Emotional Amplification

Infographic about Emotional Amplification

In managing tech professionals over the years, I’ve observed a little-discussed emotional problem in some technical professionals working in the computer industry. In conversations with colleagues dealing with or managing the related challenges, many of them have found these observations helpful and have urged me to blog about them.

Just knowing about this issue can inform your efforts as a tech professional, and help solve or avoid the problems caused by it. This phenomenon affects technical professionals in a myriad of ways, and imposes stress on all involved. To understand it better, I’ve included a graphic that attempts to illustrate what happens.

 

Solitude in the Workplace

Consider the following.

Today, more people than ever work in technical professions where work requires long hours of solitude and intense thinking in front of a computer while using relevant software tools. Because of the long hours spent working this way, these professionals get to experience less social interaction with other beings (customers, coworkers, friends, family, even pets) than workers in other fields.

Typical social interaction involves many independent events, each of which produces a relatively minor emotional response. People who work in traditional environments experience enough interaction events with other people to produce a wide range of emotions during their typical day. A normal eight hour work day leaves additional time for interaction with friends and family that adds even more variety to this spectrum.

But the work of technical professionals imposes long periods of solitude. This results in reduced social interaction, both in terms of number of events and their variety. The reduced interaction leads to an emotional variety deficit that can be dominated by just one or two events drawn from a comparatively small slice of social interaction.

The deficit leads to emotional amplification. The reduced number of events, and their associated emotions, get expanded beyond their true importance. People tend to fill the emotional variety deficit by blowing little bits of emotion (love, fear, excitement, annoyance) out of proportion. Unexpected or irrational behavior follows.

Reactions, Oh, There Will Be

Note this out-of-proportion emotional effect can work in either a positive or negative direction.

I once saw an engineering colleague get so excited about a new sales pitch that he borrowed money against his house to exercise stock options as soon as they vested.

It didn’t work out well.

Another time, a relatively minor delay in a product launch led to a slight delay in a financing round. Despite being fairly common in the software startup landscape, this delay upset a colleague so much that they quit without having another job lined up, even though the delay wasn’t remotely related to their responsibilities.

The hardships that followed were both difficult to watch and unnecessary.

I have many more examples. I suspect you do, too.

Since I haven’t researched the underlying psychological causes of this, I’d welcome input from professionals who can validate or invalidate the assertions made here. But there’s no doubt in my mind that tech professionals can be affected by this phenomenon.

I’m guessing that we each have different requirements for how much social interaction is enough to bring emotional stability. I also suspect that different problems appear when a person gets more social interaction than is comfortable.

In my own career, working as a young engineer for an AI software company, I can remember riding this emotional rollercoaster. Rumors, good and bad, caused mood swings either way. Of course, part of that was being young and inexperienced. But even at that time, I realized that the programming part of my job was too isolating for me, and the related isolation was affecting my relationships and judgement in ways I didn’t fully appreciate or understand.

So I got out. My social interaction quota was not being met by the programming job I was in at the time.

Having a Life Outside of Work is a Good Idea

Over the years, I’ve seen emotional amplification arise with colleagues and employees who perform isolating work (programming, writing, QA). I’ve shared these observations with them, and it’s helped them understand the contributing factors, and find a better balance.

As Dr. Phil says, “You can’t change what you don’t acknowledge.” Developing the ability to notice when you’re getting a little too wound up about something is a survival skill in the modern digital world. Just knowing about the emotional amplification phenomenon seems to help a professional mitigate its worst effects. And talking about it seems to enable an innate self-awareness that helps them keep things in perspective.

So does a good vacation, a long weekend, or a good movie night with your favorite person. The folks on our team who’ve been the best writers the longest have passions that have nothing to do with technology. Several meditate. One is a history buff. One writes sci fi. One spins yarn and knits. Another built guitars. Another professionally photographs puppies. These outside activities seem to help these folks stay on an even keel, and perform incredibly complex work well over the long term.

One of the many unofficial mottos we’ve had over the years is this: “Expert Support – Where You Get To Have A Life.” This “life” helps fend off the ills associated with emotional amplification and other work-related challenges common in the modern tech industry.

Managers have told me that understanding this phenomenon helps explain otherwise surprising behavior by the engineers or technical writers they manage. Engineers or technical writers have told me that this knowledge has changed the way they think about their work, and even changed the way they approach certain aspects of their daily routine.

Have you ever experienced emotional amplification because of the work you do? If so, feel free to share your stories in the comments or privately via email.

I look forward to hearing from you.

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