12
2erXre5
7y

I just found out last Friday that my team collegues (all of them are team leads) are suffering from depression or the so called burn out syndrom. I guess it's my boss' fault. He never gives clear jobs, changes his mind from day to day, we have to manage unclear responsibilities and the baddest thing is that we think that our boss is too stressed out himself.

Do you have any advice for me how we as team could solve that besides changing employer? One thing to mention is, that my boss likes to hear himself talking. That makes it even harder for a guy like myself who is more or less introverted to come up with good arguments which are not overheard or overtalked immediately. What are your feedback strategies to your own boss, how do you bring such stuff on the table?

I fear that when nothing happens, my company will suffer very hard when the whole product engineering departement will fall apart (¼ of the whole company and is responsible for engineering and maintaining of internal services and managed services for our customers).

Well at least it was worth writing about it, maybe my subconcious mind will come up with a brilliant idea itself in the near future in some asynchronous way. But you might be the one with that valuable input, then don't hesitate to share, it will be welcome.

Comments
  • 8
    Being burnt out and being depressed don’t always go hand in hand.

    Being burnt out is like writers block, where you just loose your passion and motivation and can’t be assed to delivery the next task at hand (almost my current state after my last 12 months), but this can easily be rectified.

    Although being burnt out for long periods of time could probably lead to depression.

    My advice is take a break (several weeks) and recharge your batteries, find a new hobby or fascinating project that gets you going again.
  • 2
    I agree with beeing burnt out is not necessarily the same as having a depression. but it is a thin line between them when in a late stage of the burn out process. when you have a blockade it is one thing, but when you think that the world would be better without you and you get no motivation for doing anything, then it gets crucial.
  • 4
    Depending on the boss personality one way might be to take a large white board and write down things to do and who’s assigned to what and when requirements change ask where in the list the mew goes and what can be postponed.

    This works if the boss is just bad at organizing but pragmatic enough to not ask the impossible.

    If he is prestigious it might backfire though :/

    We used it to force different opinions inline and to get a clear order of priorities.

    Also it clearly lists who is doing what so nobody can just be reassigned without being replaced or rescheduling the task.
  • 1
    You literally just descibed me..

    I feel bad now...

    As a boss, I went on hiatus and handed off the project to my second in command while I try and work on other things. I gave him full creative freedom over the project, as long as he follows the projects goal.

    I'm curentally trying to get into writing. I would also like to start drawing more.
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