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Surviving Burnout (2015)

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Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#11

Post by solatic »

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people.

It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soap opera dynamics for a second) it recognizes that emotional support is both (a) necessary for fully realizing the potential of their knowledge workers (b) not something that every employee is naturally gifted at providing, neither at work for their colleagues nor in their personal lives.

More companies should employ such coaches and schedule regular sessions for all their employees. If everything's great, then great. If not, it's definitely cheaper than employee churn.

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#12

Post by jimsimmons »

solatic wrote: post #11

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people. It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soa…

Cynical take is that the company is performing psy-ops on its own employees. Having a psychologist as a performance coach at your workplace is kinda f-ed up if you think about the ways things can go wrong

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#13

Post by brailsafe »

bruce511 wrote: post #8

>> caring about the results of our actions but having no meaningful control over those outcomes This really dies sum it up in a useful generic way. Ultimately the balance of this sentence will differ from context to context, but the equation ultimately has to balance. Put another way, if you care a lot, but have no agency, then ultimately you will be frustrated. If you care a lot, but have no resources, then again, y…

Very well-articulated. I finally felt like I was bouncing back when I just accepted not giving a fuck and doing the absolute minimum to fulfill whatever the goals seem to be of whoever's deciding on them.

Do they care about rendering performance? No? Well then I'm sure as hell not goimg to lose sleep over it, and if it seems actively harmful to customers *that I've met* then it's just a place to leave.

There's always a budget, there's always better quality, but if you're the one paying for it in time and energy, and you don't really have a stake in the outcome, the correct answer is "fuck it". Do not care about transactional work more than you need to within the scope that's set forth.

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#14

Post by dilyevsky »

jimsimmons wrote: post #12
solatic wrote: post #11

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people. It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soa…

Cynical take is that the company is performing psy-ops on its own employees. Having a psychologist as a performance coach at your workplace is kinda f-ed up if you think about the ways things can go wrong

Well they did hire more “traditional” coach in later season and worked about as well as I experienced irl

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#15

Post by dilyevsky »

solatic wrote: post #11

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people. It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soa…

> More companies should employ such coaches and schedule regular sessions for all their employees. If everything's great, then great. If not, it's definitely cheaper than employee churn.

Actually a few companies i know do that for their executive staff just not rank and file employees like in the show. Also if we’re talking about engineers beyond very early stage imo it would have very limited utility for the company

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#16

Post by fatherzine »

notimetorelax wrote: post #10

Does anyone have an advice for those who stay employed by a megacorp? I’m on a vacation this week and have just realized that I was effectively in isolation outside of my work.

Engage in regular social activities. Take beginner classes, to gain some confidence and build a small social group. Plenty of 4-8 weeks series to choose from. Then take higher level classes, too. Plenty online resources (meetup, fb groups, .org website) to get you going.

* Team sports. Soccer, volleyball, ultimate frisbee, basketball, etc. There is a pickup game somewhere in your city every day/week.

* Outdoors. Group hike, backpacking, cross-country skiing, sailing. E.g. mountaineers.org in PNW, surely there are similar orgs all over.

* Partner dance. You don't need a dedicated partner, events cater to singles too.

* f3nation.com / fianation.com The ultimate free outdoors workout, rain or shine. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/24/us/f3-workout-men-texas.h...

* Running group.

* Pick a church and go to Mass every Sunday morning. Hang around for coffee and Bible study too.

♡

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#17

Post by danparsonson »

solatic wrote: post #11

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people. It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soa…

> More companies should employ such coaches and schedule regular sessions for all their employees

That honestly sounds dreadful to me, exactly the kind of management-driven nonsense that would make me more likely to quit.

If you want your employees pumped up about work, focus on treating them well not hiring cheerleaders.

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#18

Post by bruce511 »

brailsafe wrote: post #13
bruce511 wrote: post #8

>> caring about the results of our actions but having no meaningful control over those outcomes This really dies sum it up in a useful generic way. Ultimately the balance of this sentence will differ from context to context, but the equation ultimately has to balance. Put another way, if you care a lot, but have no agency, then ultimately you will be frustrated. If you care a lot, but have no resources, then again, y…

Very well-articulated. I finally felt like I was bouncing back when I just accepted not giving a fuck and doing the absolute minimum to fulfill whatever the goals seem to be of whoever's deciding on them. Do they care about rendering performance? No? Well then I'm sure as hell not goimg to lose sleep over it, and if it seems actively harmful to customers *that I've met* then it's just a place to leave. There's always…

As you move up the business ladder, or indeed start your own business, it's interesting to see how priorities evolve.

When you're a coder, the code matters. It can be frustrating to see resources allocated to say marketing.

When you are responsible for acquiring resources, then there's more to care about, more to balance. When to market. When to get new hardware.

Programmers care about code performance, code elegance, getting every pixel perfect, perfect design (for when we have s billion users). Business owners care about shipping, and getting paid. Without that the doors close.

As we grow older, as our position evolves, we have to care about more, but in some ways less deeply. There's more nuance, more compromise, more acceptance that it needs to be "good enough" - better than that even - but that perfection is an expensive goal either small returns.

I'm not arguing for mediocre, we all want the product to be better, and incrementally we move towards that. But that movement is in balance with all the other cares.

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#19

Post by slushh »

Why isn't there a known company with a healthy structure that is the place of recovery for burned out developers?

'we can build it together' - why is that not happening?

>Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people.

>How can any of us get better if we can’t afford to extract ourselves from the environment that caused the harm?

>When you’re finally in recovery, you’ll start to be able to see what an environment that doesn’t do that to you looks like. Then we can build it together.

Re: Surviving Burnout (2015)

#20

Post by yunohn »

dilyevsky wrote: post #15
solatic wrote: post #11

> Structural problems require structural solutions. Healthy organizations, healthy people. It's not the author's conclusion, but this is basically my fantasy ever since watching Billions with Wendy Rhoades's character. In that show, Wendy is a performance coach working for a hedge fund whose job is to emotionally pump up the people who work for the hedge fund. The hedge fund employs her because (leaving aside the soa…

> More companies should employ such coaches and schedule regular sessions for all their employees. If everything's great, then great. If not, it's definitely cheaper than employee churn. Actually a few companies i know do that for their executive staff just not rank and file employees like in the show. Also if we’re talking about engineers beyond very early stage imo it would have very limited utility for the company

> imo it would have very limited utility for the company

Could you expand on this?

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