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The tech industry’s rapid expansion has made software engineering one of the most sought-after professions globally. However, with high demand comes intense pressure and questions about how that pressure translates into actual working hours. From Silicon Valley startups to Eastern European outsourcing firms, the expectations placed on engineers can vary dramatically. As companies race to build and scale digital products, understanding the realities of software engineers’ workloads becomes essential for both employers and employees striving to maintain a sustainable work-life balance.
Recent data sheds light on these disparities. According to the Stack Overflow Developer Survey 2023, over 38% of developers reported working more than 45 hours per week, with variations based on role, region, and company size. Meanwhile, a global workplace study by Owl Labs found that remote tech workers report working an average of 10% longer hours than their in-office counterparts, raising important questions about the long-term impact of distributed work environments.
As awareness around burnout and employee well-being continues to grow, businesses are reevaluating how work culture and regional norms affect productivity and retention. In this article, we examine how software engineers’ work hours differ across regions, what factors influence these patterns, and what it all means for work-life balance in today’s digital age.
Work-life balance refers to the equilibrium between professional responsibilities and personal well-being. For software engineers, this balance can be particularly challenging to maintain, given the cognitive demands of coding, frequent deadlines, and, especially in remote or global teams, the temptation to always be online.
In practice, work-life balance means having enough time and energy to engage in meaningful activities outside of work: spending time with family, maintaining physical and mental health, pursuing hobbies, or simply resting. It’s not about working less, it’s about working sustainably.
The annual study found that 57% of workers would not accept a job that would negatively affect their work-life balance, including flexibility like working from home, while 55% would decline if they were not offered significantly higher pay.
In the tech sector, where burnout is a persistent risk, fostering work-life balance is not just a perk, it’s a necessity. Teams that are overworked may experience reduced productivity, higher turnover, and increased error rates. Companies that prioritize well-being often see stronger retention, better collaboration, and more sustainable innovation.
As work hours increase, especially in high-pressure engineering environments, the consequences extend beyond tired employees. Chronic overwork has been closely linked to burnout, a syndrome now officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an occupational phenomenon. Burnout can lead to a range of personal consequences, including persistent fatigue, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, and a diminished sense of accomplishment. Left unaddressed, it can significantly impair an individual’s physical and mental health, relationships, and overall quality of life.
Software engineers often deal with cognitively demanding tasks, tight deadlines, and rapid shifts in technology, factors that make them particularly susceptible to burnout. According to the World Health Organization, burnout is characterized by exhaustion, mental distance from one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy.
The scale of the issue is substantial: 73% of developers have experienced burnout at some point in their career, according to a report from JetBrains’ 2023 State of the Developer Ecosystem report. This finding reflects widespread concern across the developer community and underscores the emotional and cognitive toll that overwork can inflict.
The same survey noted that developers who have experienced burnout show a significantly stronger interest in their mental health, often turning to self-monitoring tools and mindfulness practices. This trend highlights the growing awareness of how overwork affects psychological well-being, job satisfaction, and long-term personal health.
In severe cases, burnout can escalate into anxiety, depression, and long-term disengagement. It also raises turnover risk, particularly among younger engineers who increasingly prioritize flexibility, mental health, and purpose over traditional benefits.
The impact of burnout isn’t just personal, it directly affects the business. Tired, stressed developers are more prone to making mistakes, introducing bugs, and missing edge cases. A study by Gallup found that burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take sick days and 2.6 times as likely to actively seek a different job.
Beyond code quality, burnout also suppresses creativity and innovation, which are two key drivers of success in modern software teams. Continuous overwork narrows thinking and reduces a developer’s ability to solve complex problems or engage in long-term architectural planning. Over time, it fosters a reactive culture rather than one focused on growth and improvement.
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Work hours for software engineers vary significantly across the globe, largely influenced by local labor laws, workplace culture, and the maturity of each country’s tech sector. Below is a breakdown of the average weekly hours in key regions.
Adapting to cultural norms is key when managing global engineering teams.
In the United States and Canada, full-time software engineers typically work between 40 and 45 hours per week. According to the 2024 Developer Survey, most software developers work full-time, and some frequently work overtime to meet deadlines. A recent analysis found that US developers work an average of 8.6 hours per day, totaling approximately 43 hours per week. The figure often increases in high-pressure environments such as startups and large tech firms.
