Read on Twitter
My time at Google had a whole lot of highs and some real lows as well. By the end of my 4 years there I was incredibly burnt out, but I took away some things I can do as a researcher to avoid burnout. These might be useful to @gamesUR #gamesUR #GRUX
1) Sometimes you can love a project too much. I worked *very* hard to make Stadia successful, but I also worked way harder than was required & sacrificed time for relationships, friendships, and health. Work/life balance? I had none. Note: this was entirely on me
2) Don't be afraid to let go of your babies: delegate. While I ended up hiring & building a team of playability experts, in my opinion I didn't give up enough responsibility to them. I became a bottleneck through which all decisions had to pass.
2 (continued) This resulted in the overwork mentioned above because if I didn't do that, my team and the product would suffer. Instead, what I focus on now is looking for ways colleagues and reports can own aspects of the program & be the responsible party.
3) Tell your manager if you're struggling. They can't help you if they don't know. Seriously.
4) Consider how you being stressed out impacts those around you. Are you more likely to be short with people while stressed? Do people set their own level of worry based on your level of worry? Pay attention to what you're communicating, intentionally or not
5) Don't be afraid to change your situation. I had the opportunity to stay at google, 2 offers from big tech companies, and an offer from EA. EA paid the least, but offered me a better shot at work/life balance, a role in which I could have broader impact, and a leader I knew
5 (continued) I presented the options to my family, and they universally recommended I go with better work/life balance. Apparently I hadn't been seeing them very often. :(
6) Know your patterns. I've worked closely with Mike (my manager) to monitor my tendency to take on too much. He's being a great help in holding me accountable to my own goals of better balance.
I collected these thoughts in blog form here: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/lessons-learned-from-burning-out-kirk-rodgers/
