Human Debt
The concept of “human debt”—a form of debt that accumulates through daily decisions and silently erodes teams from within. Unlike technical debt, human debt is invisible to monitoring tools, yet it undermines the team’s foundation.
The signs of human debt include increased response times, one-word answers, low engagement, and rising connection errors. The root causes are revealed through an exit interview with a departed team member, Horacio. Personal check-ins were missed, and his personal struggles and aspirations were overlooked.
Warning signals that indicate human debt is accumulating. 1
The importance of prioritizing human connection and implementing regular wellbeing checks to build strong technical teams.
The importance of prioritizing human connection and implementing regular wellbeing checks to build strong technical teams.
The concept of human debt, which refers to the accumulation of negative consequences resulting from neglecting human connections within a team.
Warning signs, such as decreasing engagement and increasing misunderstandings.
In technology, we have a concept called technical debt—the cost of choosing quick fixes over proper solutions (which accumulates bad code) - like financial debt, it grows with interest over time.
But there’s another type of debt we’re accumulating. One that silently erodes teams from within. One that no monitoring tool will ever detect. Human debt.
Debt is debt. And it compounds.
The most expensive fixes are the ones you make after losing great people.
Understanding people starts with simply observing them.
Human debt accumulates through small, seemingly insignificant choices that prioritize short-term gains over the well-being and connection of team members. This debt manifests in decreased engagement, communication issues, and ultimately, the loss of valuable employees.