Vitamin E for Engineering Teams: Caring for Engineering Excellence

Overview
This Substack article uses the metaphor of Vitamin E, an antioxidant, to discuss how engineering leaders can protect and nurture their teams against burnout and toxic environments. It offers practical advice on fostering a culture of caring, resilience, and high performance.

Key Takeaways

• Treat team health as a core product feature, not an afterthought.
• Implement regular check-ins and psychological safety practices.
• Encourage continuous learning and recovery time to maintain energy.
• Lead by example: demonstrate empathy, transparency, and balanced workload.

Who Would Benefit

• Engineering managers seeking to improve team morale.
• Technical leads wanting to build resilient engineering cultures.
• CTOs and directors responsible for organization-wide health initiatives.
• Individual contributors interested in self-care and team dynamics.

Frameworks and Methodologies

• Psychological Safety principles.
• Agile retrospectives focused on well-being.
• Continuous improvement loops (Plan-Do-Check-Act) applied to team health.