High-growth startups and large tech firms in North America often push engineers to work extended hours to meet tight deadlines—boosting short-term output but risking burnout and attrition. To retain top talent, leading companies are adopting measures like meeting-free blocks, flexible schedules, and 4-day workweek pilots. These shifts reflect a broader move toward outcome-focused cultures that value deep work over hours logged. In a competitive market, organizations that prioritize well-being gain an edge in both retention and innovation.
In Latin American countries, software engineers typically work between 40 and 44 hours per week, though this can vary based on the country’s economic structure, labor regulations, and company size. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), Latin America consistently ranks among the regions with the highest average working hours globally, driven in part by a high level of informal employment and limited enforcement of work-hour regulations in some countries.
Further analysis by the Serviap Group notes that while legal work week limits in countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia typically range from 40 to 48 hours, actual hours worked often depend on the company type and sector. In tech and outsourcing hubs across the region, engineers may work extended hours to meet international project timelines and client expectations, especially in fast-paced startup environments.
Western European countries, including Germany, France, and the Netherlands, generally report 38 to 42 hours per week for software engineers. This is largely due to strict labor laws and strong work-life balance policies. According to Eurostat, average working hours for full-time employees across the EU are lower than in North America, with France, for example, averaging just 39.1 hours per week.
In Western Europe, countries like Germany, France, and the Netherlands report 38 to 42 working hours per week for software engineers—driven by strict labor laws and a strong cultural emphasis on work-life balance. With France averaging just 39.1 hours, according to Eurostat, the region prioritizes efficiency and output during set hours rather than extended availability. For companies hiring in the region, aligning with these expectations, such as respecting personal time and minimizing after-hours communication, is essential to attract and retain top talent while avoiding cultural misalignment.
In fast-growing outsourcing hubs such as Poland, Romania, and Ukraine, software engineers typically work around 39 to 44 hours per week, depending on company type, project demands, and client expectations. While these hours are slightly longer than those in Western Europe, they remain within a reasonable range due to increasing awareness around work-life balance in the region. According to Statista, employees across Central and Eastern Europe generally report weekly working hours just below 39 on average, though this can increase in IT outsourcing environments driven by tight deadlines and international client demands. For instance, Hungary reported an average of 39.38 hours per week in 2023 Statista – Hungary, reflecting the broader regional norm and reinforcing that even in economies with strong outsourcing sectors, actual hours worked tend to stay near the EU average rather than significantly exceeding it.
In many parts of Asia, particularly India and China, software engineers are known to work some of the longest hours globally, with weekly averages often ranging from 45 to over 50 hours. A Reuters report from April 2025 cites the International Labour Organisation, stating that China’s average working week is 46.1 hours in 2024, compared to 38.6 hours in South Korea, and 36.6 in Japan. This trend is largely fueled by competitive job markets, rapid digital expansion, and cultural expectations around work ethic and commitment. In India, a culture of overwork is reinforced by influential tech leaders. A Quartz India report notes that executives from major firms have publicly encouraged young professionals to adopt 70-hour workweeks, reflecting a broader industry mindset that equates long hours with productivity and ambition.
Meanwhile, in East Asia, cultural values around loyalty and sacrifice continue to influence workplace behavior. The rise of China’s “996” culture, working from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., six days a week, has sparked public backlash and movements like “lying flat” among younger workers. As reported by the Brookings Institution, these responses reflect a growing fatigue with long-standing norms that prioritize economic performance over personal well-being. Despite these tensions, long working hours remain common in the tech sectors of India, China, and South Korea.
Software developers in Australia and New Zealand generally maintain a healthy work-life balance, with average weekly hours typically ranging from 38 to 42 hours. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), full-time employed Australians worked a median of 40 hours per week in 2021, with ICT professionals often averaging slightly higher. A previous ABS ICT Study also noted that information and communication technology (ICT) workers reported an average of 40.7 hours per week, compared to the national average of 38.9 hours.
While geography plays a major role in shaping software engineers’ work hours, corporate culture is an equally powerful force. From small startups to global tech giants, internal expectations, leadership style, and organizational values all contribute to how much and how hard engineers are expected to work.
Startups are often fast-paced environments where limited resources and aggressive product roadmaps push engineers to work longer hours.
With small teams and high uncertainty, employees are expected to wear multiple hats, solve problems on the fly, and iterate quickly. This can lead to a culture where 50+ hour workweeks are normal, especially in early-stage companies chasing funding or product-market fit.
