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57% of Tech Workers Are Suffering From Job Burnout, Survey Finds (bleepingcomputer.com) 317

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
An anonymous reader writes: A survey conducted among the tech workers, including many employees of Silicon Valley's elite tech companies, has revealed that over 57% of respondents are suffering from job burnout. The survey was carried out by the makers of an app that allows employees to review workplaces and have anonymous conversations at work, behind their employers' backs. Over 11K employees answered one question -- if they suffer from job burnout, and 57.16% said "Yes."

The company with the highest employee burnout rate was Credit Karma, with a whopping 70.73%, followed by Twitch (68.75%), Nvidia (65.38%), Expedia (65.00%), and Oath (63.03% -- Oath being the former Yahoo company Verizon bought in July 2017). On the other end of the spectrum, Netflix ranked with the lowest burnout rate of only 38.89%, followed by PayPal (41.82%), Twitter (43.90%), Facebook (48.97%), and Uber (49.52%).
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57% of Tech Workers Are Suffering From Job Burnout, Survey Finds More

57% of Tech Workers Are Suffering From Job Burnout, Survey Finds

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  • I hole-hardedly agree... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:02AM (#56847370)

    But, allow me to play doubles advocate here for a moment. For all intensive purposes I think you are wrong. In an age where false morals are a diamond dozen, true virtues are a blessing in the skies. We often put our false morality on a petal stool like a bunch of pre-Madonnas, but you all seem to be taking something very valuable for granite. So I ask of you to mustard up all the strength you can because it is a doggy dog world out there. Although there is some merit to what you are saying it seems like you have a huge ship on your shoulder. In your argument you seem to throw everything in but the kids Nsync, and even though you are having a feel day with this I am here to bring you back into reality. I have a sick sense when it comes to these types of things. It is almost spooky, because I cannot turn a blonde eye to these glaring flaws in your rhetoric. I have zero taller ants when it comes to people spouting out hate in the name of moral righteousness. You just need to remember what comes around is all around, and when supply and command fails you will be the first to go. Make my words, when you get down to brass stacks it doesn't take rocket appliances to get two birds stoned at once. It's clear who makes the pants in this relationship, and sometimes you just have to swallow your prize and accept the facts. You might have to come to this conclusion through denial and error but I swear on my mother's mating name that when you put the petal to the medal you will pass with flying carpets like itâ(TM)s a peach of cake.

    • -1 Troll? It is meant to be FUNNY! (Score:4, Insightful)

      by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @03:15PM (#56849364) Homepage
      It's FUNNY! It is written by someone with an extensive knowledge of English colloquial expressions, or copied from someone with that knowledge. MOD PARENT UP!

      (There are areas where English is trashy. You may need to take a shower after you read this.)

      Title: "I hole-hardedly agree..." -- I whole-heartedly agree...
      "doubles advocate" -- devil's advocate
      "all intensive purposes" -- all intents and purposes
      "a diamond dozen" -- a dime a dozen
      "a blessing in the skies" -- a blessing in disguise.
      "on a petal stool" -- on a pedestal
      "a bunch of pre-Madonnas" -- a bunch of primadonnas
      "taking something very valuable for granite" -- taking something very valuable for granted"
      "mustard up all the strength you can" -- muster up all the strength you can
      "it is a doggy dog world" -- It is a dog-eat-dog world
      "you have a huge ship on your shoulder." -- you have a huge chip on your shoulder.
      " throw everything in but the kids Nsync" -- throw everything in but the kitchen sink
      "you are having a feel day with this" -- you are having a field day with this
      "I have a sick sense" -- I have a sixth sense
      "I cannot turn a blonde eye" -- I cannot turn a blind eye
      "I have zero taller ants" -- I have zero tolerance
      "what comes around is all around" -- what comes around goes around [what goes around comes around]
      "supply and command" -- supply and demand
      "Make my words" -- Mark my words
      "when you get down to brass stacks" -- when you get down to brass tacks
      "it doesn't take rocket appliances" -- it doesn't take rocket science
      "to get two birds stoned at once" -- to kill two birds with one stone
      "who makes the pants in this relationship" -- who wears the pants in this relationship
      "sometimes you just have to swallow your prize" -- sometimes you just have to swallow your pride
      "come to this conclusion through denial and error" -- come to this conclusion through trial and error
      "I swear on my mother's mating name" -- I swear on my mother's maiden name [not a usual expression]
      "when you put the petal to the medal" -- when you put the pedal to the metal
      "you will pass with flying carpets" -- you will pass with flying colors
      "it's a peach of cake" -- it's a piece of cake

  • I just landed my first career IT gig (Score:2)

    by Anonymous Coward

    My blood pressure has never been higher!

