Drupal

After all the great feedback on the previous post on Burnout, and Randy Fay's excellent talk (video included) and blog posts.

A few things that I can say for sure:

• I'm suffering from all three of Randy's signs of burnout: Exhaustion, Cynicism, and feelings of Ineffectiveness. This is partly due to external (to the community) influences, and partly because of a laundry list of things I think are wrong with the docs system and how hard they are to fix.
• I have been managing this by completely scaling back my involvement for the last couple months to "take a break", but that is not sustainable. I either need to find a way to be effective and optimistic again (not to mention balance my own mental/physical health needs), or step down either temporarily or permanently.
• There is change needed for the documentation and Docs Team to remain sustainable and prodcutive regardless of how long I maintain the role.

Signs of Burnout

When it comes to Exhaustion, I think that for me it comes from two things: 1) chronic health issues leading to legitimate energy constraints, and 2) also being burnt out on the combination of work and Drupal work. I don't feel like I have any energy left over for the things that recharge me like moderate exercise, socializing, and creative time. I don't feel like there's any way to further offload responsibilities to regain this energy without actually cutting more work hours or docs responsibilities.

I didn't really realize this until this week, but I am also feeling very high levels of Cynicism, especially related to what can potentially be accomplished, and whether anyone would want to help. This comes mostly from a feeling that not much has been accomplished since the D7 launch, and that the docs team is too transient and small at present to effectively engage or mentor people who could help.

With regards to Ineffectiveness, the lack of resources (people + time) makes it difficult if not impossible to delegate the tasks I'm currently responsible for, and also to make any overarching changes, for eg. to the infrastructure. In the meantime, my time is spent issue queue gardening, and making little headway on those pieces I feel are important (or writing, which is what I actually enjoy and no longer do).

What could change

Now, I don't just want to be one of those people who complains and doesn't propose anything to fix the situation (sidenote, is it possible to tax people an hour of docs work for each minute they complain about the docs?) Ahem. :) I've been thinking hard and discussing with others about what could help, and following are the main options that have come up to this point.

Personally

For my own personal concerns, I see a few options:

1. Step down temporarily/permanently: Probably not the most appealing option to the community or myself, but a real one none the less. This would help by relieving any stress and time lost to management resulting from being in a "leadership" role, and free up time for me to actually do the work of writing/planning infra, and also fun stuff like patch reviews, research, etc.
2. Further scale back paid work time: This would be a good way to make room for more Drupal work, but let's face it, income is important. Additionally, try and find a way to not do the exact same thing in Drupal as at work (ie. mostly managing issues, people, and QA) - it's too much of the same with no outlet.
3. Figure out how to become effective again: The most useful option to the community, and the most difficult option for me to figure out. This would probably go a long way towards reducing cynicism, but may or may not alter exhaustion levels.

Docs (Team)

As far as general changes that I think could make the Docs Team and documentation function better, here are some options (some pie-in-the sky, some more realistic):

1. Stop micromanaging: Make Docs Team (not Docs leads) responsible for day-to-day work in the issue queue. Rejig Docs lead role to focus only on larger goals/planning.
2. Separate docs projects: I believe Randy originally suggested this - make each docs "guide" into a separate project, with its own issue queue so people can more easily work on specific guides (and even have per-guide coordinators). We currently just use issue tags to track different topics
3. Improve infrastructure: This ranges from medium sized tasks like implementing node-reference fields and configuring blocks of related content, to an enormous overhaul of the structure of the docs into a system using XML or RDFa for example to make content reusable/structured.
4. Turf the "handbook": Another idea presented to me recently was to move the existing documentation into a "community wiki" type area, and write a curated central guide from scratch which is then maintained by a small core group of Docs Team members.
5. Recruit a TON more people: Through some kind of marketing (?) recruit and retain more and more active Docs Team members.

How to make this work

That is where this gets tricky, and where I need input. The personal side, of course is really up to me to decide and figure out. But on the documentation/Docs Team side, I'd really like feedback on what approaches could be useful and realistic to implement, and suggestions on how to make them happen. Once I have wrapped my brain further around these options (and we've discussed them Friday at the Docs Sprint), I'd like to post some ideas to groups.drupal.org more officially.

