Hey y'all! Sloan, DEV Moderator and mascot. I'm back with another question submitted by a DEV community member. 🦥
For those unfamiliar with the series, this is another installment of Sloan's Inbox. You all send in your questions, I ask them on your behalf anonymously, and the community leaves comments to offer advice. Whether it's career development, office politics, industry trends, or improving technical skills, we cover all sorts of topics here. If you want to send in a question or talking point to be shared anonymously via Sloan, that'd be great; just scroll down to the bottom of the post for details on how.
Let's see what's up this week...
Today's question is:
While I've yet to truly feel burnt out on the job, I'm still pretty new to working in this industry and I know it's a common feeling amongst devs. I'm wondering if others have experienced burnout, how you recognized it, and what you did to treat it. Thanks in advance for the advice!
Share your thoughts and let's help a fellow DEV member out! Remember to keep kind and stay classy. 💚
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Top comments (7)
I don't know if it's possible to notice that you're heading towards burnout, usually others pointed it out to me as I am able to identify only post factum 😅
Look out for feeling numb, exhausted, resentful and angry and take at least a couple of days off if you notice any of these, I'd say.
As of avoiding - work with people who you can lean on or keep very strong boundaries if you don't have that luxury.
In short: Learn to say "no"
No, you won't stay overtime because someone else screwed up with something;
No, you won't accept demeaning comments from upper management;
No, you are not responsible for the company's success (well, if you are the owner or the CEO, technically you are 🥷🏽);
Learn to unplug. If you work from home, have a different profile / user for work on your computer. If you are not being paid for overtime work, don't even enable notifications for slack/teams/whatever on your phone. Your free time is yours, go live. Jobs come and go, but some friendships/lovers don't.
You just need a great and immortal goal as a game of life and just play with it.
Lin Pengcheng's Closed-loop of Needs (Psychological Model)
Reference:
Its not an advice, but my own experience and observations and i am still learning those
1) I used to invest a lot of research & night outs in projects that had too much control by management and would have different ideas on transferring projects/terminating/reducing resources as part of a cost control mechanism. I was a junior and mid-level at those times...Even though I repeat this behavior, sometimes it will wear me out after some time as we would not have a chance to see the complete deployment/product delivery with customers ...But it's patience and controlling emotions that are required as software is not only technical knowledge...So have to accept things out of our control and move on to other assignments.
2) So, taking it lightly is sometimes also good for long-term survival in any industry including Software...As others suggested, take a break, travel, enjoy, recharge and come back to the new assignment with a positive attitude.
The sloth is a good role model of how to take it easy. But in the modern society, moving slowly is usually still equated to being lazy. In fact, the German word for sloth is "Faultier" - a lazy animal. This is what's driving us insane, like running and running as fast as we can on that hamster wheel.
It is time for a paradigm shift.
Think of the allegorical race between the bunny and the turtle. Slowly but surely. One step at a time. Less probability for accidents and mistakes.
We have to learn to say no to some assignments and even interesting invitations so that we can focus on projects that motivate us. We can never do or have everything, all at the same time without missing on the details.
Take time for breaks and enjoy nature. It is essential to be mindful of the moment to be able to appreciate the wonders of life.
Learn to say no. When loving job, we want to master and do several things at same time. Be patient and perseverant. Don't worry about future. Practice sport.
For me, I often go travel somewhere out like after a month or two and that really helps.
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