In contrast, larger enterprises tend to have more structured processes and clearer boundaries between work and personal time. While crunch periods still exist, particularly around major product launches, mature companies often provide better support systems, including dedicated QA teams, project managers, and more predictable sprints. That said, engineers at major tech firms may still face long hours due to ambitious targets, internal competition, or performance-based promotions.
Corporate values also reflect regional attitudes. Nowhere is this more evident than in Silicon Valley, where the “hustle culture” has become legendary. Long hours, weekend sprints, and constant availability are often viewed as signals of passion and commitment. Leaders like Elon Musk have publicly endorsed extreme work weeks, once advocating for 80–100 hours as necessary to “change the world.”
In stark contrast, Scandinavian countries like Sweden, Norway, and Denmark prioritize work-life balance as a core part of corporate identity. The Swedish “lagom” philosophy, “not too little, not too much”, extends into workplace norms, with companies often enforcing strict work-hour limits, generous vacation policies, and even experimenting with four-day workweeks. These cultural differences profoundly shape what’s considered “normal” in an engineering role.
The tone set by leadership has a significant impact on engineers’ workloads. When leadership rewards output over outcomes or uses metrics like hours worked or Jira ticket velocity as performance indicators, it can lead to burnout and unhealthy competition. Conversely, leaders who value sustainable productivity, creativity, and team collaboration tend to foster healthier environments with more consistent hours.
Team dynamics play a pivotal role in the success of any project. Beyond individual skill sets, the way team members interact, collaborate, and support one another directly impacts productivity, morale, and overall project outcomes.
High-trust teams with good communication and realistic planning cycles are more likely to avoid late nights and last-minute fire drills.
On the other hand, dysfunctional teams, unclear requirements, and reactive management styles often result in longer hours and chronic overwork.
The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated a global shift toward remote work, redefining how software engineers structure their days. While remote work has introduced greater flexibility and autonomy, it has also brought new challenges, chief among them being longer work hours and blurred boundaries between professional and personal life.
Since 2020, remote and hybrid work models have become prevalent in the tech industry. According to the 2023 State of Remote Work report by Buffer, 98% of remote workers expressed a desire to continue working remotely, at least part-time, for the remainder of their careers. The top-cited benefits include flexible schedules, the ability to choose work locations, reduced commuting time, and improved focus.
For software engineers, remote work often enables the creation of deep-focus work periods, minimizes office distractions, and allows alignment with personal energy peaks. However, this flexibility can lead to challenges. A study published in the Journal of Software highlights that remote work arrangements impact project management and software engineering practices, with variations observed across different organizational contexts. For example, agile startups often maintain productivity through increased asynchronous communication and tool-based coordination, while larger enterprises may face delays due to cross-team dependencies and reduced real-time oversight. The study emphasizes the need for organizations to adapt their workflows to accommodate remote work dynamics effectively.
Additionally, the blurred lines between professional and personal life can result in extended work hours, especially when collaborating with teams across multiple time zones. Research indicates that remote work can lead to longer working hours due to the lack of clear boundaries between work and personal life.
The shift to remote work has introduced both flexibility and challenges for software engineers. According to the State of Hybrid Work 2023 report, remote workers often experience extended work hours compared to their in-office counterparts. This phenomenon is largely attributed to blurred boundaries between professional and personal life, leading to an “always-on” mentality.
The HP report highlights that remote employees frequently compensate for the lack of physical presence by increasing their responsiveness on communication platforms, dedicating more time to emails, and participating in additional meetings. These behaviors collectively contribute to longer working hours, as employees strive to demonstrate their engagement and productivity in a virtual environment.
Remote work has blurred work-life boundaries for software engineers, often increasing pressure to stay visibly engaged and extending hours. To maintain productivity and well-being, companies should set clear availability expectations, support async workflows, and focus on outcomes over online presence.
Creating a truly sustainable work environment starts at the top. Leaders set the tone and structure that shape company culture and employee well-being. Thoughtful policies are not merely supportive gestures, they are strategic levers that prevent burnout, reduce attrition, and drive long-term productivity.
Clear, enforceable boundaries around working hours are essential. Organizations should explicitly define standard working times and discourage after-hours communication unless emergencies arise. Tools like email scheduling, calendar blockers, and Do Not Disturb norms can reinforce this boundary without micromanaging.
Mental health can no longer be addressed reactively. Progressive companies now provide wellness stipends, confidential access to therapy, and scheduled burnout check-ins with managers. These initiatives destigmatize mental health conversations and integrate emotional well-being into performance culture.
