The days where engineers only take orders from higher ups and complete the tasks they are told to do may be over. In today’s modern development world, software engineers are having a much more involved role in business strategy. 

According to Jellyfish’s 2024 State of Engineering Management report, 90% of respondents said their engineering teams are informing business strategy. 

Additionally, 94% of leaders said that engineers are helping the company achieve business growth goals and 95% said that engineering helps the company be more efficient.

But all isn’t perfect in the world of engineering. The report also found that burnout is prevalent across companies, including engineering teams. Sixty-five of all survey respondents experienced burnout in the last year.

For teams of less than 50 employees, software engineers reported burnout at a higher rate than managers or executives, but as team sizes grows beyond that, engineers begin to experience burnout less often than executives. 

Challenges that engineers are facing that may be contributing to burnout include feeling like leadership is out-of-touch with their challenges (44%) and lack of potential for advancement (34%). Thirty-two percent of the engineers surveyed said they were considering a career change. However, despite these challenges, 80% did still claim that the work they’re doing is rewarding. 

The report also uncovered a stark disconnect between perceptions between leadership and engineers. Seventy-one percent of executives believe that productivity has decreased in the last year, compared to 40% of engineers. Ninety-two percent of leaders feel like they’re out of the loop on engineering challenges, compared to the above-mentioned 44% for engineers. And 46% of engineers say their team is experiencing burnout, compared to 34% of executives. 

According to Jellyfish, this is a sign that companies need to work on finding the proper metrics to track to ensure everyone is on the same page. 

“Engineering organizations are constantly evolving, and the pace of change will only continue to accelerate. Forward-thinking organizations are using effective management backed by hard metrics to stay ahead of the competition,” Jellyfish wrote in the report. 

For this report, Jellyfish surveyed over 600 engineers and engineering leaders and managers between February and April 2024. 

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