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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

#31

Post by protonimitate »

zwieback wrote: post #15
titzer wrote: 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.

As a art-degree holder turned engineer - yup.

While there's a romantic vision of the starving artist, being broke is a whole different type of burnout.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#32

Post by dfxm12 »

briefcomment wrote: post #5
titzer wrote: 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?

In my experience (and I think also in the spirit of the analogy), it's not just maintenance. It's expecting to maintain everything you've ever done while also simultaneously being expected to keep producing new work at the same rate (and then being expected to maintain that).

It's that your work load seems to only increase. As the study found with regards to the causes of burnout, increased workload cited as the main reason.

I'm still providing updates to stuff from over five years ago (that has officially been retired), while my boss is breathing down my neck about new projects. The stress of doing this, the stress of trying to manage my manager's expectation, the stress of realizing you'll never be able to really put any of your work out of your mind or have a lighter load of responsibilities, etc. is what leads to burnout.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#33

Post by sprafa »

luffapi wrote: post #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 (…

So true. I see programming as very similar activity to making poetry. I’m a filmmaker by trade but I enjoy doing some code every once in a while, and it’s always felt to me to be very similar to poetry in the way you have to think about it and structure it.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#34

Post by cj »

danpalmer wrote: post #9

Are software developers any different from other professions with regards to burnout?

It might make us feel good to think we're unique and different, but realistically I can't imagine software development to be much more/less worse than being a mechanic, a carpenter, real estate agent, etc.

I sometimes wonder how real estate agents avoid burnout. All of the ones I've worked with work most weekends and are on call 24/7 (because they give you their personal cell phone number to call and text any time).

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#36

Post by MattGaiser »

How much of the workload is just the dev shortage/insufficient staffing?

I am currently the only dev on my team because of departures (there should be 4). Now, it is not really all that in production yet so it hasn't required late nights or waking up at odd hours, but it does linger in my mind that this could be a big issue if it grew a lot and my team didn't. I would hate to support it alone.

A friend of mine is missing two people on his team at another company. It means that they had to shove the interns into the support rotation to have full coverage of their app. They are hiring too, but as things stand, interns are staying up in the night deal with production errors and they are waking each other up as well, they are interns and don't know what they are doing.

Software seems like something that needs a sufficiently sized team after a certain point and nearly every team I know of anywhere is short people at the moment, even at FAANGs.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#37

Post by ttamslam »

luffapi wrote: post #29
codyswann wrote: post #6

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.

You should be able to measure burnout by watching employee churn. Something software development is notorious for. I don’t think people jump companies every year and a half in most industries.

Although I also think some part of that has to do with raise seeking. Lots of confounding variables at play.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#38

Post by jeffail »

Anecdotally I'd say professions that often double up as a hobby and don't have a significant material or energy cost to exercise will be more susceptible to burn out. If you're _really_ into software engineering and struggle to pace yourself then burn out will often stop you sooner than finger fatigue or your computing costs.

I'm not saying workplace pressure etc isn't a factor, but those are also similar factors in pretty much all careers.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#39

Post by codyswann »

antris wrote: post #12
codyswann wrote: post #6

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.

If that's the definition they're using, put it in the paper. Otherwise, it's just like asking someone if they feel "hot" at work.

And if it can be tested for, why not do a study that tests for it? Otherwise, it's like asking people if they feel like they have cancer.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#40

Post by titzer »

dahfizz wrote: post #23
titzer wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Then... Don't keep throwing out your tools?

Then... Don't plan on lasting more than 10 years in the software industry?
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