Preventing Burnout
Since the sale, Priya has handled every payments escalation, because she is the only one who really knows the gateway. Her commits land at 1 am, she cancelled a planned holiday, and yesterday she snapped at Neha in a code review, which is completely unlike her. Everyone admires how much Priya is carrying, and that admiration is part of the problem.
The rule
Heroics are a warning sign, not a strategy.
Burnout is what sustained overload does to people: deep exhaustion, growing cynicism about the work, and a slide in how effective they feel. It builds over weeks and months, which is why it is easy to miss and slow to heal.
Common causes:
- Overload that never ends. One crunch is survivable; permanent crunch is not.
- Lack of control. Shifting priorities, and 2 am pages the person can't prevent.
- Being the single point of failure. The only one who knows a system can never really switch off.
- Unfairness. Some people carry far more than others, and nobody notices.
- No recovery. Leave cancelled, weekends lost, evenings spent on call.
Early warning signs include late-night work that has become routine, cancelled time off, withdrawal from conversations, irritability that is out of character, and more small mistakes than usual.
What a manager can do:
- Fix the load, not the person. "Try to relax" doesn't help while the load stays the same. Spread knowledge, share on-call, fix noisy alerts, cut scope, move dates.
- Protect recovery. Encourage people to take their leave, and make sure it is truly covered while they are away.
- Model it. If Meera sends messages at 11 pm, the team learns that 11 pm is working time, even if she adds "no need to reply".
- Know your limits. A manager is not a therapist. If someone is struggling, point them to the support the company offers, such as an employee assistance programme.
The shortcut
Look at the load, not the person: what is putting this much on one person, and how do we spread it or remove it?
Notice the signs
Three weeks of 1 am commits, a cancelled holiday, and a sharp review comment that is out of character.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
Which of these is an early warning sign of burnout?
Priya is the only person who can fix gateway problems. What is the best long-term fix?
Meera sends messages at 11 pm but adds "no need to reply". What is the risk?
The team crunched for two weeks before the sale. What should come next?
Remember
- Heroics are a warning sign, not a strategy.
- Look at the load, not the person: spread it or remove it.
- Protect recovery, model sane hours, and point people to proper support when they need it.