Randy Fay is doing a session at DrupalCon on Burnout:

We have an incredible group of people who invest deeply in our common project. Some significant portion of this group is near burnout at any given time, and we've lost important contributors, some famously, as a result of this.

The more general problem is: How can we help our contributors to manage their work so they don't get so close to burnout? How can we help people find (or regain) balance while dealing with the technical and social problems of contributing to our great project?

Proposed solution:
- Begin a concentrated initiative to grow and keep our contributors, and to keep them happy.
- Make this a goal a key project responsibility.

He just posted a blog post, on defining burnout and signs of it, this week as well.

My Thoughts...

Burnout among community leaders is real and damaging, not just to those who are burnt out, but the greater community who rely on these people. I have seen friends burn out, and I have been teetering on the brink of full on burnout for a while. Now I'm going to be blatantly honest about why I think it happens and what we could do about it. Please take my complaints as fodder for improving, and not slights on the community!

Factors

I think that personally, and as Co-lead of Docs, my increasing burnout can be attributed to a few factors:

1. Work. Of course, I have my non-volunteer work to do as well, and that takes precedence over my volunteer position. Work has been really busy for the last year, and that's taken away a lot of the time and energy I was previously dedicating to Docs and core.
2. Life. General stuff going on in life has also distracted me from working on Docs. It's a fact of life that personal factors will come into play, good or bad. Last year when I was sick a lot, I actually had more time at home on my own to be online.
3. Health. I have chronic health problems and my energy levels fluctuate wildly from week to week. Some weeks I can keep up, others I can't. But the issue queue doesn't care about my health!
4. Lack of community support. Let's face it, docs can be the ugly duckling of development work. Lots of people write code and don't put docs online for it, or update code and don't update docs. There are a TON of docs. There are a TON of redundant docs. There are a TON of missing docs. It's a real beast, and the amount of material to write, format, and maintain is hugely disproportionate to the amount of time the community puts into docs. Which brings me to...
5. Lack of resources. There are not many people who write and maintain the docs, and this group is often transient, moving onto development, or working in short bursts. That is not helpful in keeping up on the amount of work to be done. This could be a fulltime paid job, and there is virtually no funding for docs. Managing people is a big job, I think I actually got way more done for docs before becoming Co-lead as none of my time goes to writing docs now, it all goes to managing the issue queue and responding to questions/requests, leaving no time to do more overarching tasks.
6. It's often a thankless job. Sure other avid contributors are often extremely thankful for the work the Docs Team does. But sometimes I feel like the project's documentation is taken for granted, and there is a tone of entitlement to good documentation (contrib maintainers surely see this as well). Issues in the queue complaining about the state of the docs or demanding documentation on a particular topic are disheartening - I see the same thing in the queues for popular contrib projects. Maintaining the docs is like treading quicksand, and it's a losing battle with the current resources.
7. Expectations. I can't even imagine doing the job of Docs Lead on my own! OMG. I have no idea how Addi survived it as long as she did. This position is not realistic! Even with Jennifer managing docs infra and API docs, and me just managing the online docs, it's a hefty job. It's not enough. We have a few a few topic coordinators listed, but we really need more, as well as team members who can help with docs for the ever growing library of contrib, and help maintain the docs queues. Additionally, this is an under-resourced volunteer position and people need to adjust their expectations accordingly. For me, the expectation that I will attend a DrupalCon, and submit sessions, as well as lead the docs sprint is even a large one. My health doesn't often allow me to even attend full days of the conference, nevermind those added responsibilities. 
8. Give some, want more. It seems when someone volunteers to give some of their time and energy to the community, there is always a want for more. I understand that it's a compliment that the community thinks a volunteer does good work. But it's important not to overburden people who already have huge responsibilities. I've been learning the hard way to say no more, but as much as I appreciate being given additional opportunities, don't care for any kind of "oh, you're missing out" attitude when I turn down opportunities that would take up even more of my time/energy/finances.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this! But maybe "this" just needs to change for all leaders in the community...  Enough about what is going wrong, what can be done to improve?!