Time off must be more than allowed, it should be expected. Enforcing PTO usage, introducing vacation minimums, and modeling rest behavior from leadership signal that recovery is part of performance. Some companies even close operations for a week annually to ensure collective reset.
Remote work offers immense potential but also carries risks of overextension, isolation, and work-life erosion. Without intentional design, flexibility can turn into boundaryless availability. Leaders must architect remote frameworks with sustainability in mind.
Introduce no-meeting days or mandatory focus blocks to reduce context switching and enable meaningful output. This encourages flow, decreases decision fatigue, and supports intrinsic motivation.
Shift the emphasis from “hours online” to “value delivered.” By anchoring evaluation in goals, metrics, and tangible results, companies empower employees to work autonomously and sustainably, regardless of location.
Regular 1:1s, team rituals, and informal spaces for connection (e.g., virtual coffee chats) are vital to counteract the isolation often reported in remote settings. These touchpoints promote psychological safety and team cohesion without becoming another burden.
Not all software engineering roles are created equal when it comes to workload and time commitments. Work hours can vary significantly depending on a developer’s specialization, seniority level, and employment model. Understanding these differences is key to setting realistic expectations for both hiring managers and engineers navigating their career paths.
The type of engineering role has a direct impact on daily responsibilities, on-call rotations, and overall time demands.
Responsible for complex system logic, API design, and database optimization. Their workloads can intensify during major refactoring or integration projects, but generally remain predictable during standard sprint cycles.
Often part of on-call rotations and incident response teams, leading to unpredictable hours. A 2022 PagerDuty survey revealed that 42% of participants worked more hours in 2021 than in 2020, with increased off-hours alerts contributing to higher burnout rates.
Collaborate closely with designers and product teams, especially around app release dates or operating system updates. Their work schedules often align with app store submission deadlines, causing temporary spikes in workload.
Experience workload fluctuations during user interface overhauls, A/B testing phases, and cross-functional collaborations, occasionally extending beyond standard working hours.
| Role | Typical Responsibilities | Workload Pattern | Notable Time Pressures |
|---|---|---|---|
| Backend Engineers | System logic, API design, database optimization | Predictable during sprints; spikes during refactoring/integrations | Refactoring phases and complex system integrations |
| DevOps Engineers | On-call rotations, incident response, infrastructure reliability | Unpredictable due to alerts and on-call duties | Off-hours alerts and outages |
| Mobile Developers | App development, collaborating with designers, OS updates | Spikes around releases and OS updates | App store deadlines and version updates |
| Frontend / Full Stack Engineers | UI development, A/B testing, cross-functional collaboration | Fluctuates during redesigns and testing phases | UI overhauls and cross-team deadlines |
Junior engineers typically work standard hours, especially in companies that provide mentorship and structure. However, due to their learning curve and frequent code reviews, they may feel pressure to prove themselves, sometimes resulting in extra, unpaid effort after hours.
Senior engineers, in contrast, often have more autonomy over their schedules but also shoulder greater responsibility. They’re expected to lead architectural decisions, mentor peers, and manage technical debt, roles that can sometimes lead to longer hours, especially during product planning or incident resolution phases.
The pressure intensifies in leadership roles such as Staff Engineer or Engineering Manager, where the balance shifts from just writing code to managing delivery, stakeholder expectations, and cross-team alignment.
Freelance developers often enjoy greater control over their schedules, but with that flexibility comes volatility. Freelancers may go through periods of lighter workloads followed by intense sprints near deadlines. Their work hours are heavily influenced by client demands, time zone differences, and the scope of their contracts.
Contractors working through agencies or on fixed-delivery projects can also face extended hours, particularly when deliverables are rigid or turnaround times are tight.
According to a Freelancermap survey, around 31% of freelancers reported working an average of 40 hours per week, while 13% worked 41–45 hours and 16% worked 46–50 hours weekly.
Complementing this, a report by Exploding Topics found that nearly 40% of freelancers work 41–50 hours, and almost 20% exceed 51 hours per week, with tech-related roles among the most time-intensive.
Together, these insights reveal both the typical baseline and the upper extremes of freelance work. While Freelancermap shows how many freelancers cluster around the 40-hour mark, Exploding Topics underscores how a substantial share, particularly in tech, pushes well beyond that threshold.
Workload and time commitments in software engineering vary widely by role and seniority. While backend and frontend roles often follow predictable sprint cycles, specializations like DevOps and mobile development involve more irregular hours due to incident response or release timelines. Junior engineers typically face a learning curve that may lead to extended effort, while senior and leadership roles come with broader responsibilities that can increase overall time demands. Recognizing these differences is essential for building fair expectations and sustainable team structures.
