The burned-out developer

A burned-out developer is the kind of employee who can do the job and whose managers are reasonably satisfied. Being a burned-out developer doesn't mean you can't do your job. In many cases the opposite is true. People hold you up as an example because you work conscientiously and without complaining. What managers usually fail to see is that a burned-out developer makes no contribution toward improving the state of development. That kind of contribution means making a qualitative change to the way things are.

The managers bear most of the responsibility when a developer burns out. Of course, the individual's own disposition matters too, but it starts with the managers. They usually don't give developers enough stimulation to keep them from resting on their laurels. If you want your developers to burn out, here's what to do.

• let them feel like they're just hacking things together
• on no account ask what they'd like to do
• never let them do anything that isn't directly related to their work
• resist any departure from established practice
• reject any initiative on the grounds that there's no time
• give them no reason to innovate, because innovation takes time

If you turned the list around, you might be surprised by how “anarchic” it sounds. But what looks like anarchy to one person is freedom to another, and I think that freedom is ideal for putting your own ideas into practice. Of course, the same freedom can offer one person enormous potential and give someone else the perfect opportunity to blend into the crowd.

One way to keep developers from burning out is to give them enough room to pursue ideas of their own. Whether they get that chance depends on how much freedom they have at work. For example, a workplace can let employees spend a fifth of their working time on whatever interests them within the company, as Google does.

Another way is to set aside some working time for learning and study, and above all to let people apply what they've learned during development. Plenty of employers say they do this, but the reality is often different. The most common reason is that there's no time, which is often an excuse born of fear of adopting new ideas.

It's also good to show developers that you trust them to choose, where possible, what they'd like to work on among the tasks at hand. Developers can keep from burning out because they feel fulfilled by the work they do and can bring new ideas to it.

I've never worked as a manager, so my perspective may be skewed, a bit like a foot soldier's view of a war, but that's how I see it. I'm grateful that so far I've been lucky enough to work for managers who haven't let me burn out.