[WikiEN-l] Admin burnout

[George Herbert]

On 2/9/07, Stan Shebs <stanshebs at earthlink.net> wrote:
> Marc Riddell wrote:
> >
> > [...] But, by not having such an organized support system for the
> > reasons you stated, don't the wackos win? Who gives a damn if they see it as
> > a cabal or whatever, the benefits can far outweigh the bullshit. I don't
> > mean to belabor this, but, as you might guess, I'm a great believer in
> > interpersonal support systems.
> >
> If it was just a matter of wackos, then yeah, we would just ignore them.
> But there seem to be a bunch of otherwise-rational editors who would
> make trouble over it as well, and would take mutual support as a reason
> to escalate the whole thing into "impending destruction of WP by
> power-hungry admins". Just look at Cunctator's one-liner here - an admin
> leaves in pain, and his response is "well, a little churn is good". I
> encourage you to try designing a support system though, WP can't afford
> to lose all its admins to "churn".
>
> Stan

Let me follow that up a bit.  I think a little churn is good, too.
But there's a difference between "Joe's taking a break right now and
will be back later" and someone getting so frustrated that they start
getting abusive and then leave with no intent to return.

The difference between a break, or even taking a sabattical from admin
stuff while still contributing, and a burnout is rather clear.

People taking breaks is healthy and good.  Burnouts aren't.  I would
be extremely happy if we could figure out a consistent way to convert
impending burnouts into breaks.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com