Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit

Isn’t being a $7.5B publicly-traded company the definition of not a startup?

I really appreciate this one. As a very high conscientiousness and med-high neuroticism person a manager asking for a "status check" on a project actually sounds like "You did something wrong that gave me cause for concern/doubt" which causes an inordinate amount of stress and self doubt that I'm truly giving it my all -- which leads me to push harder regardless of how hard I already am...

Celebrating progress allows me to say "Yeah, things may not be on our desired timeline, but also we're making progress and that timeline was unrealistic... We'll get there so long as we continue to invest".

Slack gives you choice. The choice to work. To have fun. To do nothing. Slack allows you to deal with less bullshit. Less waste, not more production. Less always-on anxiety and avoiding stress completely.

These "manager tools" are not to prevent burnout. They are a list of things managers probably should be doing but don't. They should already be commonplace in any working environment yet many are so barren of them.

1. Encourage time off - It's usually up to the individual to take time off and lookout for their well being. It could be a nice thing once and awhile for your boss to "gift" you a day off. Please don't encourage me to take my own deserved time off though as I have plans for it.

2. Lower the pressure - I don't see how a manager can control this. Some goals are external to the team/individual and people still rely on you to complete the work. If a manager can convince senior leaders to cut certain goals at risk of attrition, then that is their job, not mine.

3. Be more positive - This is a given. Don't know why it needs to be mentioned that positivity begets positivity.

4. Increase headcount - This is a manager's job. But don't expect increasing headcount to improve any condition of burnout just by adding more people to problems.

5. Offer team members coaching - Sure this would be nice, but most companies only offer external coaching for senior leaders and above. ICs and middle managers hardly will see this benefit. Their manager is supposed to be their "coach" and hardly many are qualified to do that nor does it even provide benefits given the role power.

6. Remind employees of mental health care resources - I'm sorry but every resource i've tried that's corporate sponsored is garbage. At least in my experience. The services often ghost you and the corporate sponsored quotas are like 10 emails total. Not enough to even chat about burnout. Everything meaningful is something you still have to pay for yourself (at a discount, but still). Running and walking is free though!

7. Express gratitude - This one is missing all over corporate America. A simple "thanks" goes much further than you think. Especially those that are genuine and out of the blue. For some reason managers tend to not use this "magic" word.

8. Celebrate progress - One great way to celebrate progress is by discussing career growth too. Although chatting about "small wins" and reflect on mountains you climbed is nice in retrospect, you do all this in expectation of a "reward" at the end of the day. Yes some people may genuinely care for their work (I do too), but I still expect these things to lead to something greater. More responsibilities, more compensation, etc.

9. Sympathize - It's hard to sympathize or even empathize. The work is completely different and even if your manager did the job you are doing at one point, you might be doing it better or worse than them. It's hard to relate in certain job tracks. It's nice for a manager to hold the space, but really coworkers and peers usually do it much better.

10. Lead by example - This one is hard for me. I've never had a manager who leads by example. The examples they lead by are not ones I would follow anyway because I'm not going to be answering email at crazy hours of the day because I value my life outside of work more. Sometimes I do check email at night, but I "send them later" at reasonable times in the morning. No way in hell I'll add email onto my personal devices though.

11. Reduce the number of hours worked by agreeing to reduce effort - This is usually through 1:1s or team syncs / sprint ceremonies. Sadly managers do not listen to the boy who cried wolf and reduce projects or efforts accordingly. Many of us know that when this happens, we just enjoy the crash and burn or feign ignorance instead of "I told you so".

12. Share burnout concerns with others - While I used to do this, it has also been detrimental to my career. I become a "flight risk" because I'm exploring my options and now I'm suddenly valued as much as I knew personally. I shouldn't have to resort to this option to feel appreciated. As much as I enjoy talking to others about burnout, it just all sounds like we do so much work that we aren't feeling appreciated enough with (money, recognition, etc).