Further Reading

We’ve all faced burnout–here are some quotes from around the community.

“Horde statistics: 1 in 3 thought about quitting because of stress, 75% are not engaged with their work, over 1 million absent per day…” - Avoiding Burnout: The Zombie Survival Guide - David Manners

“EDD [Experience Driven Development] - some basic information around the topic mental health/illness in IT” - EDD (Experience Driven > Development) - Michael Scholl

“Mental disorders are the largest contributor to disease burden in North America, but the developer community and those who employ us are afraid to face the problem head-on. In this talk, we’ll examine the state of mental health awareness in the developer workplace, why most developers feel it isn’t safe to talk about mental health, and what we can do to change the culture and save lives.” - Stronger Than Fear: > Mental Health in the Developer Community - Ed Finkler

“While critically important as a tool to help, these solutions also don’t directly address the path to burnout. They don’t tackle the systemic problems within both startups and larger organizations that lead to burnout. They gloss over the patterned behaviors of sociopathic (or even merely incompetent) managers.” - Dodging Burnout, 4 Hours at a Time - J. Paul Reed

“You didn’t mean to end up here. You didn’t even see it coming… It all started with a chance to earn a living doing something you loved. Your dream job. Creating things instead of rotting in a cubicle. You weren’t just going to make a living — you were going to leave your mark on the world.” - The Cult of Work You Never Meant to Join - Jason Lengstorf

“If… you work for someone for money, you’re just a factor of production… You’re trading your time, your skills, your talent for that money… Every time you stay after work late, you’re giving away that time away for free.” - Go the F*** Home - Pam Selle

“It is true that I would insist that I could handle it, and I guess I did, but don’t organizations have a responsibility to their employees to stop them from harming themselves in the name of the job?” - A > Year of Fire and Fog - Alex Nobert

“Sometimes it’s the feelings of burnout… things we struggle with in our jobs, particularly with some of the ill-defined tasks that we get as software developers, and some of the high-stress workplaces that we put ourselves in that demand constant contact and constant availability.” - `Node