RDEL #22: How does gratitude influence the stress levels of software engineers?

This week we'll look at what impacts gratitude has on software engineer stress and fatigue.

Welcome back to Research Driven Engineering Leadership - each week, we pose an interesting topic in engineering leadership, and apply the latest research in the field to drive to an answer.

As the year comes to the end, this time of year serves as a natural opportunity for gratitude and reflection. There are plenty of reasons why gratitude is a beneficial practice, but it turns out it also influences stress and fatigue. This week, we use research to look into how gratitude influences stress and fatigue for software engineers.

The context:

Gratitude is a feeling of thankfulness directed towards others. Gratitude enables recipients to experience greater self-efficiency, or a feeling of being capable and competent. When individuals feel more confident in an activity, they are more willing to invest time and energy into work because they believe their efforts can lead to success. Adam Grant and Francesca Gino used a series of experiments to show that gratitude increased both the initiation and maintenance of positive outcomes - from increasing commitments to being happier and more available for others.

Software engineering is a more internal-facing role that requires consistent investment in longer-term outcomes. While some teams work on customer-facing features with more immediate feedback and gratitude, others may work on longer or more internal efforts which may become more “thankless” in nature. This can build up long-term stress and fatigue. We know from Grant and Gino’s work that gratitude creates feelings of happiness, and previous research has shown that happiness improves software engineering productivity. So how does gratitude impact software engineers stress and fatigue?

The research:

Riba Maria Kurian and Shinto Thomas studied the impact of gratitude on the perceived stress and fatigue of software engineers. They also looked at whether gratitude, age, and gender determine fatigue and stress in software engineers. Using a series of research-backed surveys on 421 participants (58% male, 42% female), researchers analyzed the results and performed a correlation analysis and linear regression modeling.

The results showed that:

• Gender significantly determined perceived stress and fatigue - women reported higher levels of stress and fatigue on average.

• Gratitude has a significant negative relationship with perceived stress and fatigue, meaning the more gratitude a person feels, the less perceived stress and fatigue they feel.

• Gratitude has a significant positive relationship with age - the older a participant, the more likely they are to feel gratitude. Researchers believe this corroborates prior studies that show that as people age, they may generally realize the value of interpersonal relationships.

The application:

The findings from this paper corroborate an important point for leaders (engineering or not): gratitude matters. It reduces stress and fatigue, increases happiness, and promotes increased productivity.

There are many ways to introduce gratitude into your software engineering team.

• To show gratitude in a more public way, consider compiling gratitude from your teammates and using an upcoming team meeting to share them with the group (just make sure everyone is included).

• For a more private show of gratitude, share with an engineer in an upcoming 1:1.

And while gratitude is often top-of-mind in the holidays, it is an important continued practice. You can use surveys to pulse engineers on whether they feel there is a culture of recognition and gratitude on the team.

As teams start to wind down work and implement code freezes, this is a great opportunity to share gratitude to your teammates for their efforts this year. Doing so offers an opportunity to reflect on the success the team has had this year, and refill their energy for their big initiatives in the coming year. We hope this edition gave you the motivation you need to share gratitude with your team. Wishing you a wonderful week, and Happy Research Monday! 🥂

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Lizzie

From the Quotient team