[JimboOmega]

This is a really good article on the subject. I like the 6 factor model.

It's really easy to see hours as the only real problem. But they really aren't. Another article I read talked about how people who are constantly ruminating about work but work about 40 hours are at a higher risk for health impacts than those working many more.

I know this personally; I'm currently on a leave of absence because I burned out. And no amount of 'boundaries' around work kept it out of my thoughts all the time.

It really was about the other factors in the six factor model. Values drifting. Loss of control. Worsening relationship with my lead and no real peers to work with.

It would have been very different, even with more work, if I felt like I was part of a team trying to solve problems, rather than trying to put out the latest needless fire my boss created.

[scarab92]

Agree, hours have very little to do with burnout, unless your talking about the colloquial burnout which seems to be used as a synonym for fatigued or exhausted.

I've been a workaholic all my life, often working 80 - 100 hours a week for years on end, often in stressful situations. That didn't cause burnout or anything like it.

What ultimately got me was developing a quick but complex POC that became business critical seemingly overnight. Nothing worse than knowing that a hidden bug in something you coded over beers one night could cost 5000 people their jobs in a matter of hours, and having execs want you to move on to the next big idea instead of providing appropriate resources to carefully rewrite and thoroughly test. The depersonalisation such prolonged stress can cause is really hard to convey.