Spot and Stop Burnout in Your Dev Team
Written by: Yamila Solari
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. In the workplace, burnout is often quiet and not easily identifiable. But we can start thinking about it as a possibility when we encounter unexpected behaviors from our coworkers: a high-performing dev suddenly starts missing standups, a previously active team member goes quiet during retrospectives, or a senior tester hasn’t moved their tickets in a whole week. However quiet, burnout is always costly for a dev team because it means losing critical resources for at least one sprint.
In this blog, I’ll cover how to spot early signs of burnout in your dev team, understand the root causes, what to do when someone is experiencing burnout, and how to prevent it together.
Subtle Signs You Might Be Missing
Burnout makes everything feel overwhelming. It leaves us emotionally drained, low on energy, hopeless, helpless and -very often- resentful. And it doesn’t happen overnight; it builds over time if left unaddressed.
Software teams are especially vulnerable because they work under constant deadlines and with complex technologies that aren’t always predictable. Add to that unclear priorities, contradicting messages, and the challenges of distributed or hybrid work, and it’s easy to see how stress can accumulate fast.
But in high-achieving dev cultures burnout often goes unnoticed and may even be intentionally hidden. There’s still a lot of stigma around struggles like burnout, depression, or any challenge that suggests someone isn’t “handling it.” That’s why it’s so important for all of us to know the signs and symptoms that may indicate burnout:
- Physical signs:
feeling tired and drained, frequent illness, headaches.
- Emotional shifts:
irritability, detachment, or lack of enthusiasm.
- Cognitive signs:
slower decision-making, forgetfulness, procrastination.
- Behavioral clues:
missed meetings, less collaboration, silence in discussions, not responding to feedback, isolation.
- Team-level red flags:
frequent miscommunication, drops in quality, blame spirals, and reduced productivity.
Understanding Root Causes of Burnout
Burnout tends to have three sources: work-related, lifestyle, and personality factors. Often, they interact and reinforce each other. Here are some common ones:
Work-related causes
- Feeling like you have little or no control over your work
- Unclear or overly demanding job expectations
- Chaotic or high-pressure environments
Lifestyle causes
- Working too much, without enough time for rest or socializing
- Lack of close, supportive relationships
- Taking on too many responsibilities without help
- Not getting enough sleep
Personality traits that can contribute
- Perfectionism, nothing is ever good enough
- A pessimistic outlook
- A strong need to be in control and reluctance to delegate
What to Do When Someone in the Team Is Facing Burnout
- Reach out with curiosity.
Ask how they’re doing. Acknowledge their experience and listen without judgment. Active listening goes a long way in helping someone feel seen.
- Encourage time off.
In software development, deadlines are always looming and letting someone take extra time off can feel risky as it might delay delivery or impact sprint goals. But when someone is facing burnout, a break can be essential for recovery. Instead of seeing this as an individual issue, treat it as a team challenge. Could you all pitch in a little extra to lighten the load? Could the PO agree to drop a story or two from the sprint? Creative solutions like these not only support the teammate in need but they reinforce a culture of care and collaboration.
- Rebuild connection.
If appropriate, consider spending time together outside work as a team. Socializing, even casually, can help most people recharge.
- Tackle the root causes.
Take time as a team to address what’s causing excess stress. Consider inviting your PM or PO into the conversation. Is your sprint pace sustainable?
What You Can Do as a Team to Prevent Burnout
- Strengthen your team agreements around availability and communication. Include how breaks will be handled and normalized.
- In retrospectives, celebrate more than just delivery: acknowledge learning, collaboration, and any form of improvement.
- Encourage team members to voice their needs and limits and respect them when they do.
- Allow for delegation and task rotation, not just to ease the load, but to foster others’ growth in leadership skills.
Sustainable Agile Teams Don’t Need Heroes
Agile teams are built to be self-organizing and to set their own limits, like how many stories to take on each sprint. These are safeguards against burnout. But sometimes, leaders or POs push for velocity in a way that backfires.
Let’s remember preventing burnout is essential to keeping teams resilient and high-performing.
So, If you’re a team leader, what small shift could you make today to help your team feel more supported?
If you’re part of a dev team, what conversation could you start at your next retro to make sure your team has what it needs to thrive without burning out?
