Developers Are Burning Out—And It’s Not for the Reason You Think

Burnout: It’s Not About Working Too Much

When you think about burnout, you probably imagine late nights, endless deadlines, and way too many Slack notifications. And sure, those things don’t help. But burnout isn’t just about working too much. It’s about working without purpose. Without a sense of meaning, even medium efforts can feel hollow, draining your energy and enthusiasm. It’s not the hours that weigh on you; it’s the sense that those hours don’t matter—that your work won’t make an impact or ever see the light of day. Purpose, on the other hand, is what transforms effort into fulfillment.

What Makes Effort Fulfilling

Effort becomes fulfilling when it’s tied to something meaningful. It’s not just about the work you do but understanding how that work contributes to a bigger picture. This could mean being part of a mission that resonates with your values, seeing tangible outcomes from your efforts, or knowing that your contributions are appreciated by your team and stakeholders. It’s the sense of alignment—between what you do and why it matters—that fuels engagement and motivation. When this alignment is missing, effort can feel like an endless grind where you’re wasting away your energy.

Stop me if you’ve lived this before…

In software teams, this lack of cohesion often shows up in different ways. It’s the Product Owner who doesn’t think through what they really need. The sales person who only cares about closing the deal, not considering the effort required to implement what they sold. It’s the manager who doesn’t protect their team, or the project manager who changes features mid-sprint.

All of these represent a lack of alignment—a lack of shared philosophy on how to achieve.

Have you ever worked hard on a feature only for it to get changed last-minute, resulting in throwaway code that never saw production? Have you ever been told something was high-priority, only to get later shelved as if it was never critical?

Writing these words, I can already feel the dread of those experiences. This misalignment is a drain on motivation and energy, no matter how skilled or committed you are.

When Hard Effort Meets Alignment

But let’s talk about what happens when hard effort and alignment come together. It’s the magic of highly motivated teams delivering on something they all understand is important. When everyone is aligned on the mission and sees the value in their contributions, the energy shifts. The hard pushes don’t feel draining; they feel exhilarating. The shared understanding of purpose brings cohesion, trust, and a sense of pride in the work being done. This is when teams deliver results that truly matter—not just to stakeholders, but to the people doing the work.

In many ways, this mirrors moments in my career, like working at Teladoc (a US-based telemedicine provider) when the Covid pandemic began. It was hard—nightly releases, rapidly scaling to meet overwhelming demand—but it was clear the work mattered. Knowing that our team’s efforts directly supported people during an unprecedented health crisis gave every late-night and challenging sprint a sense of purpose. It wasn’t just about shipping code; it was about making a tangible difference in people’s lives when they needed it most. That clarity of purpose turned what could have been a draining grind into a rewarding mission, energizing the team even during the toughest moments.

Burnout and the Feedback Loop of Great Work

Here’s where it connects to burnout: It’s not just about the work you’re doing; it’s about whether that work feels meaningful. Meaningful work looks different for everyone. For some, it’s the satisfaction of solving complex problems. For others, it’s knowing their efforts directly help users or contribute to a larger cause. Maybe it’s the creative freedom to experiment, or the recognition from peers and stakeholders. When work aligns with what you value most, it fuels you; when it doesn’t, even small challenges can feel insurmountable.

How to Fix It

The solution isn’t necessarily to work less; it’s to work differently. Here’s how:

1. Create Buy-In: Make sure everyone understands the mission and their role in achieving it. Even if it’s not the job they’d pick, they need to see why it matters.
2. Celebrate Wins: Take time to acknowledge meaningful progress, even on small things.
3. Reduce Busywork: Minimize tasks that don’t contribute to the mission. If something feels like a waste of time, question whether it’s necessary.
4. Align Goals: Connect individual contributions to the larger goals of the team or company. People need to feel their work matters.

Reflect on Your Team’s Dynamics

Think about your team. Are there people burning out because they’re doing great work that no one notices? Are there MVPs trying to do it all instead of trusting their teammates? Is your team bought into what you’re building?

Burnout isn’t inevitable. It’s what happens when the debits outweigh the credits—when effort outpaces purpose. For instance, think about debugging a stubborn issue. If it’s part of a project you deeply care about, that effort feels worthwhile and energizing. But when the same debugging happens for a feature that’s poorly defined or unlikely to make an impact, it can feel exhausting and demoralizing. Purpose turns effort into progress; without it, effort feels like a grind. But when you align your team, celebrate meaningful wins, and ensure everyone understands their role in the mission, you can turn things around.

Maybe that’s taking on-call duty for a week, fixing a bug you didn’t cause, writing documentation to make everyone’s life easier, or choosing an architecture that fits the project, not your ego. Are you where you want to be with your job?

As Dave Grohl wrote, “is someone getting the best, the best, the best of you”?

We hope so.