usagi brohimboFeb 10, 2023
Will Gallego

A form of resilience we don't talk enough about: Building systems such that people want to stay at your company.

That means:
- Managing burnout before it becomes *burnout*
- Developing meaningful goals as part of their career growth
- Continually assessing compensation
- Understanding that efficiency is brittle. Not every day/week/month is going to be another personal best in productivity

Jan 3, 2023 at 3:37pmWeb
Show threadWill GallegoJan 3, 2023

Another thought that I want to add: if you're a senior/staff/principal engineer, this is part of your job too.

Managers often have more control/actionable steps here, hopefully taking up more of their day to day, but there are corners we see that managers aren't able to.

- Help folks get that promo
- Tap them on the shoulder if you see them running ragged
- Don't just assign yourself the "fun" projects, take up some of the grunt work for yourself
- Share your salary/comp

Show threadMichael ColladoJan 4, 2023
@gallego IMO, it *is* the job. Helping others avoid burnout by ensuring good operational practices, maintaining velocity with good development practices and well-documented patterns and abstractions, developing experienced decision-makers by coaching others through bigger designs… if that’s not the staff/principal job description, I don’t know what is
Show threadMarc HedlundJan 3, 2023
@gallego preach
Show threadAmy ToebeansJan 3, 2023
@gallego I am continually surprised how few leaders think about it at all. an unfortunate majority seems to be so focused on revenue and short term okrs they burn people and never look back....
Show threadDan Yocum (aka JGluons)Jan 3, 2023
@gallego #RedHat does this remarkably well imho.
Show threadKimJan 3, 2023

@gallego Yes!

Also handling the effects of humans on each other. A lot of the time when people leave a software team, it's because other people were jerks to them and they've run out of the ability to sacrifice their own well-being to compensate.

Show threadMachielJan 3, 2023
@gallego agree. Too often I see companies compensating for their crap system with drinks or hackathons. Setting clear goals and being transparent and honest is very powerful IME
Show threadWill GallegoJan 3, 2023
@machiel "We gave them a foosball table. What else could they possible want!?"
Show threaddannel juradoJan 4, 2023
@gallego unions!
Show threadsoaprootJan 4, 2023
@gallego Love this. I especially agree with the first and last points. Personally, I tend to find either goals or compensation discussions to consistently be demotivating rather than helpful, but perhaps other people have different experiences.
Show threadLillyLyle/Count MelancholiaJan 7, 2023
@gallego I would add: cooperative ownership. So that "they" are not "working" at "your" company.
People who are working for themselves are happier. Give everyone a stake.