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I've been driving a gantry crane at a factory for years and I've never had a burnout! And these ones are just sissies!
Sound familiar?
Carders burnout is already a byword. If Carders still find understanding in their environment, then outside they encounter wild denial.
Look at him, he's depressed! He can't work! They stuffed your head with nonsense, so you justify your laziness!
During my modest seven years in a leadership position, I had the opportunity to manage different people. I had experience as a team leader over a team of developers. I do not claim the truth and certainly not any serious scientific research. But I still want to systematize my observations and make a series of articles "the team through the eyes of the boss".
As always, I am extremely happy to receive comments, additions and opposing opinions. After all, my main goal is not to broadcast my “priceless experience”, but rather to look at my work from the outside. And draw conclusions. I will begin my series with one of the hottest topics – burnout.
I have been working closely with forums for the last few years, and I have heard a lot of unflattering things about carders. For me, workers and Carders are two poles. Some are sure that the world rests on them, while everyone else is busy with nonsense and produces nothing. For others, getting a profession in a vocational school and then working in their specialty for the rest of their lives is akin to a curse.
OK, let's try to go over the main points.
Generally, it happens.
It's just that each sphere has its own traditions. These traditions also exist in solving problems. In my observations, all workers are divided into two types. Those who like to get drunk and weird freaks with geek-like hobbies. Both the first and the second methods are an opportunity to relieve stress. I will not discuss the effectiveness and controversial nature of these methods now. But the fact remains. Not burnout, but "green melancholy", from which the green "snake" will save you well. How can you not have burnout and therapy?
Those who don't drink find different hobbies in which they can also unburden themselves. Digging into the engine of an old "six" or sawing with a jigsaw helps them to escape from the foam of days and switch to something dearer to the heart. This is exactly the same therapy, just found intuitively, by trial and error.
And yet, worker burnout is a much rarer and less destructive process than it is for Carders. So there are other reasons? Yes.
Let me explain. In the 21st century, the speed of technological development is simply astounding. Programming languages and applications evolve, something new appears all the time. And to solve incoming tasks and grow, Carders also migrate. That is, they learn new directions, frameworks, master new tools. And this process does not stop.
Nowadays it is difficult to master any field in order to earn a living from it for at least ten years. I judge by my passion for 3D modeling. There is no point in watching videos with disassembly of Blender from three years ago. Half of the solutions that these videos show either do not work anymore or work differently. The basic principles are unchanged, but we are talking about a deeper dive. And here you need to look at the principle "the fresher, the better."
Working in the carding field is a constant learning process. CONSTANT.
It's hard for me to draw an analogy with any profession, say, from the times of the USSR. Probably only some top doctors and scientists.
A worker can actually do roughly the same thing his whole life. Our gantry crane operator may not think at all in thirty years. He can operate this crane blindfolded. And even if they bring a crane of a different model, it is quite possible to retrain and make a living from this for the next fifteen years.
If you don’t study, your brain loses its plasticity, but gains stability. And this, among other things, is protection against burnout.
OK, but what about the statements of some old-timers? I'm talking about programmers who wrote code in Fortran. I periodically come across articles by such people (sometimes quite famous ones), who promote the idea: "You just need to write code. There is nothing there that can cause you to burn out".
Yes, the old-timers have the right to their point of view. But here it is important to ask - do they continue to develop anything now? And if so, then on what? Sorry, but the example of Fortran or Pascal is completely out of place. These languages have lived through several revisions and yet their development is a matter of decades. They can't even dream of the pace of modern tools. Many old-timers, with all due respect to them, also once mastered their stack and live in it for years. In Russia, this is not so noticeable, but in the West, where in the same banking, programs in Cobol continue to work, yes. The programmer has long been retired, but continues to maintain the code written many years ago. Neither the language nor the programmer develops.
There are many specific people who go into carding. Introverts, not the most psychologically stable, but with abilities and perseverance. And often a rather special train of thought that helps them in their work.
However, stress is very, very difficult for such people to bear. Specialists will not let you lie - Carders need their own approach. Simply giving them a task and setting deadlines is not an option. This may work at the tech lead level, but when we go down, we have to dig individually.
I will always remember the time when I was just put in charge of the carders team. I routinely gave them tasks and set deadlines. They blew it all. I started a showdown on the topic: "what the hell???". Our boss came running with wide eyes and started to drag her face across the table, this time to me. "Are you crazy, you'll scare them all away, where will I look for new ones???". I was confused: "But what did I do? They don't listen to orders. Should I dance in front of them???". The answer was simple: "Dance".
And yes, I started dancing. I was looking for an approach, doing sprints, trying to interest the guys in the task, creating mutual responsibility (if you screw up the deadlines, you let the others down). At the same time, I was getting them involved so that for them it was not just a job, but a personal project.