    Not to mention my managers who openly joke about how being stressed "is just something you deal with" and openly laugh about it in front of me anytime someone mentions it.

    Fark this noise

    • Re:I just landed my first career IT gig (Score:4, Insightful)

      by 110010001000 ( 697113 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:14AM (#56847422) Homepage Journal
      Try working construction for minimum wage and not knowing where your next job will come from. Then have your blood pressure tested.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by penix1 ( 722987 )

        Try working Emergency Management. Then you will know real pressure.

      • Re:I just landed my first career IT gig (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Jfetjunky ( 4359471 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:38AM (#56847554)
        This is usually the type of thing I tell myself to keep perspective. But the truth is that tech jobs can be stressful too. I imagine people in blue collar jobs believe we are living high on the hog with not a care in the world, but it's not really that way. But I also have two brothers that work jobs requiring much more manual labor. It absolutely takes a toll on your body.

        We've recently had a few people come over to hardware management (I am a hardware developer). Both my manager and I told them, hardware projects change EVERY DAY. Every day its, "so and so (big customer) just had issues with this", or "The market is way behind on these parts and we are short", or "The product you just designed is failing ____ test right now, what are we doing to fix it".

        I've watched it drive many people out. My own mentor told me when I first started "I'll tell you the first thing my Mentor told me, 'Get out now'". A bit much for a new engineer to take in, but now I know why he said it. Right before he left the company, he started telling me he wasn't sure how much longer he could handle the pressure.

        Honestly, I don't care as much about the pay, the fancy benefits, or any of the fluff. What has nearly drove me out is when I feel like every day is just another barrage of unbounded problems. Like you're the guy on the track, your problem is the chains holding you there, and management is driving the train and they aren't slowing it down. You better get those chains undone.

        I've been an auto mechanic, welder, machinist, and now EE. My back-up plan / exit strategy is machining. I enjoy it, it is so much more bounded (in my opinion), and still presents good challenges to keep me engaged. I already have a colleague in another company on his way. We've talked at length about it.
        • Learn your fair share of Dilbertism, then it's not so bad anymore. Can't keep stressing out all the time, you gotta learn when something is really on fire and when you can just not give a fuck. "Customer just had an idea" type of situations can more often that not be ignored until they go away. "Production is down, entire factory has just stopped working because of your mistake" kind of situations cannot be ignored, even if it's bloody 2am. Just make sure stuff like that doesn't happen very often and you wi

        • Re:I just landed my first career IT gig (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Anubis IV ( 1279820 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @03:57PM (#56849582)

          But the truth is that tech jobs can be stressful too. I imagine people in blue collar jobs believe we are living high on the hog with not a care in the world, but it's not really that way.

          I was pulling long hours one week to try and finish a software update in time. The deadline was fast approaching and the outlook was grim. As usual, the cleaning lady came by to collect the trash that evening and we got to chit-chatting like we usually did (I arrived late and stayed late back then, so my being there when she did her rounds was perfectly normal). Part way through the conversation she paused for a moment, then said something to the effect of, "You know, before I started working here I used to think that you guys all had it easy with your cushy jobs and nice offices. But then I see people here with the look that you have in your eyes right now and I realize I was wrong. It's just as tough. Different, but just as tough, if not tougher."

          I think I mustered a tired "Thanks?" in response.

          I don't make any claim to having it tougher than anyone else (I have a MASSIVE appreciation for manual workers, among many other fields, since I couldn't do that work), but the only people I find suggesting that tech work is easy are those who either aren't in the field and have no awareness of what it entails, or those who are a burden on everyone else around them in the field.

      • Try working construction for minimum wage and not knowing where your next job will come from. Then have your blood pressure tested.

        Ahh the "staving people in Africa" argument your mother made to get you to eat your vegetables. Great example of the fallacy of relative privation [tvtropes.org]. Just because other people have it worse doesn't mean you should be grateful for a possibly better but still bad situation.

