It’s no secret that there’s a lot of pressure on software engineers to perform. Where once they were given the task of originating code, today’s tech sector expects engineers to take on bigger and broader responsibilities. That can include the full software development life cycle — including finding and fixing security vulnerabilities against cyberattacks.
Health authorities including the World Health Organization have weighed in to address burnout in workplaces and the need for stress to be effectively managed. Built In Chicago looked at three companies that have a means of addressing workplace stress, particularly among software engineers who are expected to deliver value in the fast-paced, competitive environment in which each of them work.
Here is what engineering leads at PEAK6, SpotHero and SteelSeries ApS shared about how they ensure their people live balanced lives in order to remain happy, healthy and productive.
PEAK6 is an investment firm using world-class technology, operational excellence, and purposeful design.
How have you set up your team to encourage a good work-life balance for individual contributors?
My teams are cross functional, owning their product from conducting interviews with our users to writing user stories for refinement to supporting the products in production. Knowing this, we make sure the teams are large enough to let people focus on their role as opposed to constant context switching.
The teams are guided by the business outcomes from their software impacts, not by deadlines.”
We are intentional about any meeting at the team level. For example, we have shifted many meetings to documents that are shared with a timeline for feedback. This allows our engineers to consume, process and respond to information within a timeframe that works for them. For conversations that benefit from synchronous interactions — like my favorite, whiteboarding — we have two hours blocked off across the entire organization for self-organized collaboration. Many ad hoc meetings end up within these time blocks, which has led to more blocks of focus time.
Finally, we have empowered and self-organized teams. These teams are working on long-lived software that is core to our business and which needs to remain reliable and changeable. The teams are guided by the business outcomes from their software impacts, not by deadlines.
What role does open an open door policy play in making sure team members can speak candidly about their work-life balance — and position you to respond accordingly?
One exciting thing about PEAK6 Capital Management is that everyone, from interns to the CEO, sits together on the floor. As a manager, I have a lot of “asks” on my time, but almost nothing is more important than having a conversation that one of my people needs to have. This starts with consistent, effective one-on-ones. Setting and keeping the rhythm builds trust and creates a space for honest feedback.
Psychological safety is critical for candid conversations and it has to be built over time. I have had candid conversations with people who were trending towards burn out. Sometimes they bring it up and sometimes I do. Regardless, I make it clear that I value sustainable excellence and continuous improvement. If a plan needs to change, I’m a partner in driving those conversations.
How do you protect your engineers’ time to ensure they accommodate — but aren't overwhelmed — by the needs of cross-functional collaborators?
My teams are guided by business outcomes. The primary way most engineers drive business outcomes is by focused time developing software. That is far from the only way an engineer can provide value. I work with the team to understand the full product delivery lifecycle and identify where their efforts can have the greatest impact. Sometimes that may be shadowing a user for a few hours to gain a deeper understanding of how our products are used. Sometimes that could be brainstorming with a product manager to think about the feasibility of an opportunity. This is all valuable work even if it’s not “hands on the keyboard” work.
In basically every organization, the scarcest resource is development time. My role is to make sure that development time is properly valued. That could be setting expectations with someone outside of the team that their request is in our backlog but not a high priority. It can also mean making sure people on the team value their time. I’ve coached people to have a shorter timeout before asking questions. I routinely encourage engineers to share ideas that they believe are simpler and are as impactful to our users.
SpotHero digitizes the $30 billion off-street parking industry.
How have you set up your team to encourage a good work-life balance for individual contributors?
I believe having a good work-life balance is a key part of a healthy and productive work environment. In each sprint cycle we set goals on what we plan to accomplish. By communicating expectations and priorities in the beginning, individuals on the team can use their autonomy to complete a task.
Life can get unpredictable at times. That’s why flexibility is important. If someone needs to deal with family or personal matters they can adjust their work schedule accordingly. SpotHero also offers a flexible PTO benefit, which lets us take time off when needed. It’s all about creating space for life and giving people tools to manage both work and home.
Since our team is spread across different time zones we’re always considerate about scheduling meetings that are not too early or too late in the day for anyone. We also try to be mindful of not scheduling meetings during lunchtime, giving everyone a break during the day.
With these strategies in mind we’re able to create an environment where employees can find a balance between their professional and personal life. I believe that a “fulfilled you” leads to a “successful us,” and it’s something that I apply as a manager.
What role does open an open door policy play in making sure team members can speak candidly about their work-life balance — and position you to respond accordingly?
