On values and work burnout

Going through a burnout experience is like seeing a dark/sad episode of your life from outside. The sense of hopelessness and powerless that prevents you from doing anything to change the situation(s) affecting your morale is despairing.

Burnout will cause several effects in the life of the person, including exhaustion (loss of energy, debilitation and fatigue), a stage of cynicism or depersonalization where you basically don’t care how you treat others or if you want to even treat others and the last one inefficiency (low morale, reduced productivity). These conditions could show at work or out of work, and while they seem familiar with the effects of a depression, you can still enjoy some things in life.

Many factors, excessive work hours, work overload, lack of control and autonomy to perform your job, broken identity (you link your identity to your work and whatever the outcome of it is is what you are), lack of support and trust, and conflicting values. In the software development industry, it’s clear a lot of the items mentioned above are part a norm not an exception.

The counterpoint of burnout is “engagement”. Engagement is the energy that makes you get involved, committed and produce work effectively. Satisfactory work leads to that meaningful engagement through the trigger of positive emotions that will, in turn, unleash creativity, innovation, and adaptability.

This motivation from within is the engagement that will make you get involved, committed and productive.

When I say values, I’m not just talking about ethics, which are closely related and important but that are mostly universal to everyone. I’m talking about the stuff that is the most important to you and that you could not live without. Other people put it as “values are the ideas that originally attracted you to a person or a company”.

Identifying these values require (as the whole process of recovering from burnout) a lot of introspection. Examples could be: do you value the quality of the software you deploy to your customers? (surprisingly some people AND/OR organizations don’t care), do you value having enough time to complete your tasks? do you value having enough time to rest? do you value having a voice to decide how things are going to get built? do you value innovation? do you value a long-term business or a short one?

He mentions the mirror test:

Later on, he says:

And:

This mismatch of values, as the experts clearly point out become a source of frustration that adds fuel to the fire of desperation, powerlessness, and helplessness that burnout causes.

Values are important, it might not be the main cause of burnout for you, but at least think about them:

a. Check if there are compatibilities that could bring them together.

b. Talk to your manager and leads about their values and the organization’s values.

3. If nothing could be done, maybe it is time for you to leave.

When looking for a job, make sure you can bring your values to the organization or if they are at least somehow compatible.

Related posts:

People come to New York City for all kinds of reasons. There are constantly people pouring into the city pursuing careers of being actors, designers and restauranteurs. As people pour in, they bring…

Presidential candidate Hilary Clinton is not an energy expert. She probably has some such person on her campaign staff, but she didn’t need them when she told the unfortunate truth to a West Virginia…

Unmarriageable is a fun, light-hearted, enjoyable read. Fans of the Austen original (and let’s face it, who isn’t?) will easily recognise the characters and events, but there’s plenty of chai, chaat…