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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

#61

Post by wonderwonder »

atlgator wrote: post #49
wonderwonder wrote: post #46

I wonder if software presents a unique situation as we generally make a pretty decent salary and to transition to a new career involves a pretty significant pay cut. So some developers become trapped in jobs they hate with golden handcuffs. I really don't enjoy software development at all, but at this stage, to even think about doing something else would result in a massive pay cut. I did it once when I was younger,…

That's the problem I have. I really want to switch to finance but I make so much money now I dread starting over at $60k or something.

yup, my salary allowed my wife to recently switch careers and take a 50% salary cut. There is no way we could do the same for my career though unless we made drastic changes like selling the house and never retiring.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#62

Post by Nydhal »

dahfizz wrote: post #42
titzer wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is exclusively a problem with web development. I work in fintech, writing C and using the gnu toolchain. We are a very successful business.

Mobile, Full Stack and Data Engineering also have similar issues. Not as bad as anything related to javascript though.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#63

Post by Applejinx »

jxidjhdhdhdhfhf wrote: post #21
antris wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Being even slightly burnt out should be alarming. Some people don't even acknowledge their burning out before they become unable to work and fall into depression. It's not normal to feel this way. Being burnt out is not just regular tiredness, it's a mental health issue.

But do the study's participants understand that definition of burnout? Burnout, the way its casually thrown around these days, seems to be synonymous with regular tiredness in casual conversation.

Very likely not. There's no such thing as small extent of burnout. 'small extent of burnout' means 'I can feel my own boundaries and need to do something for self-care'.

I've often flirted with burnout to the point of having to take unwanted hiatus and fail to complete what I wanted to do. Better awareness of boundaries and self-care made that better, and STOPPING overcommitment worked best of all. It meant there are things I can't say about myself now, even as ambitions of mine. That didn't used to be true: I lived in the space between owning my ambitions and executing on 'em.

Stopping burnout means YOU ARE LESS. It's not a method of learning to work more efficiently and accomplish more. It's getting more right-sized, including your expectations.

Those who are going to be in actual burnout, who are going to begin falling into hurdles and breaking themselves, will either never acknowledge 'small amount of burnout', or the opposite: that's what they call it, no matter how great the burning wreckage surrounding them. They'll be legless and bleeding out and trying to drag themselves on by one good fingernail, and if you asked them, they would say 'this is a small amount of burnout'.

It's still a problem but I'm betting some of the folks in that 83% total, are willing and able to scale back their commitments and will then not be in burnout. Burnout is when you break.

Physical exercise counterpart: muscle building and strain, vs. rhabdo.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#64

Post by gmadsen »

protonimitate wrote: post #47
briefcomment wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is maintenance the cause of burnout then?

For me burnout comes from the endless treadmill of external pressures (arbitrary deadlines, changing requirements) and the endless treadmill of development work. There's not really ever a chance to step back and take a breath - just constantly moving from one high priority task to the next. It's also a bit thankless, being good as this job, in a lot of cases, means you are moving really fast from one task to the next…

as far as the last sentence. I think this varies with temperament widely. I like a mix of problem solving and people facing work, but I would find it hard to believe a mathematician would be upset from constant problem solving

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#65

Post by tchalla »

Someone wrote: post #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…

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

Is there a better scientific method to quantify burnout?

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#66

Post by jquery »

I “retired” after 12 years of web development due to extreme burnout. I now work in a completely different industry and could not be happier.

It felt like my workload was forever increasing. I could never rest on any laurels without falling significantly “behind”. I developed a major substance abuse problem as well (sober 14 months now), although untangling cause and effect here is impossible. I think I was abusing substances in part to cope with the stress.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#67

Post by himoacs »

throwawayswede wrote: post #56

This is such a great example of bullshit studies. Yeah I'm gonna go on a limb and say this is a marketing campaign. It's an insult to science to call this a "study". From the pdf: > The fieldwork of this study was carried out at remarkable speed, from the 23rd to 24th of June 2021 Data was collected in 1 day. Is this a joke? No it's not! > The population sampled included Software Engineers aged 18+ living in the Unit…

Thanks for taking the time to read the details. I am always skeptical when I see "Study finds...".

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#68

Post by endisneigh »

dahfizz wrote: post #42
titzer wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This is exclusively a problem with web development. I work in fintech, writing C and using the gnu toolchain. We are a very successful business.

Though I believe you're correct, this is not a problem inherent to web development. There's absolutely nothing stopping you from pinning things to specific versions other than the fact that projects couple security updates with breaking feature additions.

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#69

Post by [deleted] »

protonimitate wrote: post #47
briefcomment wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is maintenance the cause of burnout then?

For me burnout comes from the endless treadmill of external pressures (arbitrary deadlines, changing requirements) and the endless treadmill of development work. There's not really ever a chance to step back and take a breath - just constantly moving from one high priority task to the next. It's also a bit thankless, being good as this job, in a lot of cases, means you are moving really fast from one task to the next…

[deleted]

Re: Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout

#70

Post by geoduck14 »

Someone wrote: post #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…

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

I kind of see where you are coming from, but I think this is an important question to ask. Asking someone's opinion on something is a REALLY good indicator of their opinion on that thing: do you hate your job, do you like chocolate, do you love your wife, etc.

While the question "are you burned out" might not predict attrition as well as other questions and it might not be "scientifically assailable" - it still does tell us something about the person.

At work, I frequently ask my team (individually), "do you feel burned out", but I ALSO ask other questions "do you feel like you are doing good work", "do you enjoy what your are doing", "do you like the people you work with", "am I a good manager (a notoriously BAD question)".

These and others help me keep a pulse on my team and what is going on in their head.

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