Many engineers shudder when they hear the story of trading company Knight Capital Group: In 2012, a faulty software deployment resulted in a $460 million loss in 45 minutes. In a blog post, Doug Seven — a thought leader who often covers software development issues — wrote the engineers were left trying to diagnose the issue in a live trading environment where 8 million shares were being traded every minute. Knight Capital Group had gone from being one of the largest traders in U.S. equities and a major market maker in the NYSE and NASDAQ — to bankrupt.
Whether there’s stock market pressure or not, the reality is that developers often bear the brunt of a project’s success. That means developers are prone to facing burnout at a higher rate than many of their non-technical colleagues. To prevent or combat fatigue, engineering managers across San Francisco emphasize team engagement. Checking in on team members and creating a space, such as one-on-ones or anonymous surveys, to be honest about their workload and headspace is essential.
However, there is no one-size-fits-all solution to burnout. Josh Leichtung, an engineering manager at Hinge Health, said it takes a tailored approach to the situation at hand.
“Taking time off might help if the developer has just come off a big deadline, but it would not be a good solution if the main problem is a lack of focus or interpersonal problems working on the team,” Leichtung said.
Successfully combating developer fatigue starts when managers have strong relationships with their team members. At Hinge Health, anonymous surveys help managers learn of issues to address in one-on-ones. Meanwhile at fintech company Chime, engineering manager Rahul Gupta proactively builds breaks into project workflow.
Director of Engineering Xiao Guo said the best defense is a good offense when it comes to combating fatigue. During grocery delivery company Instacart’s rapid growth due to shelter-in-place orders, Guo said constant check-ins and implementing social breaks help keep moods light.
How do you address and prevent developer fatigue among your team?
Open communication among teams is critical to keep teams connected. Our engineering leaders made an effort to understand their team members’ varying needs and worked with the team to set expectations. Once there is an action plan, work to communicate it to the broader team so everyone’s on the same page.
We’ve also made a point to build some designated “free time” into the team’s busy schedules. I’ve found, building social time into your team’s working day also helps reduce fatigue. I like to start team meetings with a good dose of non-engineering related discussion. We make a point to stay social and share what we do for fun in team meetings.
I’ve found, building social time into your team’s working day also helps reduce fatigue.”
When it comes to the work your team members do and the technology they interact with, how do you ensure members of your team stay engaged and challenged?
Check-in with employees during one-on-ones and ask them if they’re overworked, underworked, bored or overwhelmed. Use that valuable time to understand their career goals, what work excites them and what gets them out of bed in the morning. Some engineers I work with are more skill-driven and get more excited about platform work or product work. Other engineers are more mission-driven and are motivated by how their code can improve a customer or end user’s lives.
When scoping projects, be transparent with your teammates about how it plays into company goals. When a build or a project launches double down on feedback and recognition. This is key!
When you recognize signs of fatigue or burn out in a developer, what do you do to address it?
The best offense against burnout is a good defense. More senior members of the team often see a lot of requests from teammates and project stakeholders. Make an effort to share knowledge and processes as you onboard newer engineers even if it takes longer for a new engineer to do the same task.
With a solid relationship built on trust as a bedrock, an engineer should feel empowered to tell you if they’re burning out. If an engineer seems tired or less engaged in meetings and discussions, I make a point proactively check-in and ask how they are doing, or if they need a break. Allowing the time for team members to rest and recharge will go a long way in preventing burnout.
Head of Application Engineering Josh Leichtung said anonymous surveys allow employees at health tech company Hinge Health to be honest about burnout and fatigue. Survey results allow managers to visit certain checkpoints in one-on-ones.
How do you address and prevent developer fatigue among your team?
We regularly send an anonymous survey to the entire engineering team based on the work of Google’s Project Aristotle, which measures a person’s perceived psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning and impact. This gives us a pulse of the team as a whole, allows us to make adjustments and gives managers checkpoints to touch on in one-on-one meetings.
When we feel there is risk of developer fatigue, we encourage time off, mental wellness, fitness benefits and help prioritize workloads. As managers, we strive to be empathetic, ask questions and lead by example.
As managers, we strive to be empathetic, ask questions and lead by example.”
When it comes to the work your team members do and the technology they interact with, how do you ensure members of your team stay engaged and challenged?
We structure ourselves into small, mission-based teams that are self-reliant and autonomous. This emphasis on bottom-up solutions and decisions keeps people engaged and increases their sense of ownership over their work.
Retros are one of the most important sprint rituals we have, primarily since they directly assess things like project pacing, burnout and work scope. On an individual level, managers take note of the learnings from retros and add individual support as needed in our regular one-on-ones.
When you recognize signs of fatigue or burn out in a developer, what do you do to address it?
When a developer shows signs of fatigue, the first thing to do is start a dialogue to hear from their perspective. I ask questions that help both of us better understand the root of the problem before jumping to solutions. It is also important not to just “solve” the problem for the developer, but to support them in finding and executing on a solution. There is no one-size-fits-all solution. For example, taking time off might help if the developer has just come off a big deadline, but it would not be a good solution if the main problem is a lack of focus or interpersonal problems working on the team.
Engineering Manager Rahul Gupta said taking breaks between big projects allows employees to recover at fintech company Chime. Stepping back also enables engineers to evaluate work holistically and reflect on the recent project. During projects, carving out time to fix problems also helps alleviate stress.
