Why software developers burn out, and how to fix it

Software development is a demanding field where changes happen rapidly. Developers are pushed to constantly learn and innovate while simultaneously producing a high volume of code. It’s no surprise that software engineers and other development professionals experience burnout. The question is how to manage burnout once it’s happened, or even better, how to prevent it in the first place.

Tim Lehnen, CTO of the Drupal Association, which manages the Drupal open source project, notes that burnout is a long-standing challenge in the developer community. “We have not yet overcome burnout as a challenge,” he says. “I’m in a unique position as part of an open source foundation to interact with developers both in the context of their careers and as open source contributors, and in both contexts, I see burnout as a highly prevalent issue.”

LeadDev, a provider of events and content for the developer community, surveyed 617 engineering leaders for its Engineering Leadership worldwide survey in March 2025. The survey found that 22 percent of developer respondents were facing critical levels of burnout.

Nearly one quarter of the respondents reported being moderately burned out; one third said they were experiencing relatively low levels of burnout; and 21 percent were categorized as “healthy” according to LeadDev. Software engineers who fall into the healthy category are more likely to receive encouragement at work, according to the LeadDev report, with 39 percent of respondents reporting they receive positive feedback at least once a week.

Why do software developers burn out?

“Developer burnout is real and it’s systemic, not a personal failing,” says Patrice Williams-Lindo, CEO of Career Nomad, a provider of career coaching services, and a senior management consulting executive. She sees three major causes of burnout.

One is the constant interruptions or “chaos” developers face in their work. “Developers are asked to jump between projects, tools, and meetings, with minimal protection of deep work time,” Williams-Lindo says.

Another is the undefined completion of projects, leading to perpetual overwork. “Vague requirements and shifting business goals leave developers feeling like the work is never complete, fueling exhaustion,” Williams-Lindo says.

And third is the lack of human-centered adoption of tools and processes, which drains cognitive energy. “New tools and processes get layered on without training or input, creating hidden friction that drains cognitive energy,” she says.

How AI contributes to developer burnout

The increased use of artificial intelligence in the workplace is another factor. “With the improvements in AI, I think developers more than ever are under pressure to work faster and provide cheaper, faster, and better solutions than in the past,” says David Wurst, founder of digital marketing company WebCitz LLC.

“We work with clients and other development agencies, almost all of which have reduced workforce in the past year due to being able to do more with AI,” Wurst says. “In reality, this puts more pressure on remaining staff to handle the additional work, solve issues that don’t easily get resolved by AI, and go back and forth more between teams.”

The rate of change introduced by AI “is creating even more pressure on developers,” says Mehran Farimani, CEO at cybersecurity software company RapidFort. “The pace at which new AI tools and frameworks appear is dizzying, and developers feel compelled to keep up just to stay relevant.”

Continuous learning is energizing, Farimani says, but the expectation to adopt every new advancement immediately can lead to cognitive overload. “Without deliberate prioritization, ‘AI FOMO [fear of missing out]’ can quickly morph into sustained stress,” he says.

Job security from AI-induced redundancies can also contribute to developer worries. “There have been mass layoffs at major tech companies, and this could be the start of a source of stress for developers generally,” Farimani says. “Even for high-performing engineers, headlines about automation and widespread tech layoffs raise uncomfortable questions about career stability.”

Worrying about being replaced or restructured adds a background hum of anxiety that feeds burnout, even if the work itself remains engaging, Farimani says.

Developer burnout and induced stress within high-performing development teams are not new, notes Conal Gallagher, CIO at Flexera, a provider of IT management software.

“Under-resourced and over-utilized teams have been grappling with digital transformation and security challenges for years,” Gallagher says. “While the promise of AI efficiencies and productivity gains is alluring, the reality is that harried teams are being pressured to adopt AI in a way that is exacerbating the situation.”

