Monday Morning Musing: Burnout

Originally published on LinkedIn on 7 April 2025.

Today’s Monday Morning Musing comes from my daughter who was looking forward to go to school, inspiring me to co-relate that to corporate world.

In this rapidly evolving world of IT, software developers often face intense pressure with deadlines (Direct pressure) and learning a constant fear of becoming obsolete due to evolving programming languages and frameworks (Indirect pressure). There are a lot of factors contributing to work related burnout. With this article I would like to address this topic and express my view and steps I have taken to keep the stress in check for myself and team.

What is Burnout? 🔥

Burnout is a state of Physical, emotional and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress. While there are a bucket full of reasons for one to feel burnt out, I would only address work related burnout for software developers. WHO defines burnout as “occupational phenomenon” and not a medical condition.

There are various signs of burnout among team members, categorised to help a team lead/manger to look.

Physical Signs

Signs such as prolonged fatigues and noticeable lack of energy during team activities or meetings. During meeting or group activities a burnt-out person exhibits decreased participation, limited engagement, non participative body signs like restlessness, unclear thoughts and a lot less enthusiasm.

Emotional Signs

A burnt-out person often shows emotional signs such as persistent negativity, pessimistic approach towards changes or improvement, complains about most of things, apathy towards tasks he/she previously was thrilled to take on.

In many cases such a person displays impatience and irritability towards coworkers. Over the time these disengagement from work and dissatisfactions impact adversely on overall team effectiveness, efficiency and collaboration.

Behavioural Signs

Signs such as poor concentration, procrastination and withdrawal from responsibilities. Person struggling with burnout may find it challenging to stay focused and makes frequent mistakes and misses to consider important details discussed in meetings or emails.

Productivity signs

The person undergoing burnout consistently delivers less than his/her usual standard despite putting in same or even greater effort/time into the assigned task or duty. This loss of productivity is also evident to the individual further contributes to feeling of frustration and exhaustion.

Let us now look at some factors contributing to such burnouts:

High workload and aggressive deadlines: Software developers often work in agile, fast-paced sprints where deadlines are pre-defined. This constant cycles of delivering value without recharging/rejuvenating lead to individual/team burnout.
Poor work life balance: Most humans are social animals and need to see other humans and interact. Remote working or working in individual capacity often lead to social isolation or emotional loneliness.
Lack of recognition and Progression: In early stages of burnout if the person is not recognised for the efforts, one feels undervalued. This amplifies the dis-satisfaction and leads to emotional exhaustion.

How to prevent burnouts

The burnouts can be prevented at various levels i.e. individual (self-realisation), team lead/manager level and organisation level.

For Individual level

Realise early signs: Early identification of burnout allows one to address before its too late. Regular self assessment is important and It should be handled with regular rejuvenation cycles during the week. Everyone knows their poison like reading book, running, walking, hiking, listening to music etc.
Establishing hard boundaries between work and life: Having a clear separation between work and personal life is important and should be maintained. Turning off work notification after working hours, not responding to email/chat outside office hours can help draw this boundary.
Take time for Self-discovery: Work towards having adequate sleep and proper nutrition, regular exercise, learning schedules to feel confident.

For Team Lead/Manager

Regular 1:1 and provide feedback: It is often not evident to self that one is undergoing burnout. On the other hand a its much more evident to another person so frequent and constructive feedback helps employees feel valued, supported and prevents burnout.
Enforcing hard boundaries between work and life: It is a team lead/Managers responsibility to promote healthy and sustainable development environment. This involves enforcing that no team or team member works long hours for a long period of time. Responding to email/chats outside office hours should be discouraged.
Promote a healthy work environment: A team lead/manager should strive to encourage open communication and transparency. It is also important to establish realistic expectation and deadlines.

For Organizations

Flexible working conditions: Allowing flexible working arrangements, hybrid working options can prevent certain kinds of burnout.
Mindfulness and Stress Management activities: Organisations can engage employees in competitions that encourage physical activities and provision a workout hour.
Professional development resources: Organisation should provide developers with adequate tools and resources for professional growth, helping them stay motivated and up-skilled to do their tasks efficiently.

Final thoughts

Burnout in software developers is a significant challenge and must be recognised to keep the things rolling with a sustainable pace. If not addressed on time this may lead to considerable consequences for both individuals and organisations. Acknowledging and proactively implementing counter measures can give a fulfilling work satisfaction to the developers and can keep them motivated.

Let me know in comments if you/your team every felt burnt-out and what did you do to improve it.