        • Yes, you should be grateful, but you are an ungrateful self centered little shit. Common malady.

          • Yes, you should be grateful, but you are an ungrateful self centered little shit. Common malady.

            Grow up. You post some of the most ridiculous drivel on this site and then have the stones to start calling names when someone points it out. If you don't actually have a rebuttal more eloquent than calling someone names then shut up and move on to your next troll.

            • Pointing out that you are spoiled and ungrateful isn't drivel or name calling. It is reality. You SHOULD be grateful you live in a relatively wealthy country and work in IT and can post to slashdot. You should travel around the world and see how others live. The fact that you aren't makes you ungrateful for the things you have.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

          Try working construction for minimum wage and not knowing where your next job will come from. Then have your blood pressure tested.

          Ahh the "staving people in Africa" argument your mother made to get you to eat your vegetables. Great example of the fallacy of relative privation [tvtropes.org]. Just because other people have it worse doesn't mean you should be grateful for a possibly better but still bad situation.

          I would posit that humans in fact need someone to be worse off than them as a coping mechanism for their own suffering/misfortune/whatever. No matter what you are going through, the knowledge that someone else has it worse than you allows you to claim some sort of superiority or status over them. A child that is neglected or abused at home becomes a bully at school because he can exert power over his victims. A low wage worker in an unskilled menial job supports cutting safety nets because "I'm busting m

          • I would posit that humans in fact need someone to be worse off than them as a coping mechanism for their own suffering/misfortune/whatever.

            Only the more pathetic and narcissistic among us. Sadly that seems to be a rather large percent of the population. I fear people don't need that but quite a number seem to enjoy it. If we do actually need to feel better than others then that is a very sad commentary on us as a species.

            • Re: (Score:2)

              by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

              I would posit that humans in fact need someone to be worse off than them as a coping mechanism for their own suffering/misfortune/whatever.

              Only the more pathetic and narcissistic among us.

              Not necessarily. The pathetic and narcissistic among us my do so consciously, but I would argue a vast majority do it subconsciously. We are always comparing ourselves to others in some way, even if we don't explicitly realize we are doing so. It's in our nature.

              I fear people don't need that but quite a number seem to enjoy it. If we do actually need to feel better than others then that is a very sad commentary on us as a species.

              It's not needed, but it's a coping tool, one of several that we have. Fear and hatred towards the "other" is another big one that is being prominently featured right now(think Terror Management Theory without the overly-morbid focus on death of

    • Most people I know self medicate with alcohol or pot. You take caffeinate during the day and then hit a bar to come down.
  • >> one question -- if they suffer from job burnout, and 57.16% said "Yes."

    I doubt they know what burnout is then. Are you dragging yourself to work AND finding yourself still getting there two hours late because fuckit AND then working at home past when you really wanted to go to bed multiple nights in a row AND hating your job AND not caring if the current deathmarch you are on actually yields a product? Then, yes, you're burned out and it's time to find a cush corporate job or maybe just a few wee

    • Telling people that aren't being abused quite as badly as you are that they aren't being abused is itself a kind of abuse.

      That you are in worse straits than some others does not qualify you to define the term for those others. There are also people worse off than you are, is your life therefore perfect?

    • While the definition of burnout might not have been adequately explained to the surveyed and thus make me doubt a little of its accuracy , I suspect the percentage of Tech Workers that burnt out is higher than the 57% quoted, considering the possibility of even higher % of the severely burnout left IT for other fields, or worse, suffered ill health (physical of mental) and is now sitting at home broken. The survey seem to only question those still fit enough and produce good enough quality of work output t

      • >> the percentage of Tech Workers that burnt out is higher than the 57% quoted, considering the possibility of even higher % of the severely burnout left IT for other fields, or worse, suffered ill health (physical of mental) and is now sitting at home broken

        Over their lifetime? Yes, I'd say the "burned out at least once in their lifetime" number is higher than 57%. (I've been there myself twice in a twenty-year career.) My original point is that you need to understand that there's a real differenc

  • Surprise, working people to death leads to burnout (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:12AM (#56847414)
    Tech work culture is seriously broken when 80 hour weeks and never going on vacation for any reason is encouraged and celebrated. Burnout under such conditions is inevitable.