Teams are expected to jump between solutions and deliver on AI transformation without allocated funding, Gallagher says. “At the same time, [teams] are asked to be mindful of security risks that these solutions potentially introduce, all while delivering on the promise of AI,” he says. 

Why remote work is a double-edged sword

Another factor that has contributed to burnout is the rise of remote work. With the ability to work from home, developers can easily work longer hours or forget to take breaks.

“Working from home removes the physical boundary of ‘leaving the office,’ making it easier, almost inevitable, to log back in after hours,” Farimani says. “While the added flexibility can be great, the blurred line between personal and professional time can quietly stretch the workday far beyond eight hours,” he says. “Over time, that creep can translate into chronic overwork.”

How to prevent software developer burnout

Tech leaders and organizations can take steps to address the problem of developer burnout.

“An organization doesn’t have much power to affect the externalities causing burnout, especially political or economic factors, but this just means that controlling the internal factors is even more important,” Lehnen says, noting there are a few key strategies to follow.

“Double down on capacity-driven, agile project management. If your business priorities are being driven by drop-dead deadlines, you are not building in any capacity to pivot to respond to these externalities, and so the only solution you have left is a spiral of crunch-time, missed deadlines, and an overcommitted team that can’t respond to the next opportunity.”

To avoid burning out their development team, tech leaders should focus on planning processes based on business impact, using a combination of capacity planning and triage, Lehnen says. “Ensure that your project plans include time to measure results, or else you’ll risk projects staying endlessly at 85 percent completion,” he says.

Increase developer autonomy

Lack of control is a major contributing factor to developer burnout, says Lehnen. “Instead of a landscape of priorities, they begin to feel that everything is of equal—emergency-level—importance.” Rather than a steady cadence of continuous delivery, “the workstream becomes a just-in-time process of putting out fires,” he says.

Companies can insulate developers by ensuring that the prioritization process is transparent and that developers are part of estimating timelines. They can also create a process for nominating projects to be re-prioritized when roadmaps change. These and other steps can increase a developer’s sense of personal autonomy, Lehnen says, “which is the antidote to burnout.”

Other ways to enhance a developer’s sense of autonomy include work-from-home policies and more control of meeting schedules.

Involve developers in decisions that affect them

Another way to prevent burnout is to involve developers in the hiring process, which helps to ensure the people being brought onto a team will complement the existing workforce, Wurst says.

Organizations also should take a more collaborative approach to implementing AI, Wurst says. “Ask what tools can help and what training might be needed,” he says. “Talk through with developers the shortfalls of using AI to get a better understanding of what can be expected of a developer for resource requirements.”

AI can drastically increase development speed, but it can also take developers down odd paths that waste their time, Wurst says. AI isn’t beneficial in every situation, he says. Discussing the pros and cons of AI integration “will help improve communication and reduce stress for what the developer feels is on their shoulders,” he says.

Open communication from leadership about upskilling paths for organizations integrating AI tools can go a long way toward easing fears about job security, Farimani says.

Protect ‘deep work’ time

Another good practice is to protect deep work blocks of time by aligning business and functional priorities. “Define what success looks like for each sprint, and protect three- to four-hour deep work blocks for developers by aligning business and functional stakeholders on realistic timelines,” Williams-Lindo says.

For example, she says, one Career Nomad client restructured standup meetings and stakeholder updates to reduce unnecessary daily context switching—the mental shift needed when switching between different tasks or projects. This immediately improved team energy and the pace of delivery.

“When rolling out new tools [such as AI copilots], pair them with training, clear use cases, and a feedback loop so developers don’t feel like they’re constantly being thrown into ‘figure it out alone’ mode,” Williams-Lindo says. “Tech upgrades should simplify, not complicate, workflows,” she says.

Development leaders can also shift from “lines of code” or “tickets closed” to metrics such as system stability, customer outcomes, and team health indicators. “This not only reduces pressure, but also anchors teams in purpose, reducing the cynicism that fuels burnout,” Williams-Lindo says.