Almost every software engineer I’ve met has gone through some sort of burnout. Sometimes it’s related to their job, personal events, or even a combination of both.

As software engineers it’s easy to get into the habit of just “working through it.” After all, we’re paid well and we have way easier jobs than people like nurses and teachers, right?

Regardless of if this job is “cushy” or not you can become burnt out from your job. You deserve time to take care of your mental well being as much as anyone else.

Here are three common signs I’ve noticed*.

1. Feeling detached from your work/team

Starting to feel detached from your team could look like a lot of things:

• Spacing out during your planning meetings / stand-ups
• Not providing as much input in decisions as you have before
• Not caring about what projects/tasks the team works on
• Feeling cynical about the team’s decisions
  • e.g. “Yeah that’s a horrible idea… but whatever it’s their funeral I’ll write up the task”

The biggest thing to note here is that you have gone from being excited/interested in how the team is affected to feeling almost completely uninterested.

2. Not finding your work valuable

It’s essential to feel your work is making a difference in your day to day. Whether you’re making things easier for your team or just using your skills to provide monetary value to the company.

Here are some signs that you might not be finding your work valuable:

• You’re doing the bare minimum to get tasks done
• Holding on to tasks for longer than normal
  • e.g. Something that used to take you a few days is now being rolled over to multiple sprints
• You simply don’t find the work important
• You don’t share any input and just do the tasks that are given to you

3. Changes in sleep/diet patterns

I’m sure you’ve heard this one 100x but, it’s true! Are you sleeping in way more often? Are you staying up late? How about your diet, are you eating less than normal? Do you realize you’re missing your morning meetings more often?

These are important things to think about. If you have a smart watch you can even wear it at night to start tracking your sleep. Keeping track of these patterns are great indicators for health.

Damn… I think I’m burnt out, what now?

If you work at a medium to large tech company, chances are you have a decent medical leave program that allows you to get paid while taking time off.

I highly recommend talking to your primary care provider (PCP) about your burn out signs. There could be things in your life affecting your mental health that legitimately require you to take time off from work.

Set up some time to chat with your physician and they’ll guide you through the process if they deem medical leave necessary.

Take care of yourself!

Eden

*Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional! This is my opinion on burn out signs and should not in any way be used to actually diagnose burn out, please talk to a real doctor.