I've been working in the Software industry since a very young age. I delivered my first project as a freelancer when I was 14. I was hired at a startup as a Software developer when I was 18. During these years, people always warned me about one particular danger: "burning out."
I never quite understood at the time that why burning out is so dangerous, as if some people are scared by it.
Two years ago, I joined a company to work as a Software Developer to work on a massive messy codebase that was serving approx—40 million users with a DAU of 2 million. I was 20 years old back then, and I was scared, and I believed I couldn't do it. The administration managed the company poorly. Long story short, five months later, I found myself handling the development & operations of software providing critical services to banks, ride-hailing apps, and then some, all by myself.
I'm not going to describe how the employer tricked me into believing I play a key role. Still, soon enough, I started to experience "burning out."
I was working 8 - 6 on workdays and 10 - 6 on weekends. I barely could speak to my family, I started to lose my wellbeing, my bowels were getting irritated because of all the stress (I've got IBS), and I slept so much that I was on the verge of losing my social life.
I had to get out of that company. I found another job and handed out a one-week notice to my old company. The nightmare was over. I started to rehabilitate myself. I started exercising, taking back my social life, and balancing my life & my work. Luckily, the work philosophy was quite the contrary in the new company compared to the old place: "life comes first."
But, I try to learn at every opportunity I get. I reserve the right to make mistakes, but I hold myself responsible for fixing what I break. This time, I had the right to try burning out, but I was responsible for learning from this to avoid similar cases in the future and for fixing myself, so I could work at my best at the new company.
Avoid emotional situations
No matter how your employer tells you how epic you are or how the business and the other employees' salary depend on your actions, always realize your responsibilities. Get a crystal clear job description, evaluate it, understand your duty. Like the old joke, you're not an entire IT department.
Emotion has no place in a job description. Regardless of how your job pays the company's bills or how epic you are, you're still working so you could have a better life, not the contrary.
Remember that you're a professional
Professionalism dictates you do what you do best. You don't try your best when there's a tight deadline; you're always doing your best, even when you're delivering way too early. Eventually, overworking is meaningless in this framework. When you're overworking, there are two possible reasons:
- either you are unprofessional,
- or your employer is working in an unprofessional manner.
Either way, a general framework is being ignored by one of the parties. In my case, The company was treating me unprofessionally. Though the company had the resources to employ someone as my assistant, they decided that it's unnecessary to do so because I was already working epically. And I was inexperienced to realize that I'm a fool, rather than a 10x engineer (what the heck is a 10x engineer anyway?)
You enter your workplace from your life, and you do your best, you exit to your life. Simple as that. Employer demands working late once a month or in grave situations? Sure. Employer demands overtime every single day of a month? No, thanks.
Listen to what people close to you say.
People told me that I'm spending too much time on work, that I don't spend much time with my friends, and I stopped caring about a lot of stuff I should care about, especially my wellbeing. I ignored. I admit that I was an idiot, mostly because I was under the influence of being a 10x stupid or whatever.
A good friend or a family member can help you with whether you're doing the work part of your life right or not. Don't ignore if a friend says that you're working too much or a family member telling you that you need to spend more time with them—this feedback matters. You have to pay attention to it.
Quit; it's not worth it.
After working six months in my over-maximum working capacity, I had to give myself quite some time to rest. Burning out could influence the performance of my new job. Most importantly, it impacted my wellbeing. I was physically and spiritually tired. I couldn't travel due to pandemic restrictions, so I started doing things I always wanted to do.
I love cinema and movies. After quitting the old job, I found out that almost four months passed since the last time I watched a movie. Then, I thought that I delayed my exit for every day, and I got punished, literally. It was like sentencing myself to jail & hard labor.
If a company pushes you toward burning yourself out, just quit. It doesn't worth it. Whatever happens, happens. Staying in just doesn't worth it and will not fix it.
Conclusion
We are all working in a specific framework called professionalism. Work should only happen inside of it. Emotional aliases & nicknames have no place in serious work. Everyone, no matter where or when, has to behave professionally. Listen to the people around you; if they have a negative opinion about your work, you should probably look into it. If you're sure that you're getting burned out and your company is pushing you toward it, just quit, or take the punishment for each day that you don't. 🙂
I am a 22 years old software engineer. I've been working in the field for ~4 years. This post reflects my humble opinion and personal views. Your feedback and opinion on this could help me learn & grow. 🤜
~~~ ehsaan