Open dialogue and communication is key to the success of a team. Having an open-door policy acts as the foundation of our team’s atmosphere. Its purpose is to provide a comfortable space to openly discuss any concerns including discussions on how to balance work and personal life when needed. Creating an environment where everyone feels at ease is a significant aspect of our approach.
Waiting for the next formal meeting isn’t necessary, the team knows that they’re welcome to reach out whenever they want to talk.”
While we have regular one-on-one meetings it’s about more than sticking to a set schedule. Waiting for the next formal meeting isn’t necessary. Whether it’s dropping me a message on Slack, hopping on a Zoom meeting or getting on a phone call, the team knows that they’re welcome to reach out whenever they want to talk. The idea is to ensure that they understand that they don't have to face challenges on their own.
An open-door approach plays a role in building trust. Being able to communicate openly strengthens our team. It allows us to collaborate and find solutions together. This isn’t just about work — it’s about supporting one another and working toward success as a united team.
How do you protect your engineers’ time to ensure they accommodate — but aren’t overwhelmed — by the needs of cross-functional collaborators?
We designate specific periods for focused work, allowing engineers uninterrupted time to concentrate on tasks, ultimately boosting both productivity and creativity. Ensuring transparency in priority setting is essential. We set out to establish well-defined project priorities and timelines to align engineers with cross-functional teams. This proactive approach seeks to minimize sudden requests and enables effective time management.
Regular alignment meetings with cross-functional partners provide a platform for transparent communication. These scheduled check-ins provide a platform to discuss progress, challenges and potential roadblocks, leading to smoother collaboration and improved outcomes. Jira and Confluence are also used to document and track project tasks, foster accountability and offer a comprehensive overview of engineers' commitments.
SteelSeries ApS develops hardware and software for the gaming industry.
How have you set up your team to encourage a good work-life balance for individual contributors?
As an engineering team we build software that not only supports our hardware but we also write software for those that don’t have our hardware. One example is our SteelSeries Moments video capture software. Since we build software for a lot of different use cases we plan work-streams well in advance, especially when it comes to software functionality tied to a physical device that has a specific date to hit a retail shelf. This planning happens with project managers and lead engineers who formulate what features can get completed by a specific date. We like to encourage our lead engineers to be cognizant about what their teams can get done in a specific time frame along with the complexity of the software we are being asked to create. This gives our leads the ability to collaborate and agree on quarterly roadmaps that won't cause crunch or late nights for the engineers. Although sometimes when working with hardware, things are needed last minute and late nights do occur. At such times we trust that the individual teams make those decisions on when it's needed versus when we can cut a feature for a release. If late nights are required we encourage engineers to take extra time off post product launch.
We want engineers to always have a person that they can directly reach out to, and engineering managers are encouraged to make sure they keep the engineer’s work-life balance at top of mind.”
What role does open an open door policy play in making sure team members can speak candidly about their work-life balance — and position you to respond accordingly?
Each engineer at SteelSeries has a regular one-on-one with their direct manager. The actual cadence varies by engineer on what they feel suits them best. While that standing one-on-one is there so that there is always time for that person to have a dedicated chat with the manager, we also encourage engineers to reach out in between that cadence if there is something that they need or want to discuss. We want engineers to always have a person that they can directly reach out to, and engineering managers are encouraged to make sure they keep the engineer's work-life balance and health at top of mind. If any engineer is starting to get stressed out or over-worked we want to intervene as soon as possible. We have a lot of different engineers with different skill sets and we like to promote moving engineers between teams regularly so if an engineer feels like they are getting crunched too much on a specific team we will start suggesting some team rotations. This helps to bring new eyes to problems and make sure the engineers are constantly learning and working on new things that break up the monotony.
How do you protect your engineers’ time to ensure they accommodate — but aren’t overwhelmed — by the needs of cross-functional collaborators?
SteelSeries has many different engineers but each quarter an engineer is assigned to a specific product team. This puts up a small little wall of isolation so that engineers aren’t bouncing between our five different software products and getting overwhelmed by the different features and requirements of each. That doesn't mean that there aren’t cross product collaborations that occur but it at least limits it to something that they are more familiar with. In terms of things that require cross-product collaboration, we make sure that those cross-product work-streams are defined prior to roadmaps being finalized. This ensures that both teams in the collaboration are aware of the needs of each product. Engineers are then usually assigned specific epics or features during the quarter which helps engineers keep focus on things that they are working towards instead of constantly context switching throughout the week on many different topics. We have been doing this for the past three to four years and it has worked out well for the software team.
