Episode 128 - Dealing with Burnout - The 6 Figure Developer

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What causes burnout?

Too much work?
- Possibly, but not necessarily
- Many people work crazy hours and do not suffer from burnout.
Work/life balance?
- Again, this is possible
- The feeling of work/life unbalance is more of a symptom than a reason.
Compound Stress
- This seems to be the real cause.
- Work asking for tight deadlines
- Spouse wanting more help around the house
- Kids needing help with homework or skills they are struggling with.
- Internal stress
  - Putting unrealistic expectations on yourself
  - Failing to complete projects
  - Finances
- Basically Burnout is you not being able to keep up with the expectaions of your work, your family, and yourself.

How does burnout affect you as a developer?

Prevents you from working productively
- Unable to focus at work
- inability to make yourself work
- general loss of productivity at work
- a strong wanting to quit and find another job
Harms family interactions
- Loss of affection to your spouse which leads to loss of affection from your spouse
- Lack of positive interations with your kids
  - getting upset at them when you normally wouldn’t be
- General malaise at home
  - not doing normal chores that you should
  - basically sit on couch, watch tv, and ignore the world
- Could lead to divorce and/or missing important milestones in your families life.
Spiraling descent into unhappiness
- Basically all the symptoms of depression
- Burnout affects every aspect of your life and prevents you from managing work, family, finances, exercise and eating habits, and everything else that is part of a healthy life.

How do we prevent burnout from happening in the first place?

It’s not real easy
Ignore stress conditions or find a good coping mechanism for them.
- Deadlines at work of most often not as urgent or important as they are made to be seen.
  - Relax and do the best you can, but don’t cave under the weight of a deadline
  - Don’t rush to meet the deadline
    - causes bugs
    - causes bad code
    - leads to more stress
  - Assume that everyone is doing the best they can under the circumstances
    - Even if you could do a better job
    - Even if it’s not even your job
    - The belief they someone else is slacking off
      - leads to more stress
      - leads to tension within the team
      - doesn’t help anyone
    - If you have a question, ask it.
  - Ask for help
    - This one might be difficult
    - you are not an island
    - you can’t do this on your own
- Personal projects and hobbys
  - Don’t require the utmost professionalism
    - You don’t have to TDD or Clean Code all the time.
    - You can relax and write some bad code sometimes
    - These projects are for practicing or learn a specific thing. Focus on that
  - Are great for releiving stress when not taken seriously
    - If the project or hobby stresses you out, it can wait.
- Family
  - Your spouse doesn’t know or understand your work
    - If you are stressed, talk to your spouse about it.
    - If you have had a bad day, talk to your spouse about it.
  - Children don’t know or understand your work
    - If you are stressed
      - Children are young? save it until they are in bed. be nice to the kids
      - Children are older? Explain to them your feelings and let them know it’s okay
    - If you had a bad day
      - Children are young? save it until they are in bed. be nice to the kids
      - Children are older? Explain to them your feelings and let them know it’s okay

It’s too late, I already have Burnout?

Take a break
- Do you have vacation time?
- Switch to no stress mode by following the guidance for preventing burnout at work
- Ask work if it would be possible to put you on a different project if the current project is a cause for burnout
- Put personal projects on hold for a little while.
Seek new hobbies 🙂
- This part can be fun!
- find hobbies that are low to no stress.
  - Good options are Leather working – I have found this one to be quite easy to get into and make some simple projects. It is low stress and results in a product you can be proud of.
  - Drawing or other forms of art. Try a bob ross painting or simply sketch in a notepad. Anything that comes to mind, don’t worry about whether or not it is “good”. Just Draw/Paint/Art.
Outdoor activites
- Play games outside with the kids
- Go biking – Mountain biking is extremely fun although a little dangerous
- Hiking can be quite relaxing and enjoyable
Exercise
- Go to the gym
- Yoga
- Meditaion – mental exercise is still exercise, and mediation is extremely relaxing.
Seek Counselling
- Burnout is a form of depression and you may need help getting out of it.
Talk to your doctor
- I would normally advise against medication and save that as a last resort, but again Burnout is a form of depression and may require medical intervention.

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John Callaway

An International Speaker, Author, and Microsoft MVP, John has been a professional developer since 1999. He has focused primarily on web technologies and currently focuses on C# and .NET Core in Azure. Clean code and professionalism are particularly important to him, as well as mentoring and teaching others what he has learned along the way.

www.1north.com