Solutions

1. More, smaller leadership positions. The community and amount of docs and code we maintain is constantly growing. Co-leads and more coordinators are essential for the continued health and sanity of our contributors. Topic coordinators in docs, and things like the Views bug squad are good starts, but we need more people helping, and we need to work on enabling them to be more self sufficient so they're not always waiting on feedback. (If you want to be a topic coordinator for docs, let me know! More are listed on g.d.o.)
2. Respect the time of community leaders. If someone doesn't respond immediately, don't get angry. If a leader needs to take a break, for instance going on hiatus for a couple months, respect that. We are doing our best. That said...
3. We need to accommodate time off! Leads shouldn't have to be on duty 365 days a year. Every person in a leadership position that is fairly critical should have either a co-lead and/or an understudy. Someone who can help out and when needed take over for a while. Just the existence of this structure would take a lot of pressure of leaders to not have to be available all the time.
4. More people need to help. I know, this is an ongoing issue for open source projects. But we need to get more Drupal users and community members to participate, especially in some of the less popular tasks. They still need to be done! Maybe we need a marketing campaign of some sort? Some people, like me, even enjoy these kinds of tasks, so we should also...
5. Revere "gruntwork"! Things like support and documentation aren't just gruntwork - they are really important tasks for all levels of community members. They shouldn't just be looked at as a stepping stone to development work. Support and Docs Team members should be nurtured just like developers are, and given the same respect so that they aren't perceived as lesser positions in the community. Not saying everyone has this attitude, but it's important, especially as the community grows to recognize these tasks as critical parts of the ecosystem.
6. Funding for docs? I don't know if it's realistic to get funding for documentation work. It sounds like it'd be possible for a huge infra project, but isn't so much for day to day needs. Not sure how to get more help with our infra from the larger community so that we can help our processes become more efficient.
7. Reset expectations. When interacting with anyone in a major leadership position, remember how much we are responsible for. Try not to be impatient with us, or demanding of our time. Don't put pressure on leaders to contribute more. We're volunteering to help, but that doesn't mean we are solely responsible. Which reminds me, we need to find a way to...
8. Make contributors more self-sufficient. Documenting how to help doesn't seem to be enough. I would love to see a more structured mentorship system in place that would take some of the weight off of the shoulders of people already in leadership positions. There are many community members who could answer simple questions and help onboard new contributors. And yet it always tends to be the already overburdened leaders who take this on.
9. Rethink things. Finally, I think that we could really rethink some of the more burdensome parts of the community task list. For instance the documentation. Should Docs Team really be responsible for this massive amount of community contributed docs? Should we just manage some "official" core docs and end user tutorials? Maybe there are other approaches that would work better with the growing community. Open to suggestions!

Preventing Volunteer Burnout

And now, some tips from our dear friend, the internet, for preventing volunteer burnout:

In my experience, burnout can happen for a number of reasons: the work I’m doing isn’t challenging, the work I’m doing has little meaning, I’m not learning anything new, I’m doing something I’m not passionate about, or the workload I’m shouldering is overwhelming. - Tom Johnson, 'Avoiding Burnout as a Technical Writer'

Moderation is key...aying no is difficult, especially if you think your answer is going to disappoint someone. But it's necessary since spreading yourself too thin can be a bad thing for you and the recipient(s) of your volunteer efforts. It's best to be sensible about your time so that you're able to maintain the energy and desire to honor the commitments you make. - John Barrymore, 'How Volunteer Burnout Works'

As the saying goes, "if you want something done, ask a busy person." ...in Canada. Interestingly, a small minority of volunteers accounted for the bulk of the hours. The top 25% of volunteers accounted for 78% of total hours of volunteer support... If they do not get the balance they will get burnt out...The problem is that we do not notice the burnout coming until it is too late and what you are left with is either a very unhappy volunteer or a great volunteer who quits. 

Tips:
- Connect to purpose
- Create an achievable position description
- Give volunteers holidays
- Set guidelines at the start
- Create an environment that is welcoming
- Thank volunteers

- Lori Gotlieb, 'The road to volunteer burnout: How to avoid it and how to manage it' 

Slideshare, takes a while to load - the slides are pretty self-explanatory...

