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Developer turnover and layoffs are at a historical peak, contributing to increased stress, fatigue, and declining morale among software developers. To investigate this issue, in this paper, we surveyed 178 developers in China and found that over half reported experiencing psychological distress, which is significantly higher than the national average. Using factor analysis and regression modeling, we identified key psychological dimensions of fatigue and empathy and examined their relationship to workplace conditions. We complemented the survey with 17 behavioral metrics from Azure DevOps and Microsoft Viva Insight, enabling a data-driven assessment of developers’ work context. Finally, we developed the Empathy Catalogues Analysis Model, a statistical model linking work context metrics to empathy scores, revealing a significant negative correlation between workload burden and perceived empathy. Our findings provide a foundation for scalable, automated monitoring of psychological well-being in teams.

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“The Candle is Burning Out on its Own..”: Modeling Fatigue and Empathy Among Chinese Developers

  • 会议论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年

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  • Damian A. Tamburri,
  • Haotian Zhang,
  • Kelly Blincoe,
  • Rick Kazman,
  • Giammaria Giordano,
  • Valeria Pontillo,
  • Fabio Palomba

摘要

Developer turnover and layoffs are at a historical peak, contributing to increased stress, fatigue, and declining morale among software developers. To investigate this issue, in this paper, we surveyed 178 developers in China and found that over half reported experiencing psychological distress, which is significantly higher than the national average. Using factor analysis and regression modeling, we identified key psychological dimensions of fatigue and empathy and examined their relationship to workplace conditions. We complemented the survey with 17 behavioral metrics from Azure DevOps and Microsoft Viva Insight, enabling a data-driven assessment of developers’ work context. Finally, we developed the Empathy Catalogues Analysis Model, a statistical model linking work context metrics to empathy scores, revealing a significant negative correlation between workload burden and perceived empathy. Our findings provide a foundation for scalable, automated monitoring of psychological well-being in teams.