WHAT WE’RE LEARNING ABOUT BURNOUT

and how a DevOps culture can help

AGENDA

Intro and disclaimers

Why this talk?

What is DevOps

What is burnout

What causes burnout

Some things you can do

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THIS IS ME

Former US Marine

25 years in the software development industry

Worked as a developer, system administrator, support technician, development manager, corporate director, sales engineer and a few others

Currently a technology evangelist for ThoughtWorks, specializing in DevOps and Continuous Delivery

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YOU SHOULDN’T BELIEVE ANYTHING I’M ABOUT TO SAY

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Did you notice anything missing from my bio?

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Did you notice anything missing from my bio? I am not a mental health professional!

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DEVOPS COULD ACTUALLY MAKE IT WORSE

Some organizations see DevOps and Continuous Delivery as nothing more than a way to move faster.

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CONFIRMATION BIAS

Confirmation bias, also called confirmatory bias or myside bias, is the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses, while giving disproportionately less consideration to alternative possibilities.

8https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confirmation_bias

CORRELATION VS CAUSATION

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IF YOU SHOULDN’T BELIEVE ME, WHY AM I GIVING THIS TALK?

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Why not me?

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Why not you?

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WHY SHOULD WE ADDRESS BURNOUT?

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Because we’re human, and we can

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WHY WE SHOULD ADDRESS BURNOUT

“Psychological safety was far and away the most important of the five dynamics we found -- it’s the underpinning of the other four.”

15https://rework.withgoogle.com/blog/five-keys-to-a-successful-google-team/

WHY WE SHOULD ADDRESS BURNOUT

“Burnout is not just about the presence of negative emotions. It is also about the absence of positive ones … if the work makes you feel good, you'll want to keep doing it and doing it well.”

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Christina Maslach;Michael P. Leiter. The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It

WHAT IS DEVOPS?(Because the world needs yet another definition)

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MY DEFINITION OF DEVOPS

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A culture where people, regardless of title or background,

work together to imagine, develop, deploy and operate a system.

But some of what you’re about to hear assumes you’re practicing Continuous Delivery as part of a DevOps Culture

WHAT IS BURNOUT?

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THE DIMENSIONS OF BURNOUT

Exhaustion

Cynicism

Professional Efficacy

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THE DIMENSIONS OF BURNOUT

Exhaustion

• Measures feelings of being emotionally overextended and exhausted by one's work. Exhaustion is a depletion of emotional energy, distinct from physical exhaustion or mental fatigue.

Cynicism

Professional Efficacy

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THE DIMENSIONS OF BURNOUT

Exhaustion

Cynicism

• Measures an unfeeling and impersonal response toward the recipients of one's service.

Professional Efficacy

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THE DIMENSIONS OF BURNOUT

Exhaustion

Cynicism

Professional Efficacy

• Measures feelings of competence and successful achievement in one's work.

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WHAT CAUSES BURNOUT?

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“Burnout is always more likely when there is a major mismatch between the nature of the job and the nature of the person who does

the job.”

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Christina Maslach;Michael P. Leiter. The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It (Kindle Locations 132-133). Kindle Edition.

mismatch

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Christina Maslach;Michael P. Leiter. The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It (Kindle Locations 132-133). Kindle Edition.

SIX COMMON AREAS OF MISMATCH

Work Overload

Lack of Control

Insufficient Reward

Breakdown of Communication

Absence of Fairness

Conflicting Values

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WHERE DEVOPS CAN HELP

Work Overload

Lack of Control Insufficient Reward

Breakdown of Communication Absence of Fairness Conflicting Values

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MISMATCH 1 - WORK OVERLOAD

Work is more visible

More load sharing

Less deploy marathons (CD)

Some orgs see it as cost savings

There is no such thing as a full stack engineer

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MISMATCH 1 - WORK OVERLOAD

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My last 3 years

MISMATCH 2 - LACK OF CONTROL

Teams are ultimately responsible for decisions

Use the right technology and tools for the team

This doesn’t mean a “DevOps Team” controlling what others do

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MISMATCH 3 - INSUFFICIENT REWARD

Becoming a “DevOps Engineer” and getting paid more won’t hurt, but it won’t help either

Money isn’t actually a very good motivator

• There is less than a 2% overlap between pay and job satisfaction

• You’re more likely to like your job if you focus on the work itself, and less likely to enjoy it if you’re focused on money.

• For every standard deviation increase in reward, intrinsic motivation for interesting tasks decreases by about 25%.

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https://hbr.org/2013/04/does-money-really-affect-motiv

MISMATCH 3 - INSUFFICIENT REWARD

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MISMATCH 4 - BREAKDOWN OF COMMUNICATION

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CODE BUILD TEST

WALL

RELEASE

WALL

OPERATE

WALL

MISMATCH 4 - BREAKDOWN OF COMMUNICATION

Everyone involved with the product is on the same team

Pairs with different skill sets are common

Swarming can be done when required

Blameless retrospectives are held

There is no such thing as a “DevOps Team”

• creating a new silo is not a solution for silos

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MISMATCH 5 - ABSENCE OF FAIRNESS

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MISMATCH 5 - ABSENCE OF FAIRNESS

You build it, you run it

Everyone is responsible for quality

Everyone goes to the release party

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MISMATCH 6 - CONFLICTING VALUES

This means values in the broadest possible context

There is one definition of success for the team

Compensation is tied to entire team’s success

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ThoughtWorks Pillar Three

Advocate passionately for social and economic justice

Reminder: It’s all about you

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SOME THINGS YOU CAN DO

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Pay attention to how you feel

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INCREASE YOUR SELF AWARENESS

Maslach Burnout Inventory

• http://www.mindgarden.com/117-maslach-burnout-inventory

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INCREASE YOUR SELF AWARENESS

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That was great!The customers love it!

Pure genius!

Love having you on the team!

You rock!

Very helpful!

I don’t like you

INCREASE YOUR SELF AWARENESS

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That was great!The customers love it!

Pure genius!

Love having you on the team!

You rock!

Very helpful!I don’t like you

INCREASE YOUR SELF AWARENESS

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That was great!The customers love it!

Pure genius!

Love having you on the team!

You rock!

Very helpful!

TALK TO SOMEONE

Professional help is the best

• Trained to identify cause and effect

• Can recommend treatment

• You’d call them if you broke your arm

Friends and family

People who care that you haven’t even met

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LISTEN TO SOMEONE

Empathy is great, but you aren’t a professional!

Don’t try to guess at cause and effect

Don’t recommend treatment

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GET TRAINING

Mental Health First Aid - http://www.mentalhealthfirstaid.org/

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FURTHER READING

Resources

http://itrevolution.com/karojisatsu/ http://ideas.ted.com/how-should-we-talk-about-mental-health/ http://www.mindgarden.com/

References

https://www.infoq.com/interviews/john-willis-qcon-london-2016 https://hbr.org/2013/04/does-money-really-affect-motiv

Thanks

John Willis Jeff Sussna Jen Quraishi

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THANK YOU@kmugrage

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