Report on Burnout in Open Source Software

I have written a report on the causes of burnout among people working in Open Source software, and the structural changes we can make to reduce it. You can read the latest version below (or click the button for a PDF).

I have also written a guest blog post for the Open Source Pledge, highlighting some of my key findings, why we should care about burnout in OSS communities, and what we, together, can do to mitigate it.

In my report, I draw upon a combination of academic literature and OSS community discussion to identify 6 factors that contribute OSS developer burnout: difficulty getting paid, workload and time commitment, maintenance work as unrewarding, toxic community behaviour, hyper-responsibility and pressure to prove oneself. I then make 4 broad recommendations for how to address it: pay OSS engineers, foster a culture of recognition and respect, grow the community and advocate for maintainers.

It has moved me to learn how people in OSS are suffering mentally and physically to practice their craft. To labour out of love, and to choose to share their work freely in a market society, OSS developers find themselves in a position where they are vulnerable to exploitation and harm. I hope the issue of burnout among Open Source developers can reach a wider audience so that we, as often unknowing beneficiaries of their work, can better understand how to protect them and, in so doing, protect the software ecosystems that sustain our digital lives.

I am keen to get feedback from the Open Source community to ensure I am fairly representing their views. If you work in open source and can spare some of your precious time to read the report, I would love to hear from you! You can talk to me on Bluesky @mirandaheath.website, Mastodon @mirandah@mastodon.social or drop me an email at miranda@mirandaheath.website.

This research was funded by Sentry as part of their Open Source Pledge initiative, and I am very grateful to them.