    • I'm not surprised that a significant number of users who don't feel comfortable talking to coworkers without anonymity are feeling burnout at work. This wasn't a commissioned study with careful target sampling, they just showed this question to their users. The title of this article should be "57% of Tech Workers Who Use The Blind App Are Suffering From Job Burnout, Survey Finds".

    • Re:Surprise, working people to death leads to burn (Score:5, Interesting)

      by avandesande ( 143899 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @11:12AM (#56847704) Journal
      I hear this all the time but WTH actually does this? Anyone here at slashdot? Even when I was younger I did an all nighter just once or twice. I've been working 8 hour days the last 15 years.

      • Re:Surprise, working people to death leads to burn (Score:4, Informative)

        by swb ( 14022 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @11:59AM (#56848012)

        I work with people who proudly complain about "working until 2 am" or willingly take on all kinds of client work at ridiculous times because it burnishes their reputation.

        Some after hours work is unavoidable in IT, but I just refuse to work those kinds of hours regularly without added compensation of some kind (added vacation days without strings and/or more money).

        As a more skilled/experienced/older worker, I think I can get away with it but I'm not gonna lie, the people who do it seem to have more street cred in the organization because they are willing to bend over.

        I think it's highly organization dependent and sometimes individually dependent (ie, can you get done what needs doing in normal work hours). And I think there are definitely orgs where if you're not doing that, you might as well resign now because you will get shuffled to the shit work.

      • Nobody really does. Drama queens. If you are regularly working 80 hour weeks in IT, you are dumb or you just really like to work.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kjella ( 173770 )

        I worked 55-60 hours a week for most of a year, mainly due to two senior people leaving with a month's difference and a third knocked his head pretty bad leaving me and a few juniors to sort it out. That was as an IT consultant though so I had a billing bonus that gave me pretty good kickback. If I recall correctly it kicked in at about 2/3rd = 67% billable time and the company average was 75-80% somewhere, so your average consultant would get bonus for like 10% while I could hit 50%+. Normally they wouldn'

      • I hear this all the time but WTH actually does this? Anyone here at slashdot? Even when I was younger I did an all nighter just once or twice. I've been working 8 hour days the last 15 years.

        My understanding would be Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook, etc. although I've only really heard from people that have worked at Amazon. They hire new young and eager workers who they can work and fire them when they burn out. However, just as many leave before that. It's all part of an understood system where new workers agree to be overworked while padding their resume and looking for a new job. This lastrs for an average of 18 months before they have found a new job or get laid off. They hopefully hop to

    • The no vacation thing pisses me off. My entire adult life, I've only had one "real" vacation if you define it as a whole week off.

      One reason there's such a lack of vacation time here in Seattle is that in Washington state, the law only requires less than 2/3 be paid out. In CA, we have to pay out 100%. That's why in CA we require employees to take PTO to get it off of the books, but in WA we basically don't allow vacation time. No company I've ever worked for let programmers take even a fifth (as a guess)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rnturn ( 11092 )
      I worked for a companies where IT people used to look for places to go on vacation that had no phones or pager service. For one co-worker's rafting trip on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon started a trend among the IT staff: where can I go where the phone/pager coverage is really poor or non-existent? Far, far North Canadian fishing trips started getting considered. Can't have people actually having an outside-of-work life so the companies bought satellite phones. No more vacations for you withou

  • Gee, I can't imagine why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:12AM (#56847416)
    Long on call hours. Declining inflation adjusted wages. Having to spend hours and hours of your own time training because companies don't train anymore. Constant threats of outsourcing or being replaced by an H1-B applicant (despite the fact that that is explicitly illegal).
    • ...and companies not investing in proper process creation, leading to duplicate or incorrect work because no one knows what is going on.

      ...and companies choosing to hire new management externally instead of promoting from within, creating management that has power and no idea how the company does things.

      ...and companies that think culture means free lunch and happy hour.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by H3lldr0p ( 40304 )

        Imagine some of the opposites here.

        A company that jumps at every opportunity to create a process but never does anything with them.

        A company that only promotes from within and then wonders why they can't move on to new tech as no one knows it or how to introduce it.

        A company that doesn't do any get togethers with anyone since in their mind family comes first.

