" definitely feeds into the problem. People feel like they cannot complain about their work conditions because they have nice toys and benefits at the work place.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#19
I feel they should clarify what they mean, and what respondents meant, by 'burnout'. Burnout is an extreme state and I am extremely surprised that 83% would feel that way.

From the actual study "A total of 83% of Software Engineers reported feelings of burnout with only 17% reporting no burnout. 55%, a majority, reported “great” or “moderate” levels of burnout."

What is a "moderate level of burnout"? This is self-contradictory, so I'm not convinced that respondents really meant 'burnout' in the strict sense, and the question itself leads to this lack of clarity.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#20
If you read https://haystack-books.s3.amazonaws.com/Study+to+understand+..., you’ll see

Q1. To what extent, if any, do the following statements apply to you?

I feel burnt out from work.

On a four-point scale, that scores 21%, 35%, 28%, 17%.

So, they took everyone except those who said they didn’t feel burnt out at all, and got 83%.

I think asking for feelings of burnout exaggerates the issue of being burnt out by a huge factor.

For me, burnout means not only being tired of your job, but also inability to ‘burn’ outside work. I don’t even see how you can be that moderately, but over a quarter of respondents reported that.

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