How to prevent burnout:
Do what you can do, not what someone else wants you to do.
Yes, you need to make money, you can do that too.
Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
51–60 of 205 posts
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#52Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is HN while not everyone's subscribes to everything pg says there is a lot of agreement on what constitutes a startup and differentiates it from other more conventional businesses. PG says a startup is any company who looks at growth as their primary measure. A business is any company who looks at the bottom line as their primary measure. So it depends on the definition you wish to subscribe to. There isn't a un…
> PG says a startup is any company who looks at growth as their primary measure. Intel is a startup by this definition.
I'm willing to bet there is a non zero number of executives at intel that seem to be under the impression that it is.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#53All the "strategies" (really just tips) follow the same pattern of either tunneling on overwork as a cause, treating symptoms or pathos. >Sid and Michelle emphasized that the earlier a manager can identify burnout the better. Honestly, at the point of identification, you're likely too late. Especially for something as insidious as burnout, which can last for years and not show any symptoms before it is beyond the poi…
> So stop putting them under a lot of pressure. The second tip hints at this, but it only seems to be a reactionary measure. Maybe all this goalsetting, OKRs and such is exactly the problem with the industry, always having to feel pressured to an extreme by metrics and stats which effectively mean nothing, when most people just want to put in an honest day's work and progress. You nailed it. The entire article can be…
American Corporations drink their own kool-aid, which is probably why they can sit there and talk about what's wrong concisely without knowing what to do about it. The days of servant leadership, or leading from the front are gone in terms of management. Instead, they're a self-serving bunch. Engineers are effectively the lowest on the hierarchy and their happiness matters to no one in the chain because everyone is serving the link above them. If software ever does unionize I don't think it'll be over pay, it'll be over stuff like this.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#54All the "strategies" (really just tips) follow the same pattern of either tunneling on overwork as a cause, treating symptoms or pathos. >Sid and Michelle emphasized that the earlier a manager can identify burnout the better. Honestly, at the point of identification, you're likely too late. Especially for something as insidious as burnout, which can last for years and not show any symptoms before it is beyond the poi…
Anecdote time. As I’ve moved into larger companies and am shackled by OKRs, I am enjoying my work a lot less and feel under more pressure than ever but am getting less useful work done. It feels like a lack of trust and assumes the organization is run very efficiently and fairly—which I don’t think any company can truly claim. People just seem to adjust by gaming these systems instead of putting useful effort into th…
Moving to a small company is the only antidote, for the most part. Actually, pretty much everything is better at a small company. For anyone who's only worked at a mega corp or a "Unicorn" where working 60+ hours is expected, working with a small group of people who all know each other will change your life.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#55Earlier quoted context omitted.
One person's fluff is another person's meaningful gesture. A $100 gift is worth more than a $100 bill to many people.
I'm probably off-topic here, but isn't a gift card just money with restrictions? I guess maybe the "gift" is the freedom from responsibility, in the sense that you won't feel guilty about where you spend the money (because someone else decided for you). Is there a more favorable explanation for the value of a gift card as a gesture?
> Is there a more favorable explanation for the value of a gift card as a gesture?
I don't get what you're expecting in terms of an answer here.
A gift card is a gift. A gift is a gesture of kindness and thoughtfulness. Something doing something thoughtful and kind and thinking about you makes you feel good.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#56A couple jobs ago I got very burnt out, MSP where I was the only senior tech left. 60-80 hour weeks for many months straight. I was so burnt out, that I became extremely defensive and worried I was imminently about to be fired literally all the time. Here's what my boss did relative to this list, it's a funny parallel: 1. Disallowed taking vacation because they couldn't afford for me to be unavailable. Overtime was s…
Were you working for a sadist? Even if this was exaggerated a little bit, this isn't far from what I've experienced too. To be honest, I just look at the people in the management roles nowadays and if they give me "command and control" vibes, I'm out. Sounds like you worked for a small business and didn't know your own worth. You had the leverage the whole time.
>Were you working for a sadist? Even if this was exaggerated a little bit, this isn't far from what I've experienced too.
There's corroborated stories that he was much worse before I knew him.
While I worked him, he was actively banned from all adult hockey leagues in the city due to violence. Generally speaking leagues dont allow checking or fighting at all because at the end of the day older dudes need to go back to work on monday.
So he created his own league which explicitly allowed checking and violence. It was tremendously popular the first season for the first few games and then by the second season nobody was going anymore and they couldn't build 2 teams.
>To be honest, I just look at the people in the management roles nowadays and if they give me "command and control" vibes, I'm out.
I know better now. I didnt back then.
>Sounds like you worked for a small business and didn't know your own worth. You had the leverage the whole time.
Its crazy. When I was in that situation the burnout was just so punishing. You feel helpless and incapable. Everything is backwards and upside down. My phone would ring and I would feel that was it... i was about to be fired. If I wasn't being fired... I was about to chewed out for something I didn't do.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#57What to do post burn out might be a useful resource as well.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
> So stop putting them under a lot of pressure. The second tip hints at this, but it only seems to be a reactionary measure. Maybe all this goalsetting, OKRs and such is exactly the problem with the industry, always having to feel pressured to an extreme by metrics and stats which effectively mean nothing, when most people just want to put in an honest day's work and progress. You nailed it. The entire article can be…
American Corporations drink their own kool-aid, which is probably why they can sit there and talk about what's wrong concisely without knowing what to do about it. The days of servant leadership, or leading from the front are gone in terms of management. Instead, they're a self-serving bunch. Engineers are effectively the lowest on the hierarchy and their happiness matters to no one in the chain because everyone is s…
[deleted]
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#59I don't think I've ever had a manager that has checked even a single one of these boxed, which I guess explains why I'm so burnt out that my (non-solo) software career is likely over.
Re: Preventing Burnout: A Manager's Toolkit
#60Earlier quoted context omitted.
While it sounds correlated, I don't know if that's true. They surely can complement each other quite well though! 2021 I had long covid for almost 14 months. I still worked and burnt out once about halfway through the year. 2022 I recovered and am burning out right now again halfway through the year. I have plenty of energy. I work on compelling side projects, exercise everyday, and raise two kids. I just don't reall…
Not everybody experiencing burnout has CFS/ME but enough do that it’s worth pointing out every time there is a burnout discussion. I thought I simply kept burning out through overwork for about 10 years before discovering that I actually had CFS and I’m assuming I’m not the only one. I was highly resistant to the idea of having it as I did not identify with the disability and thought CFS people were just lazy. Had I…
Is the overworking leading to constant stress and that stress leading to ME/CFS which leads to a number of issues like trouble sleeping, physical/mental symptoms, and depression/anxiety?
This seems to be significantly undiagnosed. How do you know? What treatment has significantly helped? Getting good sleep? Mindfulness? Walks? etc?
I ask because I'm writing a book about this and want to learn more.