Not all engineers experience workload the same way — seniority and responsibilities shape stressors.
Website: www.devsdata.com
Company size: ~60 employees
Founding year: 2016
Headquarters: Brooklyn, NY, and Warsaw, Poland
With over 8 years of industry experience, DevsData LLC has earned a reputation as a trusted partner in IT recruitment and outsourcing. Having supported 80+ clients and delivered over 100 successful projects, the company specializes in roles such as backend, frontend, mobile, DevOps, and cloud, the company delivers cost-effective, scalable HR solutions tailored to meet the needs of businesses across the US, Europe, Israel, and beyond. Whether supporting a global enterprise or a fast-growing startup, DevsData LLC ensures access to top-tier technical talent aligned with each client’s work culture and expectations.
A key differentiator is the company’s rigorous recruitment process. Every candidate undergoes a 90-minute technical problem-solving challenge combined with a communication assessment, ensuring that only highly skilled professionals with strong interpersonal abilities are recommended.
DevsData LLC operates on a success-fee model with a guarantee period, meaning clients only pay when a successful hire is made. The agency also holds a government-approved recruitment license, reinforcing its credibility and compliance with international hiring standards. With a dedicated team of 60+ specialists across the US and Europe, and access to a 65000-strong candidate database, the company enables clients to scale quickly and efficiently while keeping hiring costs under control.
Client public testimonials showcase the company’s exceptional performance, backed by perfect 5.0 ratings on both Clutch and GoodFirms, a testament to an unwavering commitment to excellence.
Beyond recruitment, the company integrates deep tech knowledge with advanced hiring strategies to offer a full suite of HR outsourcing solutions. DevsData LLC not only helps organizations hire for niche, high-impact roles or navigate the complexities of cross-border compliance, it also prioritizes building teams that thrive. The company places strong emphasis on workplace well-being, sustainable productivity, and cultural alignment, ensuring that recommended candidates are not only technically qualified but also suited for environments that value work-life balance and long-term engagement. In doing so, DevsData LLC delivers strategies that are agile, people-centric, and aligned with modern workforce expectations.
A great example of balancing productivity with sustainable work hours comes from DevsData LLC’s partnership with a global fashion corporation undergoing a $9M eCommerce transformation. To reduce costs and accelerate hiring, the company outsourced recruitment to DevsData, successfully onboarding top-tier ML, software, and UX/UI talent from Europe, the US, and Canada. This distributed hiring model enabled asynchronous collaboration and regional flexibility, supporting a healthier work-life balance while powering the development of an AI-driven pricing engine, eCommerce platform, and logistics system.
Learn more about DevsData LLC at www.devsdata.com or reach their team directly at general@devsdata.com.
Understanding how software engineers work across different regions is key to building productive, sustainable, and globally competitive tech teams. As companies scale, factors like work hours, cultural expectations, and role-based workloads become critical in shaping team performance, morale, and long-term retention.
By aligning hiring strategies with regional norms and fostering a healthy work-life balance, organizations can avoid burnout, improve code quality, and boost innovation. Whether managing remote developers across time zones or navigating differences between startups and enterprises, having the right talent strategy is essential.
With deep expertise in global tech recruitment, DevsData LLC supports companies across the US and Europe in building high-performing teams that combine technical excellence with cultural alignment. Through rigorous screening, compliance-focused processes, and cost-efficient solutions, DevsData LLC helps businesses hire smarter, move faster, and grow stronger without compromising balance or quality.
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“I interviewed about a dozen different firms. DevsData LLC is truly exceptional – their backend developers are some of the best I’ve ever worked with. I’ve worked with a lot of very well-qualified developers, locally in San Francisco, and remotely, so that is not a compliment I offer lightly. I appreciate their depth of knowledge and their ability to get things done quickly.”
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“DevsData reached out to us, as we’ve been looking to grow our engineering team in Europe and Poland. Communicating efficiently and professionally, DevsData made a strong impression with their understanding of the recruitment challenges we were facing. They designed a tailored recruitment process for our needs. I was impressed with the technical depth of their approach.”
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“Out of all the vendors we work with, DevsData clearly stands out. The quality of developers they deliver is beyond what we've received from any other vendor, and they've been able to send profile recommendations very quickly. I'm happy to be their reference for other companies from Israel and talk about their recruitment abilities and what they delivered for us.”
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