- Meredith Kennedy 'Preventing and Addressing Volunteer Burnout'

In my volunteer management work, I see and hear about volunteer burnout. Volunteer 'burnout' was the term coined years ago to mean asking those faithful volunteers to do more and more to the extent that they actually burned out, left the organization, and likely stopped volunteering altogether. This was likely the beginning of serious recruitment issues: instead of recruiting new volunteers, those who could be depended on were asked for more 'time'.

"Volunteers who are committed continue to be asked to give more time. We are also expected to give more money to the causes we volunteer for. We are also expected to sell more, promote more, and show up at fundraisers." - Donna Lockhart, 'Volunteer Fatigue: What impact on the future of volunteerism?' 

Finally, a great post from my favourite Project Management author, Michael Lopp, on bordom and burnout (not directly related to volunteering): 'Bored People Quit'. I think this is also important because doing repetitive tasks and being constantly overburdened can also be boring - it strips away the creativity that keeps people engaged. We need to try and make sure that smart, engaged contributors have that creative time so they don't get bored!

So, what have I been up to the last couple months? You know how it goes... Drupal, work, Drupal, work... and then Bruno arriving here to stay for the entire summer!

He arrived just over a month ago and will be here until August when we go visit his family in Belgium and then go to Drupalcon in London. The plan after that is that he'll be coming back to Vancouver again, and then we've got a window of about six weeks to hopefully figure out something more long-term, ie. getting a work visa or extending his visit if that's possible.

It's been a loooong time since I've lived with a boyfriend, but it has been going remarkably well! We'd talked a lot about our living habits before he came back here in April, and I had good feeling about it - and it's proved to be a very easy transition (maybe aside from his being far more of a morning person, but really most people don't need to sleep as much as me, so that's to be expected - plus he's stealth quiet!)

We've managed to have some good getting to know Vancouver time (despite me feeling so-so, up and down) - Drupal meetups, coworking, swimming, farmers markets, and even hosted our first Drupal Hackternoon! My parents were supposed to come out to visit and meet him last week but ended up having to postpone, so hopefully that will be in the cards sometime in the summer. And we had a brief visit with my friend Evan who came to visit from Saskatoon - he and I grew up next door to each other, basically our whole lives until finishing highschool. It was his first trip to Vancouver - he was here for a bachelor's party, and flew out a day early to visit!

Aside from planning a few little trips here and there through the summer, we'll be continuing to get settled into living together and generally enjoying finally being together after so many months of skyping and emailing and two week visits! 

 I had so many favourite moments the week before last at DrupalCon Chicago, I started jotting down a list so I wouldn't forget them all. Here are some highlights:

• Witnessing Chris Shattuck meeting Kristof De Jaeger (aka. swentel), finding out that he is the creator of Display Suite, and promptly hugging and thanking him.
• Getting one-upped on travel tea-drinking by Johan Falk (aka. itangalo). I tote an insulated thermos and tea bags around with me. This fellow brings a pot of loose tea and not one, but two tea infusers.
• Greg's (aka. heyrocker) tweet about Johan's aforementioned dedication to tea drinking: "I have an idea for a module and I'm so excited about it that I feel I am wasting time getting tea".
• Hanging out in the Sheraton lobby the weekend before the con with all the keeners. It was just plain awesome.
• Meeting Rob Loach the Friday before the con (there were about 5 of us who'd arrived by then). I recognized him but wasn't sure who he was. When he told me his name, I had to share the fact that he'd had a blog post on his homepage for a couple years with one of my Flickr photos embedded, making it one of my top viewed photos (thanks to robots?). Turns out he's from Toronto.
• Witnessing the standing ovation Angie (aka. webchick) got during Dries' keynote for her awesome work on Drupal7. Well earned.
• The party at the Field Museum was awesome. I almost didn't go, but am so glad I did. Got to catch up with lots of great people, forcefeed Angie some dinner, and see dinosaurs!
• Dave and Patrick getting super excited nerding out on mapping in the lobby late in the week.

