<aside> 👉 About this post
I did write this post 4 times actually. Deleted it, rewrote it, deleted it and so on. I really feel I don’t do the topic justice, but it’s as important to me to get it out.
</aside>
In our industry it seems everyone knows someone who experienced a form of Burnout or was even a victim. Often Burnout gets attested to a short time of much stress and overload of work. That’s when people often say: “I’m close to a burnout” … because it’s very tangible due to the current stressful environment.
But often Burnout happens through long period of times, is not improved with a few days off and often needs months and even years to heal when in full effect. It’s the slow pace that often leads to underestimating the potential danger looming. So let me share some experiences, and knowledges I gathered over the last few years.
Burnout is not really something new. It was dissected by Psychologists repeatedly and various models created on the diagnosis of Burnout. In the engineering industry you might stumble on forms of Burnout quite often, and some people even wear it proudly like it’s a medal of some sorts. I talked to Engineers you talked about their “first Burnout” in a proud way, which always seemed wrong to me.
The model that I found the most helpful one and can then in retrospect often be fully reconstructed is “the 12 stages of Burnout”. Here’s a very readable version of it:
The 12 Stages of Burnout, According to Psychologists
Everyone is different, and as manager you might find that not everyone would fit that schematic outlined in those 12 stages. It’s not easy to pinpoint which phase a person might be in right now, as it’s mostly a very fluent transition. I actually have experienced people transitioning back and forth between different states.
To still keep a good track of the mental health situation of people you work with and in your teams I would recommend to look out for the following:
This one is often actually harder to recognize that one would think. There are often times of heightened productivity for individuals. These can be initiated by external factors like delivery dates, or by internal factors like curiosity or a high self expectancy.
I’ve worked with people who had an unusual high productivity level, and it was their absolute normal. They did not work super crazy hours, yet it would look like they are always doing more than expected. The people you need to look out for are the once that keep pushing too much for a long time that does not fit their usual throughput.
A little sidenote for manager — it’s very crucial to build a strong relationship with your reports, so you also know if people work on projects in their free time that might impact their overall performance. This can often be a driving factor for the overworking.