Re:Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout
by marcosdumay on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @01:27PM
(#27823623)
But that's the point. Burnout is not one of those things about the people's opinion is the fact. People often are completely wrong about they being stressed at the exact moment you ask them, and burnout is about the kind of long-term experience that people are really bad at measuring.
Besides, even "do you like chocolate" is a very bad question to ask if you want to take any actionable conclusion from your data, or even if you want to sum your anecdotes up. You can't go asking people "do you like chocolate" and expect to know how much chocolate they will decide to eat, for example.
Re:Study finds 83% of software developers feel burnout
by Buttons840 on Tuesday July 13, 2021 @12:35PM
(#27823050)
Try "how can I be a better manager?" or "do you have any suggestions for me or the team as a whole?"
I kind of see where you are coming from, but I think this is an important question to ask. Asking someone's opinion on something is a REALLY good indicator of their opinion on that thing: do you hate your job, do you like chocolate, do you love your wife, etc.
While the question "are you burned out" might not predict attrition as well as other questions and it might not be "scientifically assailable" - it still does tell us something about the person.
At work, I frequently ask my team (individually), "do you feel burned out", but I ALSO ask other questions "do you feel like you are doing good work", "do you enjoy what your are doing", "do you like the people you work with", "am I a good manager (a notoriously BAD question)".
These and others help me keep a pulse on my team and what is going on in their head.