Burnout is more than just being tired, irritable, or beat down. It's a specific psychological condition that develops in response to different types of stress, and it can be measured and analyzed in systematic ways.

This session will explain the science behind burnout, introduce tools for measuring it, and explore ways to address it. We will cover both an organizational approach (for managers and leaders) and a more personal approach (for individual contributors).

You will leave with some practical suggestions for assessing and addressing burnout BEFORE it leads to turnover, low morale, and a loss of productivity.

I delivered this session at CodeMash 2023, focused primarily on addressing burnout from an organizational perspective; it was written for managers and leaders, but a lot of ICs showed up.

I'm retooling it going forward to address both managers and ICs.

The content is primarily driven by research that I did in 2021 as part of an initiative to avoid turnover and retain staff through COVID. I intend to summarize the research I conducted, how we rolled out this program to our staff, the lessons we learned in doing so, and the outcomes we've observed as a result.