On values and work burnout
“When there is a values conflict on the job, and thus a gap between individual and organizational values, employees will find themselves making a trade‐off between work they want to do and work they have to do, and this can lead to greater burnout.” — Christina Maslach
Going through a burnout experience is like seeing a dark/sad episode of your life from outside. The sense of hopelessness and powerless that prevents you from doing anything to change the situation(s) affecting your morale is despairing.
“Job burnout is a response to work stress that leaves you feeling powerless, hopeless, fatigated, drained and frustrated”
Burnout will cause several effects in the life of the person, including exhaustion (loss of energy, debilitation and fatigue), a stage of cynicism or depersonalization where you basically don’t care how you treat others or if you want to even treat others and the last one inefficiency (low morale, reduced productivity). These conditions could show at work or out of work, and while they seem familiar with the effects of a depression, you can still enjoy some things in life.
How do we get here?
Many factors, excessive work hours, work overload, lack of control and autonomy to perform your job, broken identity (you link your identity to your work and whatever the outcome of it is is what you are), lack of support and trust, and conflicting values. In the software development industry, it’s clear a lot of the items mentioned above are part a norm not an exception.
While there are multiple blogs and books that discuss burnout and how to battle it, one of the causes that have resonated the most to me (and that usually I don’t see mentioned very often) in the past weeks as I try to learn more about burnout, is “conflicting values”.
The contrast
The counterpoint of burnout is “engagement”. Engagement is the energy that makes you get involved, committed and produce work effectively. Satisfactory work leads to that meaningful engagement through the trigger of positive emotions that will, in turn, unleash creativity, innovation, and adaptability.
As Anne McKee put it on her great book “How to be happy at work”:
“When work is an expression of our values and we have positive impact on something we care about, we are motivated from within”
This motivation from within is the engagement that will make you get involved, committed and productive.
Values
When I say values, I’m not just talking about ethics, which are closely related and important but that are mostly universal to everyone. I’m talking about the stuff that is the most important to you and that you could not live without. Other people put it as “values are the ideas that originally attracted you to a person or a company”.
Identifying these values require (as the whole process of recovering from burnout) a lot of introspection. Examples could be: do you value the quality of the software you deploy to your customers? (surprisingly some people AND/OR organizations don’t care), do you value having enough time to complete your tasks? do you value having enough time to rest? do you value having a voice to decide how things are going to get built? do you value innovation? do you value a long-term business or a short one?
Are your values compatible with your company?
In his classic article, Managing Oneself, Peter Drucker wrote a few gems worth looking when discussing the compatibility of values between an individual and an organization.
He mentions the mirror test:
“What kind of person do I want to see in the mirror in the morning?”.
Later on, he says:
“To work in an organization whose value system is unacceptable or incompatible with one’s own condemns a person both to frustration and to nonperformance.”
And:
Organizations, like people, have values. To be effective in an organization, a person’s values must be compatible with the organization’s values. They do not need to be the same, but they must be close enough to coexist. Otherwise, the person will not only be frustrated but also will not produce results.
Back to the first quote in this post, Christina Maslach, (an expert in the research of burnout) wrote:
“When there is a values conflict on the job, and thus a gap between individual and organizational values, employees will find themselves making a trade‐off between work they want to do and work they have to do, and this can lead to greater burnout.”
This mismatch of values, as the experts clearly point out become a source of frustration that adds fuel to the fire of desperation, powerlessness, and helplessness that burnout causes.
Conclusion
Values are important, it might not be the main cause of burnout for you, but at least think about them:
- Identify your own values.
- Try to match them with your current organization. If there’s a mismatch:
a. Check if there are compatibilities that could bring them together.
b. Talk to your manager and leads about their values and the organization’s values.
3. If nothing could be done, maybe it is time for you to leave.
When looking for a job, make sure you can bring your values to the organization or if they are at least somehow compatible.