• Did I already say dinosaurs?
• Catching up with so many favourite Drupallers through the week. You all know who you are, and you are awesome.
• The Gatorade fairy. I had a stomach ache (what else is new?) the morning of my second talk, and was desperate for some electrolyte-love. I tweeted, asking if anyone had seen any nearby. I later arrived at the room I was speaking in, and there was a Gatorade bottle sitting on the table. My co-presenter Jennifer said that it was dropped off for me. I don't know who you are Gatorade fairy, but thank you so much. Not only did that really help me get through the morning, but it also reinforced how awesome this community is. I felt very supported.
• Also, I feel like I rocked the public speaking! I did one short talk, and one long one, both co-presenting with Jennifer. Having her there definitely helped me feel at ease, she's such a pro. But I was far more relaxed than I've ever been before doing public speaking. It felt great, and now that I've broken through the fear, I feel like I can work on becoming a more engaging speaker.
• Trivia Night! OMG it was just awesome. My intended team was late getting back from dinner, so I ended up teaming up with Katherine Senzee, Gabor, and Fox. We held a lead the entire night and ended up winning! But that was just the icing on the cake - it was a reaaaaaally fun gathering, and the questions were challenging and fun. I was even a voice clue (which led to stealth psych-out tactics against the team that was hot on our heels and sitting behind us). Thank you so much to Alan and Stella for planning this! Also, Drupallers make funny team names. Except for tables 9 and 11. You are not funny. ;)

• The Docs Sprint!!! Holy cow so many people came and wrote docs all day!!!!!! I was super tired and hardly had a voice by then, but I held out the whole day, and helped everyone get rolling and get oriented. It was so great seeing how many people were up for helping out - thank you so much to everyone who came and also to everyone who's continued to work on their issues since the con! Lots of the attendees posted on g.d.o to show their attendance, Drupal karma points to you all! Also, super excited to see the progress and interest in improving the Docs infrastructure, thank you to those who've stepped up to help with that as well!
• Watching Dries and Sam Boyer create the Drupal 8 development branch, and discussing the development process with a roomfull of passionate core contributors.

• Hanging out with everyone the last evening at the Sheraton and chatting and laughing.
• Spending two weeks with Bruno (the week of the con and the week after) - awesome is an understatement, and also seeing how stoked he was to get involved in working on Media and Workbench modules.
• Also the last evening, loved the card game Johan brought out, I have no idea what it was called. My brain functions highly for that kind of stuff when I'm tired (just like I play Tetris better tired), so it was pretty intense and fun.
• And a final awesome moment of the last evening there, listening to Narayan explain the UID increments and offsets for Drupal.org, and why they're necessary. Everyone was super absorbed in the explanation, and I think I actually sort of understood what he was saying. I hate to use the word, but it was an "epic" geek-out moment.

THANK YOU DRUPALCON ORGANIZERS, IT WAS FANTASTIC!!! I would hazard to say that you really got it right with how to keep the con personal, fun, and interesting amidst the huge growth in numbers of attendees. Thank you, you've totally restored my faith and enthusiasm for the North American cons. 

ps. Yes I realize I said "awesome" far too many times, but it really, truly was!

Finally my epiphany of the week... 

If you read my blog regularly, you'll know anything that requires physical exertion is hard for me. I tire so easily, and take a longer time to recuperate than most people. This conference being right at the hotel was soooo great for me. Sure, it would have been immensely easier if I'd had any cooking facilities, but the energy conservation couldn't be beat. I was glad in the end that Bruno and I decided to stay in the Tower both because of this and how fun it was hanging out in the lobby with everyone during the evenings and weekends.

I exchanged a couple tweets with Theresa Anna after the conference, and realized something. I think part of the reason why I've taken to Drupal so enthusiastically is because, aside from two action packed fun and exhausting weeks a year (plus a few other weekends here and there), most of the involvement is virtual. 

Obvious yes, but I never realized how much that has affected my ability to get involved and excel at this. People remark sometimes that it doesn't seem like my health restricts me much from doing a lot. But in this case, it hardly matters how I'm feeling, I can almost always work and talk to other Drupallers while resting at home. I get to collaborate with people I think are great, learn, and contribute without tiring myself out. 

