Dear developer.
Here is my heart to heart word to you.
What a wonderful career path you have chosen to stay committed to. Indeed, your dream has made you restless, determined and zealous. No doubt, you are passionate about building solutions that matter, but I hope you haven't neglected your world, you!
An amazing creator.
My heart ache's, whenever I see a developer accepting accolades for sleepless nights, a year of work without vacation, just to mention a few. it really matters to me because your longevity is significant, and you owe nobody but yourself a healthy body and mind.
What is Burnout?
I define burnout as a state of exhaustion, mentally and physically. A survey carried by haystack says that eight out of ten developers suffer from burnout.
Why burnout?
Developers experience burnout because some execute huge workloads. In addition, a developer can't gauge the number of tasks he/she should achieve per time, so they set unrealistic deadlines for the project. Some even do more than their call duty, for example in well structure development environment ten developers are expected to work on a single project, in some systems this is not the case, two developers do the job of ten developers.
- Improper understanding of the problem scope Some developers don't understand a project problem statement instead of speaking up, they toil all night. Believing they are hard-working, unknowing to them its effort, time and resource wastage.
How to handle burnt out
- Have a flexible routine
- Break down tasks into smaller fragments.
- Handle deadline well (set priority)
- Proper understanding of problem domain.
- Take breaks. For example, your work routine can be designed as 2hours of coding, 15mins tea break, 2hours of research 15min word puzzle game. These Little breaks help to put the mind in a better state to handle a task.
- Seek support from colleagues, family or friends. Apply for an employee assistance program, if available. Support can be as delegating duties to others or reaching out to your team manager explaining your workload capacity.
- Avoid toxic work environment.
- Have a life outside work. A form of recreation such as hanging out with buddies, or planting trees or other activities thats helps your creativity.
- Sleep. Good sleep enhances productivity.
If not properly managed, it results in
- Low productivity such as delay in task submission, improper solutions to problems, lack of creativity in developing solutions.
- Health complications such as emotional exhaustion, cardiovascular disease, insomnia, vulnerability to illness and others.
- Employee Lay off. When issues like this become unbearable to a company, they tend to get people, who are better fit for the position.
var burnout ;
if (burnout === false){
console.log("Productive coding!");
}
Productive coding!
Dev's it is your responsibility to avoid burnout while working, else your growth is deterred and your desired result is not achieved.
A token of love from me to you.
Stay productive.
Stay healthy.