How do you address and prevent developer fatigue among your team?
I first focus on reducing context switching for our engineers. The thing about context switching is that it gets in the way of focused work, reduces quality and can blur the lines of priority for a developer, leading to fatigue.
Once a feature or product is live, I work to put space between projects for developers on my team. As a manager, I’m responsible for ensuring that developers have time to breathe between large pieces of work. When something’s done, they need time to monitor it and make sure it’s successfully rolled out and bug-free before starting on the next big project. This limits stress and helps people evaluate their work holistically and also encourages people to apply learnings from one project to another instead of just steamrolling ahead.
When it comes to the work your team members do and the technology they interact with, how do you ensure members of your team stay engaged and challenged?
It’s stressful if a local dev environment is flaky. We carve out time as a team to fix those problems, using things like retro to surface challenges in the process and put energy towards eliminating any friction for our developers. As a leader, I’m continuously working to help create space for those kinds of issues to get worked on to limit frustration or burnout.
I’m continuously working to help create space for those kinds of issues to get worked on to limit frustration or burnout.”
When you recognize signs of fatigue or burn out in a developer, what do you do to address it?
At Chime, we believe the most important part of addressing fatigue is engaging with your team members rather than ignoring the issue. For me, that starts with clarifying what’s going on — making sure I’m not jumping to conclusions or misinterpreting the signals I’m receiving. Then, on a case by case basis, I’ll work with developers on my team to figure out what needs to happen, whether it be time off or scaling back on work.
How Managers Can Check For Fatigue
- Utilize anonymous survey tools
- Use red, yellow, or green check-in colors at the start of every team meeting to assess how present people are feeling
- Proactively encourage folks to take breaks
- Ensure engineers can find purpose in their work
- Implement social breaks to keep moods light
- Allow for time and reflection between major projects
- Pay attention to social cues
Head of Engineering David Lu said failing to engage a developer’s artistic and scientific brains results in fatigue. To combat burnout at real estate tech company Point, developers start each project with a why. Defining an answer helps give work purpose.
How do you address and prevent developer fatigue among your team?
By nature, a developer is both a scientist and an artist. At the heart of it all, a developer wants to create something. What drives fatigue is when we fail to engage both sides of this nature (the artist and the scientist), which results in the work feeling like it has no meaning or impact. The work begins to feel mechanical and pointless.
To help prevent fatigue, we start a project with the why.”
When it comes to the work your team members do and the technology they interact with, how do you ensure members of your team stay engaged and challenged?
To help prevent fatigue, we start a project with the why: Why are we doing this? Why does this matter? When you give an engineer ownership to a problem that has real impact, they’re not just excited to find a solution to a problem — they are driven to solve the why. In the end, they will not only give something to the world, but they will also build something for themselves.
When you recognize signs of fatigue or burn out in a developer, what do you do to address it?
A telltale sign of an engineer reaching this point is when they take on side projects or look for small wins while their main project begins to lag. You can almost feel the procrastination begin to kick in as they find other avenues to bring about small victories. Their main project begins to see delay after delay and progress comes to a crawl. During these times, it is important to start working closely with the engineer to bring about small victories within the big project. Work with them to define small, achievable milestones. Support them as they identify key roadblocks, whether they are technical or product-oriented and support. Support could be adding more engineers to the project, sitting down and resetting the schedule and expectations or simply just being a wall to bounce ideas off of.
Engineering Manager Joey Baker said it’s important to remember engineers are people too. At Discord, a voice, video and text communication service, Baker leads with “compassionate communication.” Expressing concern and sharing personal burnout experiences can build trust and mutual respect.
How do you address and prevent developer fatigue among your team?
Give engineers the space to learn new things and expect projects that require new learnings to take longer. Recognize that part of the long-term gain is an engineer who is more engaged in their work.
Limit meetings. Give people plenty of maker time and don’t schedule meetings in the middle of maker time. One of the main jobs as a manager is to clear a path so that team members can get their work done.
Set projects with clear goals, but don’t be prescriptive about how they get done. Especially for more experienced people, trust them to determine the right way to do their work.
When it comes to the work your team members do and the technology they interact with, how do you ensure members of your team stay engaged and challenged?
Only hire people who are excited about the company’s mission. If you just look to match technical expertise, odds are good that this person will set the wrong tone for the rest of the team.
Engineers’ interests change over time. Acknowledge to team members that it’s okay for their motivations or goals to change. If they want to learn something new, make it clear that you can create time for them and that it’s okay for them to go slower while they learn. As a manager, one of the few things you can actually do for your reports is to give them time and create opportunities to grow. If that means moving to a different team, that’s ok too.
The more people are free to be the individual they are, the better the work they can bring to the team.”
When you recognize signs of fatigue or burn out in a developer, what do you do to address it?
The key to this is to ask a lot of questions. Once you build up a theory on what that root cause is, address it with the engineer directly. An approach that often works for me is “compassionate communication.” Tell them what you’ve observed, ask if they agree with your observations and ask if they’re okay. Express your concern for them as a person. It can help to be vulnerable and share your own experiences with burn out too if you have them. We have all been there and supporting them as people makes for a stronger relationship built on trust and mutual respect. The more people are free to be the individual they are, the better the work they can bring to the team.
