Avoiding Burnout and Balancing Work-Life in Data Roles
Working in the Data field can be challenging, and the pressure to deliver high-quality work can sometimes take a toll on one's personal life, leading to burnout. This situation can get worse when there are changes in team dynamics or when stakeholders' expectations become unrealistic.
Many data professionals face the challenge of managing multiple tasks with tight deadlines, such as designing data pipelines, creating dashboards, and handling ad-hoc datasets. This workload can quickly become overwhelming, leading to exhaustion and stress. The situation worsens when stakeholders become too demanding and micromanage, ignoring human costs.
In this article, we will discuss some strategies companies can implement to avoid burning out their data team and some steps that data professionals can take to protect their mental health.
The Personal Toll
It is common for stakeholders to start overwhelming their data team. Executives are a particular type of stakeholder because they hold a dangerous cocktail of power in their hands:
They directly influence expectations for their data team;
They deeply affect the careers of people in their data team;
They are very successful professionals who are often overconfident in their abilities when it comes to managing data teams;
In a way, executives are often their worst enemy regarding data. When an event happens, such as the departure of a team lead, the executive steps in and increasingly adds pressure and demands on their data team.
The impact of such intense work pressure is not just professional but personal. For example, missing out on significant family moments due to work commitments is a terrible experience I’ve seen many faces. Furthermore, stress and sleep deprivation can lead to physical and mental health issues, which are often overlooked to meet deadlines.
While the employees are responsible for caring for their mental health, employers need to recognize the significant impact they can have on data professionals. Today, most companies have programs for mental health, but data professionals’ mental health is generally worse than the average employee.
Strategies for Overcoming Burnout
Setting Boundaries
If you’re a data professional, this is a skill that you need to learn to advance and protect your career. You need to be comfortable saying no and set realistic expectations and timelines. When faced with the question, “When can you deliver this to me?” a simple rule of thumb is to double up the time you think it will take you to do the work. If you deliver early, they will be happy, and you will have under-promised and over-delivered.
You have to realize that overworking consistently is unsustainable. Yes, you might be the hero who delivers the dashboard that makes your stakeholders happy, but at what cost? And also, think about the impact on your colleagues. If you are doing this, stakeholders will also start expecting more from your colleagues.
Furthermore, think about the time that you need to recharge. Think about the negative situation you might create at home with your loved ones by not being present. Leaving work on time and prioritizing family and personal health should be non-negotiable. Remember, there is always an opportunity cost.
Prioritizing tasks and setting a fixed amount of time for tasks
Conversely, asking your employer to wait indefinitely for the deliverables they need to operate their business is unfair. They are paying you to get sh*t done, and that is even more true in small and medium enterprises. Because of that, When overwhelmed with work, it's your responsibility to do two things: prioritize tasks, set a finite amount of time for them, and communicate clearly.
Prioritizing tasks doesn’t mean looking at your JIRA board and moving tickets around. It means sitting down with your manager and stakeholders and discussing what is doable and not because you can’t do everything.
Setting a finite time for tasks means giving yourself a clear objective: By next Tuesday, I will have completed this specific task, and if unexpected problems arise, I will find ways to mitigate them or revise the scope with my stakeholders. This blog post took me 2 hours to write, but had I set the whole day to do it, I’m sure I would have spent all day doing it. We are all familiar with that phenomenon.
When working in data, the vital part is to over-communicate with stakeholders about what can be realistically achieved and what needs to be deferred. Ensure they don’t feel out of the loop and are involved in the process. They will thank you for it.
Rethinking Work Processes
Evaluate whether specific tasks like dashboard creation can be simplified or templated. Often, the need for numerous complex dashboards can be replaced with more straightforward reports or tools. It sounds simple, but I see it as a common problem. A Company gets a new shiny dashboarding tool such as Looker or Tableau, and then they create endless dashboards that serve no real purpose and have no business impact.
I can count the dashboards that impact the bottom line in most businesses with my fingers. Steering conversations in the right direction with stakeholders and having them reconsider their data needs is another critical skill you must develop. This skill will allow you to be laser-focused on a few tasks with the buy-in of your stakeholders and reshape your work processes.
Seeking Support
We often want to be the genius in the room, especially early in our careers. I know; I was like that too early on in my career. I wanted my bosses to like me and see me as a productive member of the team that would help them solve their problems. That would lead me to be recognized and promoted. I was pretty naive, but it’s normal. Everyone goes through that.
If you recognize yourself here, know it’s okay not to be the hero. It won’t affect you being promoted. Being emotionally intelligent is essential for becoming a senior member of the data community. Being emotionally intelligent is not only about others but also about you. Can you recognize that you may be overwhelmed? Can you be vulnerable enough without losing confidence in yourself?
Be strong, and don’t be afraid to reach out. Talking to coworkers and team leaders about the workload can help. They might relate more than you think. It's important to remember that you're not alone in these types of situations and that seeking help is a sign of strength, not weakness.
Considering a Job Change
There are things that your employer can do, and they are things that you can do to improve the situation, but sometimes, the only way to escape a toxic work environment is to change jobs. A new job might offer a better work-life balance and a healthier work environment.
Changing jobs because of such an environment is not a failure. Protecting your mental health is not failure. That’s why it’s essential to ask about the culture and gauge how it operates when accepting a position. Sometimes, you won’t have a choice to take a job in a toxic environment because you need to pay the bills. I get it. However, you should create opportunities to change jobs as soon as possible if you can’t improve it with the tips above.
Focusing on Health
Remember, your health is your most valuable asset. That sounds cliche, I know. However, it’s easy to overlook the link between physical health and mental health. Exercise and diet both tremendously affect anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues.
If work stress starts affecting your health, making you exercise less and develop bad eating habits, it's time to reassess your priorities. Your well-being is more important than any job. Not only that, but you don’t want to be stuck in a vicious cycle where work makes you develop lousy health habits, and then those bad health habits worsen your mental health. It’s a recipe for disaster, leading straight to burnout.
Conclusion
It's easy for professionals in this field to fall into the trap of overworking, often at the expense of their personal lives and well-being. However, it's important to remember that sustainable success in data roles comes from a balance of professional achievement and personal health. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.
Setting boundaries, prioritizing tasks, rethinking work processes, seeking support, and considering a job change when necessary are the keys to thriving in data. Furthermore, focusing on your mental and physical health is not a luxury but a necessity.
Take it from someone who has spent ten years in the field: Ultimately, it's not about how many hours we put in but the impact and balance we achieve that truly define our success.