        There are good ways to do these things and bad ways. The trick is knowing which is which.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:34AM (#56847530)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • The office (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:50AM (#56847616)

    I've done a lot of Peopleware like consulting, mostly for software development teams. The IT office space is in general the enemy of these teams. They are noisy and destroy your concentration. You can only break someones concentration for a finite number per day, certainly with introverts, after that the dev is just excausted. As a rule of thumb, the correlation is more people wearing headphones -> more burnout. It's fucked up that people need to wear headphones to attempt to do their work, and a clear sign the environment is poison to their jobs. Of course they put all these people in the same space, to save money. Hardly ever do they do the math, and contemplate how much it costs them in burnout and turnover.

  • so... (Score:5, Informative)

    by buddyglass ( 925859 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @10:50AM (#56847618)
    Does this result argue for wider adoption of Netflix's H.R. model, as expressed in the manifesto [slideshare.net] that went viral a few years back? Namely:

    1. Hire "A" players, because the competence of one's coworkers is a large contributor to employee satisfaction.
    2. Don't use golden handcuffs as a means of mitigating hiring churn; you want employees to stay at the company because they want to be there. Employees choose how much stock they want vs. cash.
    3. Don't use performance based bonuses; high performance is the base level expectation, not something to be singled out and rewarded.
    4. "We're a team, not a family." You don't "cut" people from a family; you do "cut" people from a pro sports team.
    5. "Hard work - Not Relevant". They care about productivity, not how hard you worked to be productive.
    6. Low tolerance for "brilliant jerks".
    7. Pay "top of market" wages. "One outstanding employee gets more done and costs less than two 'adequate' employees." "Employees should feel they are being paid well relative to other options in the market."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by djinn6 ( 1868030 )
      "Hard work - Not Relevant" is probably the most important part. Trying to implement it, however, is much harder. At some point, there'll be someone who finishes all their work in 3 hours and goes home. Most managers will intervene when they see this, either by coming up with busywork or just telling them to stay to keep up appearances.
  • Does anyone know how this compares with other professions?
  • IT people are highly paid. If they're not, then they're in the wrong career. Take a few months off between jobs or something. "Burnout" is only a problem if you've got no other options. Otherwise, it's a life choice.

    • IT people are highly paid. If they're not, then they're in the wrong career. Take a few months off between jobs or something. "Burnout" is only a problem if you've got no other options. Otherwise, it's a life choice.

      It's good advice, but I'm not sure how you came to the conclusion that IT people are that much more wealthy where they can afford to take a 6-month sabbatical with little or no income. Certified Financial Scrooge is not part of an IT certification track, and IT people aren't really any better than the average person in avoiding debt or living paycheck to paycheck, even with a six-figure salary.

      Also, when I read "highly paid" with regards to IT jobs, I wonder exactly what that definition is. A low six figu

  • meaningless wanking (Score:5, Interesting)

    by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @11:25AM (#56847766) Journal

    A single data point is statistically meaningless "woe is us" wanking UNLESS other industries are surveyed.

    If the "burnout" rate for tech workers is 57%, but for medical workers is 75%, factory line workers is 62%, and teachers is 60%, then the rate for tech workers is really not bad.
    If OTOH other industries scale at 20-30%, then the tech sector really is dire.

    In short: I suspect that everyone feels like they are underappreciated, underpaid, and is "fed up with all the bullshit at work"...like everyone else.

  • Need unions and OT pay!

  • Only 38%-39% of your IT employees are burning out.

    That's something to be really proud of.

  • Am I surprised? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by whitroth ( 9367 ) <whitroth@5-BOHRcent.us minus physicist> on Tuesday June 26, 2018 @12:35PM (#56848258) Homepage

    Yep, so many folks LOOOVVVVEEE 50, 60, 70 hour weeks, and having to respond to the boss 24x7x365.25. Who needs a life?

    UNIONS are why we have benefits, weekends, holidays and vacations. No company did that out of the alleged kindness of their hearts.

    But none of you here need them, they're *so* "ancient", never mind they could get you a 40 hour week and no being bothered off hours, no, enjoy your (non-) life.

  • Most of the companies mentioned are Silicon Valley tech firms, where the competition for jobs is fierce, and hours are brutal. In the rest of the country, my impression is that stress levels are much lower. I personally can't imagine a better job than the one I have, and I know many who agree.

  • What is burnout? Feeling stressed? To me, burnout is being incapable of doing your job any longer.

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