I won’t judge how successful I was, but we released the platform on time.
Returning to our topic. If everything in carding were so easy, people would go there in droves and they wouldn't pay so much money. But no, not everyone can work there. And those who can really require their own approach and are really more prone to burnout than ordinary people.
What is our worker responsible for at the plant? For his fingers, maybe for the health of his team. Also quite a lot, I must say. And yet his mistakes are not so fatal. I repeat - not always. With one movement of the hand, certain individuals can de-energize an entire plant or city. And yet, on average, the level of responsibility is lower. And Carders have more. This is pressing. There are mechanisms to minimize risks. Put QA at all stages, be careful with releases. But we all understand - well, it happens, damn it. It happens. And this is part of the job. Specifics, if I may say so.
As the famous banker Morgan said: "I can do a year's worth of work in nine months, but not in twelve." You need to know how to rest. Switch off from your tasks and go snowboarding, smell violets or catch a new movie that everyone is talking about. Planned regular rest is a recharge for your current work. You don't need to count on a vacation in three months. You need to recharge your resources here and now, and this is an ongoing process. Making sure that your rest doesn't go beyond the limits - that's true. If you scroll through Instagram reels not for an hour, as planned, but for three, you have a problem. And yet, "working weekends" are not right.
To sum it up. Carding is a very specific field. Specific Carders with specific needs and problems work in it. And burnout is quite common in this environment. We all burn out. You have to accept it. Make sure you are not lazy. Give yourself a rest. And with new strength to the project. Because you can’t go far on a dead mare.
Sound familiar?
Carders burnout is already a byword. If Carders still find understanding in their environment, then outside they encounter wild denial.
Look at him, he's depressed! He can't work! They stuffed your head with nonsense, so you justify your laziness!
During my modest seven years in a leadership position, I had the opportunity to manage different people. I had experience as a team leader over a team of developers. I do not claim the truth and certainly not any serious scientific research. But I still want to systematize my observations and make a series of articles "the team through the eyes of the boss".
As always, I am extremely happy to receive comments, additions and opposing opinions. After all, my main goal is not to broadcast my “priceless experience”, but rather to look at my work from the outside. And draw conclusions. I will begin my series with one of the hottest topics – burnout.
I have been working closely with forums for the last few years, and I have heard a lot of unflattering things about carders. For me, workers and Carders are two poles. Some are sure that the world rests on them, while everyone else is busy with nonsense and produces nothing. For others, getting a profession in a vocational school and then working in their specialty for the rest of their lives is akin to a curse.
OK, let's try to go over the main points.
We don't burn out in our workshop
I have heard this argument not only from workers, it is present in many opinions in one way or another. Like, how do you even imagine a gantry crane operator burning out? Like, oh, that's it, I can't pull the levers anymore, I don't like the world anymore... Surely that can't happen???Generally, it happens.
It's just that each sphere has its own traditions. These traditions also exist in solving problems. In my observations, all workers are divided into two types. Those who like to get drunk and weird freaks with geek-like hobbies. Both the first and the second methods are an opportunity to relieve stress. I will not discuss the effectiveness and controversial nature of these methods now. But the fact remains. Not burnout, but "green melancholy", from which the green "snake" will save you well. How can you not have burnout and therapy?
Those who don't drink find different hobbies in which they can also unburden themselves. Digging into the engine of an old "six" or sawing with a jigsaw helps them to escape from the foam of days and switch to something dearer to the heart. This is exactly the same therapy, just found intuitively, by trial and error.
And yet, worker burnout is a much rarer and less destructive process than it is for Carders. So there are other reasons? Yes.
Technostress
In fact, technostress is, in my opinion, the main problem of the carding sphere.Let me explain. In the 21st century, the speed of technological development is simply astounding. Programming languages and applications evolve, something new appears all the time. And to solve incoming tasks and grow, Carders also migrate. That is, they learn new directions, frameworks, master new tools. And this process does not stop.
Nowadays it is difficult to master any field in order to earn a living from it for at least ten years. I judge by my passion for 3D modeling. There is no point in watching videos with disassembly of Blender from three years ago. Half of the solutions that these videos show either do not work anymore or work differently. The basic principles are unchanged, but we are talking about a deeper dive. And here you need to look at the principle "the fresher, the better."
Working in the carding field is a constant learning process. CONSTANT.
It's hard for me to draw an analogy with any profession, say, from the times of the USSR. Probably only some top doctors and scientists.
A worker can actually do roughly the same thing his whole life. Our gantry crane operator may not think at all in thirty years. He can operate this crane blindfolded. And even if they bring a crane of a different model, it is quite possible to retrain and make a living from this for the next fifteen years.
