Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 24, 2023 17:08 UTC (Fri) by james (subscriber, #1325)
Parent article: Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

One maintainer has either not taken a complete week away from the kernel for way too long, or is very good at covering his breaks.

Jon, when was the last time you had a full week's vacation?

(Obviously, you don't have to answer that — but is this a wider problem?)

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 25, 2023 1:23 UTC (Sat) by beagnach (guest, #32987) [Link]

I get the impression he's a pretty private kind of guy, so maybe just note that some long term readers notice the workload and are suitably appreciative.

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 25, 2023 15:47 UTC (Sat) by rsidd (subscriber, #2582) [Link] (2 responses)

Not speaking for Jon but for myself: a full week's or even month's vacation need not mean completely cutting off from "real job". Instead it can mean, instead of spending 8-12 hours a day (mostly in the daytime), spending 2-3 hours a day (mostly in early morning or late evening) on email and easily-addressed work requests, and spending the rest of the time enjoying life and sightseeing with the family.

I'm not sure I would enjoy being cut off from everything for a week.

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 27, 2023 8:42 UTC (Mon) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link] (1 responses)

I think time off completely for at least a week, better two, is needed to get those constant job-related background thoughts to go away for a while.

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Dec 10, 2023 11:01 UTC (Sun) by sammythesnake (guest, #17693) [Link]

What works well for one person is certainly a good thought to consider, sharing wisdom and experience is invaluable and we all have our own blind spots that can be illuminated by another's perspective.

On the other hand, what works for one person is certainly not guaranteed to work for another. I know I find being "off work" (in a very *very* different role (!)) takes really quite some effort and adaptation - I get bored of not having something to do! Perhaps that's the case for some maintainers (and people like rsidd)... I suspect that the nature of the maintainer role probably needs complete breaks from time to time to actually *feel* off the hook, though.

As a practical matter, there needs to be somebody who can take on some of the role during those breaks for things that can't wait for one reason or another, as well as making good calls about whether the break needs interrupting. Getting a proper break from the responsibility is somewhat undermined by having to worry about what's waiting upon return!

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 30, 2023 16:04 UTC (Thu) by andy_shev (subscriber, #75870) [Link] (1 responses)

Practical experience: When off (really off) for a full week, upstream or pending (via subsystems) got a handful of code that has a lot of room to improve. Then it becomes too much to comment or fix yourself ==> degrading quality of code in the upstream over the years.

Reducing kernel-maintainer burnout

Posted Nov 30, 2023 16:51 UTC (Thu) by geert (subscriber, #98403) [Link]

Oh, sounds soo familiar...