When it comes to software development there is one aspect that isn't talked about enough. With the high salaries and office perks it can be easy to dismiss, after all I am sure other careers have it worse. Gone unchecked however, it can lead to sleepless nights and a shorter lifespan in general.
Of course, if you hadn't guessed it, I am talking about stress.
Every career has some form of stress, but I think there is something unique about the stress that developers face, especially in large companies.
As a developer you are responsible for delivering high quality software, on time and within budget. This can be stressful enough as it is, but combine this with maintaining all the software you have written before, dealing with incidents, managing a team and trying to keep up to date with new technologies, it can all get too much for some people.
At least we get a nice rest after delivering that super profitable feature on time..........
If only that was the case, instead we get a never ending treadmill of work that seems to be getting faster.
This will likely sound very familiar to a lot of you. It doesn't have to be that way though.
In my current position, I am the least stressed I have ever been in my career. That isn't due to lack of work, in fact I am cranking out more features now than I ever have. So what has changed?
It starts from the top #
One of the biggest contributors of stress can come from the people you work with. Luckily I have always got on with the people I have worked with and in fact I have never had a boss/manager that I didn't like, but I have still experienced plenty of stress.
A lot of the issues we face with unrealistic deadlines, changing scope, and a lack of vision come from the very top. It is not often that your direct manager is entirely responsible for setting that unrealistic deadline as often they have their own deadlines and expectations imposed upon them.
When the company vision isn't entirely clear to begin with priorities are in constant flux, and you always seem to be chasing the next important objective.
With a lack of vision, companies can end up building customer specific features in order to try and secure contracts. You end up with what I call "sales led software development". It is not the product team coming up with the roadmap but the sales team dictating what gets built, often on what they have already promised to the customer.
If you are experiencing this usually the only option is to find a better managed company to work for.
You need a great team #
They say it takes a village to raise a child and the same is true for software.
I have built many systems and features as a "one-man band". I don't have a problem with the building aspect, the problems come once it goes into production, and you need to maintain it, deal with issues and keep on developing new features. If you are the only one responsible for all of this it can take its toll. To make matters worse you can never really take a holiday as you are the only one who knows how something works.
With the right team however things get a lot easier. When everyone shares responsibility for the product you can take turns dealing with incidents, developing features and taking holidays!
Get your finances in order #
Yes I said finances. At the end of the day, if you find yourself in a position where you are constantly stressed, unable to sleep and your health is deteriorating, why wouldn't you just quit?
The simple answer is that we have bills to pay and we need the income. This is especially true if you have a family that is financially dependent on you.
If you don't have one already you need an emergency fund. An emergency fund is there to cover you in case you lose your job (or just rage-quit one day) and will cover your expenses until you find a new job.
Ideally your emergency fund should cover 6 months of essential expenses (food, rent, utility bills etc). If you are just starting out though you can aim for 3 months to begin with. If you tend to be a bit more risk averse you might want to aim for 9 - 12 months.
The job market has picked back up again and most developers can find a new job in under 3 months depending on your experience.
Knowing you will be fine financially allows you to say no a lot more at work. They want you to work overtime, or over the weekend, no, thank you! The worst they can do is fire you, but that is unlikely.
The ultimate goal is to have what they call FU money. This is essentially financial independence where you no longer need to work for money. This way you can work only if you enjoy it and avoid all the stress completely.
❤️ Picks of the Week #
📝 Article - Everything Apple iOS 18 Will Do Android Already Does - This was one of the reasons I avoided getting an iPhone for so long. It is amazing that only in this new release can you finally place icons where you want on your home screen.
📝 Article - Silicon Valley’s Best Kept Secret: Founder Liquidity - This was news to me, but it makes sense. Out of the companies I worked for in the past, I wonder how much the founders personally profited from the seed rounds they went through.
📝 Article - Affirmations for bloggers - I need to read these myself regularly. I sometimes struggle with what to write each week especially when I think it needs to be completely novel.
📝 Article - M&Ms: How to Find Ideas to Build - If you are looking to build your own app or startup then this article is worth a read.
📝 Article - Diffractive Chocolate - I studied Physics at university, so I probably think this is a lot cooler than it really is.
📝 Article - How to Get the Most out of Postgres Memory Settings - For those managing Postgres servers this could be useful.
💬 Quote of the Week #
The more pressure we feel, the more we tend to stick to our old routines – even when these routines caused the problem and the stress in the first place. This is known as the Tunnel Vision Effect (Mullainathan and Shafir 2013). But Mullainathan and Shafir, who examined this phenomenon thoroughly, also found a way out of it: Change is possible when the solution appears to be simple.
From How to Take Smart Notes by Sönke Ahrens
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