If you don’t study, your brain loses its plasticity, but gains stability. And this, among other things, is protection against burnout.
OK, but what about the statements of some old-timers? I'm talking about programmers who wrote code in Fortran. I periodically come across articles by such people (sometimes quite famous ones), who promote the idea: "You just need to write code. There is nothing there that can cause you to burn out".
Yes, the old-timers have the right to their point of view. But here it is important to ask - do they continue to develop anything now? And if so, then on what? Sorry, but the example of Fortran or Pascal is completely out of place. These languages have lived through several revisions and yet their development is a matter of decades. They can't even dream of the pace of modern tools. Many old-timers, with all due respect to them, also once mastered their stack and live in it for years. In Russia, this is not so noticeable, but in the West, where in the same banking, programs in Cobol continue to work, yes. The programmer has long been retired, but continues to maintain the code written many years ago. Neither the language nor the programmer develops.
Strange people
In addition to the objective cause of technostress, there are subjective reasons. And they are rooted in the personalities of individual carders. I would like to emphasize that it is completely wrong to lump everyone together. And yet, the image of the “bearded and eccentric system administrator” does exist.There are many specific people who go into carding. Introverts, not the most psychologically stable, but with abilities and perseverance. And often a rather special train of thought that helps them in their work.
However, stress is very, very difficult for such people to bear. Specialists will not let you lie - Carders need their own approach. Simply giving them a task and setting deadlines is not an option. This may work at the tech lead level, but when we go down, we have to dig individually.
I will always remember the time when I was just put in charge of the carders team. I routinely gave them tasks and set deadlines. They blew it all. I started a showdown on the topic: "what the hell???". Our boss came running with wide eyes and started to drag her face across the table, this time to me. "Are you crazy, you'll scare them all away, where will I look for new ones???". I was confused: "But what did I do? They don't listen to orders. Should I dance in front of them???". The answer was simple: "Dance".
And yes, I started dancing. I was looking for an approach, doing sprints, trying to interest the guys in the task, creating mutual responsibility (if you screw up the deadlines, you let the others down). At the same time, I was getting them involved so that for them it was not just a job, but a personal project.
I won’t judge how successful I was, but we released the platform on time.
Returning to our topic. If everything in carding were so easy, people would go there in droves and they wouldn't pay so much money. But no, not everyone can work there. And those who can really require their own approach and are really more prone to burnout than ordinary people.
Irregular working hours and responsibility
Another key reason for burnout. The specifics of many Carders' work is such that they have to get involved in the process at any time. There are excesses on the part of managers and objective reasons when the application is storming, and behind it thousands of users. Whether you want to or not, you have to get involved.What is our worker responsible for at the plant? For his fingers, maybe for the health of his team. Also quite a lot, I must say. And yet his mistakes are not so fatal. I repeat - not always. With one movement of the hand, certain individuals can de-energize an entire plant or city. And yet, on average, the level of responsibility is lower. And Carders have more. This is pressing. There are mechanisms to minimize risks. Put QA at all stages, be careful with releases. But we all understand - well, it happens, damn it. It happens. And this is part of the job. Specifics, if I may say so.
Habitat
This is also a reason, although I wouldn't put it first. And yet, tech leads and HR keep in mind that Carders can burn out. There are even special positions, special people who make sure that the staff feels good. When all your colleagues go to a psychoanalyst, and depression is something ordinary, this gives some freedom of maneuver. Yesterday Petya was depressed, today Dasha, and tomorrow I don't feel like it. Alas, burnout is often confused with ordinary laziness. I repeat - this is not the primary reason, but it does happen.Inability to rest
The cult of productivity that is flourishing in the carding environment also has its consequences. You can’t even imagine how many people can’t even take a break. Because senior Zhenya does my weekly work in two hours. I should be the same. Rested, then wasted time! Bang, bang, hrr… pshhh… bang…As the famous banker Morgan said: "I can do a year's worth of work in nine months, but not in twelve." You need to know how to rest. Switch off from your tasks and go snowboarding, smell violets or catch a new movie that everyone is talking about. Planned regular rest is a recharge for your current work. You don't need to count on a vacation in three months. You need to recharge your resources here and now, and this is an ongoing process. Making sure that your rest doesn't go beyond the limits - that's true. If you scroll through Instagram reels not for an hour, as planned, but for three, you have a problem. And yet, "working weekends" are not right.
To sum it up. Carding is a very specific field. Specific Carders with specific needs and problems work in it. And burnout is quite common in this environment. We all burn out. You have to accept it. Make sure you are not lazy. Give yourself a rest. And with new strength to the project. Because you can’t go far on a dead mare.
