A presentation at Devopsdays Seattle in in Seattle, WA, USA by Karthik Gaekwad
Mental Health and Devops Karthik Gaekwad @iteration1 Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Who am I I’m Karthik Gaekwad NOT a DBA https://cloudnative.oracle.com/ Cloud Native Evangelist at Oracle Cloud Past: Developer on the Oracle Managed Kubernetes Team Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Who am I • Been around for a while… • Love building, teaching and community. • Organizer: Devopsdays Austin, Container Days, Cloud Austin. • Chair: All Day Devops Cloud Native track. • LinkedIn Learning Author for a few cloud native courses. Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Everyone has a journey • Been hearing from people that they are “burned out”. • Just figured that they were just tired. • Didn’t really hit me until I noticed it with some close coworkers and friends. Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Talk Goals! • Findings in other communities. • Measuring Burnout • What you can do for yourself. • What you can do for others. Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
So what is burnout? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
There is no standard definition… What is burnout? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Burnout “A state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.” - Mayo Clinic Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Burnout “Loss of enthusiasm for work, feelings of cynicism and a low sense of personal accomplishment.” - Medscape Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Burnout Origins •Coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. •Used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in “helping” professions. Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Is this unique to DevOps? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
No… Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Burnout in Industry • “Common” outside our sphere… • Medical professions (doctors/nurses) • Radiologists • Teachers • Police Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Medical Industry Round One: Medical School • 50% of medical students experience burnout • 10% experience suicidal ideation during medical school Round Two: Residency • 27-75% of residents are burned out at any given time Round Three: Private Practice • approximately 1 in 3 doctors are experiencing physician burnout at any given time • some studies show physician burnout prevalence as high as 60%. https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/295048/physician-burnout-why-its-not-a-fair-fight Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Teachers • Over 1/2 million teachers quit or move every year • More prevalent with high poverty schools • Feeling stuck and not being able to do what you started • https://all4ed.org/reports-factsheets/path-to-equity/ Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
In Society Statistics Netherlands Study from Statistics Netherlands (CBS) & the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) “In 2017, 16 percent of employees between the ages of 15 and 75 indicated they experienced work-related mental fatigue at least several times per month.This percentage still stood at 13 percent in 2015.” https://www.cbs.nl/en-gb/news/2018/46/more-work-related-mental-fatigue Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Measuring Burnout • Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) • Job Diagnostic Scale (JDS) • Utrech Work Engagement Scale (UWES) Devopsdays Seattle https://ada.com/signs-of-burnout/#diagnosis @iteration1
Dimensions of Burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Dimensions of Burnout • Emotional exhaustion • Cynicism • Personal efficacy • Research from Dr. Christina Maslach • Talks: DOES 2018, Velocity 2015 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRPBkCW0R5E Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Dimensions of Burnout • Emotional exhaustion • Mental- “I’m tired of work.” • “Case of the Mondays” • Procrastination- “I’ll do this later.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRPBkCW0R5E Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Dimensions of Burnout • Cynicism • “That was a terrible talk; I could have done it so much better” • “My company sucks because…” • snark snark snark snark… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRPBkCW0R5E Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Dimensions of Burnout • Personal Efficacy • “That presentation I gave was awful. I could have done x/y/z better.” • “Am I a good enough engineer?” • Imposter syndrome https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRPBkCW0R5E Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Measure of Burnout (MBI) • Measure each dimension: • Emotional exhaustion • Cynicism • Personal efficacy • Scale of 0->6 • (0) Never, few times a year, few times a month, once a week, multiple times a week, every day (6) Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Measure of Burnout (MBI) Exhaustion Cynicism Efficacy High High High Burnout High Low Low Exhaustion Low High Low Over Extended Low Low High Ineffective Low Low Low Engaged Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
What about Tech Culture? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
What about tech culture? • We have a lot of self doubt… • We love to doubt others… • We like snark… • We internalize issues… • We don’t really listen… Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do? • Self Level (for me) • Self Level (for others) • Institutional Level Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do (for me) • In the case of a SEV 1 • See your primary care provider • Take a leave of absence • Find another job that’s more fulfilling Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do (for me) • Basics: • Do you have a hobby? • Do you do something outside of technology on a regular basis? • Do you eat healthy? • Do you exercise on a regular basis? • Do you meditate? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Take a vacation! State of vacations is actually pretty bad in the US….. https://www.ustravel.org/research/state-american-vacation-2018 Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do (for me) • Moar: • Say “no”, learn how to prioritize. • Figure out how to do moar of what you enjoy and less of what you hate. • Lean on peers, have a mentor Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Industry Anecdotes • Exhaustion (Physical) • Cynicism (Emotional) • Efficacy (Spiritual) https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/290248/physician-burnout-pathophysiology-and-treatment-of-burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Industry Anecdotes • Step 1: Measure how you are doing in these areas? https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/290248/physician-burnout-pathophysiology-and-treatment-of-burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Industry Anecdotes • Step 1: Measure how you are doing in these areas? • Step 2: Decrease the drain. https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/290248/physician-burnout-pathophysiology-and-treatment-of-burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Industry Anecdotes • Step 1: Measure how you are doing in these areas? • Step 2: Decrease the drain. • Step 3: Increase the deposits. https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/290248/physician-burnout-pathophysiology-and-treatment-of-burnout Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Industry Anecdotes • Medical World: • “Doctors who read literary fiction actually performed better in theory of mind, which is actually a surrogate for measuring empathy.” • “When compared to nonreaders, the relative risk of burnout for consistent readers—those who read at least one book per month—fell by 19 percent across the emotional exhaustion and 44 percent across the depersonalization domain.” • https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/battle-against-doctor-burnoutreading-fun-fundamental Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF should I do (for others) • Be there for your peers. • Learn how to empathize and walk in their shoes. • Other industries are better at listening than we are. Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
WTF do I do (org)? • Look at upstream issues in your organizations and fix them. • Babies floating down the stream in baskets… Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Where to go from here? Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Read more of Dr. Maslach’s work • https://psychology.berkeley.edu/people/christina-maslach Devopsdays Seattle @iteration1
Appendix • https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in-depth/burnout/art-20046642 • https://www.mach7t.com/resources/infographics/radiologist-burnout/ • Talks by Dr. Maslach: • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRPBkCW0R5E • https://conferences.oreilly.com/velocity/devops-web-performance-2015/public/schedule/speaker/ 203868 • https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/295048/physician-burnout-why-its-not-a-fair-fight • https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/318037.php • https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/battle-against-doctor-burnout-readingfun-fundamental • https://www.thehappymd.com/blog/bid/290248/physician-burnout-pathophysiology-and-treatment-ofburnout • https://www.ustravel.org/research/state-american-vacation-2018
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