Original episode: https://www.redhat.com/en/compiler-write-technical-documentation

Hey guys, we are narrowing in on the Christmas holiday’s in the states. Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New year! For today, I’m sharing yet another fantastic episode of the Compiler podcast, from Red Hat. As a reminder Compiler is a show hosted by tech veterans, discussing tech topics – big, strange and small.

On this particular episode – which is episode 10 – the topic of burnout is chatted on. This was a great discussion, full of really good tidbits. What I really liked was how Angela, Brent and Johan break down the ingredients for burnout. In order, these are:

1. An unending amount of work
2. Not having healthy boundaries on your work
3. Guilt, obligation, and never doing enough
4. Criticism amplifying 1-3

The hosts primarily interviewed folks, and come up with this recipe from the standpoint of open source maintainers. Interestingly enough, I find that these apply to software engineers as well. I think criticism can be interchanged with pressure as well, which probably has some criticism implicit in it.

However, I also find that lack of team or company direction can lead to burnout as well as an absence of mentorship. When people don’t feel like they are growing, work can become stale. Perhaps it’s a little bit of burnout mixed with boredom, but at any rate, it leads them to not want to work there anymore.

At any rate, I really enjoyed this episode, and think you will too. Enjoy!