How Software Developer Deals With Burnout
The work-work cycle burnout
So you have a well-paid job, your workday is full of tasks, and you don’t have time to worry about anything else, but you suddenly start feeling you are not growing anymore, and all you do is ‘monkey job’? It takes some time to realise, but that feeling gets back over and over, and this is what I call the “work-work cycle burnout”.
Sick of working
After some time of loyal work, you slowly realise that there is nothing else except work. When you come home at night, you feel exhausted and don’t want to get out of the bad the following day. You ask yourself if you had the same filling yesterday, the day before or the week earlier.
Denial
You say to yourself — okay, it’s a hard time for the company and me. I need to keep working hard, and everything will pay off. There’s nothing really happening. It’s just another workday, “business as usual”, a work in progress…
Anger
Then you think it’s all about wrong management. Why are all around me doing their job so poorly? I need to improve all these: write another email, refactor this code, schedule another meeting, discuss, discuss, discuss… And again, you are totally exhausted by the end of the day. Maybe that’s me who performs poorly — you think. Perhaps I need good “time management” training, but damn it… I don’t have time for this.
Depression
At some point, you feel powerless about everything happening to you. You are spending your life for nothing, but your manager is happy, your clients are satisfied, and the only bad guy here is you, so maybe another vacation will fix it. And it’s helping, but after the very first workday, you feel depressed again.
Bargaining
Finally, you dare to go to your manager and say you cannot work like that anymore. If you are a valuable team member, a manager could try to bargain with you by suggesting some salary increase or Internal mobility, but that’s only a temporary measure.
Acceptance
It’s always scary to leave a comfort zone, leave the workplace where you have been working for ages, where you know everything and everyone. And there are various reasons for that, like financial situation, family, work perception, etc. I am sure you got them all, but a willingness to change everything became more powerful at some point when you realise that it’s time to move on.
“I had to Break Free” — Freddie Mercury
Lesson learned
Now I clearly understand that all those fillings were widespread signs of burnout. I wish I could understand them earlier, but at least now I see the pattern.
I don’t say that there is only one way out, but if your company isn’t there to support the mental health of its employees, you know what will happen next and might be able to break the cycle. At the end of the day, remember that your happiness is more important. Rooting for you 🤞
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