Honeycomb Shepherd Incident Reviews

One part of this review really struck home with me, its the not knowing what to do during an incident that really starts to take a toll on you.

This sort of situation—where everything seems broken and no one understands why/can’t do much to help—is extremely demanding. Most engineers reported feeling tired, found it hard to think, and were stressed out. In fact, many pointed out that faster-paced often felt better as long as you knew what you had to do. Sitting around while feeling accountable to fix things—and not succeeding—takes a toll on most people. Engineers involved in the incident were prompted to take time off to rest. The impact on people tends to outlast the impact on the technical components of the sociotechnical system.

I’ve been in incdidents where everyone is working for hours on end with minimal breaks and completely fine mentally, because progress is being made. At the same time I’ve been on incidents that were just completely draining but only an hour or two long. Agency matters, momentum matters, it all leads back to better incident response.