This might not sound like much to some, but it's been such an amazing opportunity for me, and I'm glad that I have realized how important this is and will continue to be.

Signing off with a dose of #drupallove - see you next time!

The weeks (months) leading up to the Christmas holidays continued to be really busy. We'd been really cramming at work, and I was also doing a lot of Drupal work (we had a big Documentation meeting/sprint weekend the weekend before holidays that people flew in for, and it's also been a big push getting the Drupal 7 docs done for its release which is coming up this week). I was definitely running on fumes. Thankfully we'd made the wise decision early on to shut down entirely at work for two weeks over the holidays, so we could all take a proper, well-deserved break. I went back to Saskatoon for a full week and a half, to have Christmas with my parents, and basically just do what Frankie says (ie. relax).

Decorating the tree with my mom

This year, fake tree... we made the most of it though!

It was a really nice visit, full of sitting by the fireplace, patting my parents' dog Jake, and of course, some Drupal docs... I also was lucky enough to have lunch with Kirsti and Mike (boy, do I miss those two!), and also see some other family friends. Kept it very low key though, and didn't have any big dinners or anything.

Me and Kirsti!

Me and Mike!

I also finally replaced my little point and shoot camera that was stolen when I left my backpack on a train in Berlin, which means (for better or worse) the return of self portraits! 

Saskatoon, first thing in the morning in the sunbeam coming through the curtains

When I got back to Vancouver (with great timing, as I left right after the temperature suddenly dropped to -30C with the windchill on the prairies), I set to a big end of year clean up and purge of extra clothes, etc. Everything is in good shape other than the extra bedroom, which I am planning to get a bed for, so my parents and other visitors have an actual room to stay in rather than the loft (which has a futon, but is really bright in the mornings).

This place finally feels like home, it's really nice to be back. Sitting by the fireplace, listening to copious amounts of CBC radio one, and having friends stop by. Ahhh, not much else a girl could ask for. Except for maybe a special visitor to turn up in about a week and a half...

First day of 2011

What does this year hold for me? Like last year, definitely a lot of Drupal and making more awesome at work. A trip to Chicago in the spring. I'd like to spend a lot more time with friends, and on creative endeavours and self-care, which have been terribly neglected of late. Hopefully continuing to improve and stabilize healthwise and gain some more weight. Hopefully something really special... I can't wait to see where this year takes me!

Things have been go-go-go since coming back from Europe at the start of September. It is finally catching up to me. I am feeling tired and burnt out these days. This sucks, because there are a lot of good things going on, and I'm not sure I'm enjoying them as much as I could be.

On the bright side, it's four more weeks until I get two glorious weeks off! During this time, I plan to retreat to the frigid flatlands for a while, to sit by the fire with the dog curled up next to me, and read and work on Drupal Docs. Ahhh, bliss.

One of the good things that was to come during year 30 happened right off the bat last week. I was appointed Drupal Documentation Co-Lead! The same day as that news was announced, my "Contributor Spotlight" also went up on Drupal.org. It was such a wonderful thing to have all my work recognized (since it's usually fairly solitary work), and feel so much support from the rest of the community.

I have lots of ideas and hopes and plans for the docs. Just need to set aside some time and energy for it. There are a bunch of core members of the Docs Team coming to Vancouver from all over North America in December for a big planning and review session, and then an all day sprint. It will be great seeing everyone, and hopefully re-energizing as well.

Other things that are good, in no particular order:

1. Started reading Generation X by Douglas Coupland, and I quite like it so far.
2. In-suite laundry, bless it.
3. Snow in Vancouver.
4. Sappy movies.
5. Warm slippers.
6. That secret that we know.
7. Smath gives good hugs.
8. The Home Hardware on Commercial (seriously, I love this place).
9. The steamer my mom bought when they were out, because I refused to go get one. It is making a dent in saving my lungs. (Radiant heating is incredibly drying, who knew.)
10. Surprise phone calls from cousins.
11. Ridiculously long Skype calls on lazy weekend days.
12. Fantastic Drupalchix tagteam that brought me surprise coconut milk yogurt from the US yesterday (thank you!) <3