Episode 440: How do I help my boss not burn out and should I tell people I'm older than I am?

24 snips

Dec 23, 2024

In this entertaining discussion, the hosts tackle the challenges of workplace stress, particularly about a manager on the brink of burnout. They share strategies for supporting stressed team members while respecting professional boundaries. The conversation shifts to humorous aspects of aging, exploring perceptions of youthfulness in the workplace and the quirks of having a 'baby face.' Personal anecdotes lighten the mood, as the speakers emphasize collaboration over rivalry among colleagues, regardless of age.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

ANECDOTE

Jameson's Stressful Job

Jameson recounts a personal experience of being stressed at a previous job.
A team member expressed concern, but Jameson ultimately quit due to the stress.

ADVICE

Offer Concrete Help

Instead of just saying "You seem stressed", offer concrete help.
Ask "What can I do to help lighten the load?"

INSIGHT

Leaders' Blind Spot

Engineering leaders often overlook applying systems thinking to their own situations.
They wouldn't tell an overworked engineer to "suck it up", but they might do it to themselves.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

In this episode, Dave and Jamison answer these questions:

Stefan

Help! Most of the time people ask questions about issues that already happened. I however, would like to prevent one.

I am a young Tech Lead and really love my responsibilities, team and especially my manager. With the help of your podcast I could even resolve my last issue regarding compensation. Of course I dutifully did my part and reallocated some of my payment increase to finance Jamisons yacht.

My very awesome manager “Bob” is so great that he has to manage 4 teams. Naturally, because Bob and those 4 teams are doing great, Bob gets rewarded with even more work. In his “free time” Bob is a parent of two teenagers which is also not necessarily known for being a stress free environment.

Lately I noticed that Bob is more stressed than usual. Bob told me that he wakes up in the middle of the night because he remembers missed TODOs in the job. I also see this change in his body language and general demeanour.

Now that a very critical project is coming up, Bob, as the go to person for more work has to allocate a significant time of his day to support this project.

I fear that Bob is on a path to burnout and this new project might be the last drop. I would really hate to get a different manager. Statistics claim it will probably be worse… Also I really wish for Bob to be well and health, too. ;)

How can I help Bob in his situation? How do I address those concerns with him without looking condescending? We have a good and open but not close relationship, that I would not like to ruin by overstepping my bounds.

Thank you very much. I love the podcast. You make me laugh and learn with every single episode. You rock!
I am a very young senior engineer at a big tech company and I think nobody really knows how young I actually am. I just turned 24 and usually in prior jobs other developers started hating me once they found out that I am this young and already in a senior role. Here at the current place, I have the feeling that all of the engineers in levels below me are already a lot older and have more years of experience under their belt. Also, I think they do not know about my age, because I never shared that in the recruiting process, nor later on. Usually people assume I am in my early 30’s and have a baby face, but when I tell them that I am a baby face because I am actually young, they become envious and things go south from there. Should I keep this a secret or am I playing too much into this?

PS: I am also already married and have kids, so that could make them assume that I am older.