What's the Work-Life Balance Like at PEAK6?

Recently, Built In Chicago sat down with PEAK6 Engineering Manager Leonard Schwartz II to learn more about how he keeps his team happy, healthy and hungry to press on. 

Developers will inevitably face challenges in the workplace, and some might lead to burnout. What warning signs do you look for in your software developers, and what actions do you take thereafter? 

Software engineers indeed face high burnout risk due to demanding workloads, tight deadlines and constant technological change. As managers, we must understand these demands and prioritize prevention over reaction.

While some engineers may push themselves excessively, it’s important to remember that such tendencies can be early indicators of burnout. Watch for warning signs like declining work quality, absenteeism, apathy, negativity and “hero ball,” or doing everything solo.

To prevent engineer burnout, managers can:

• Communicate regularly with engineers to understand their challenges and capacity.
• Adjust workloads based on capacity, delegate tasks, and consider flexible arrangements.
• Promote healthy work habits by encouraging regular breaks and disconnecting after work hours.
• Regularly review internal processes and working agreements to ensure they support sustainable workload

By taking these proactive steps, we can foster positive, sustainable work environments, minimizing burnout and maximizing engineer engagement, productivity, efficiency and work quality.

What sorts of creative stretch projects or meaningful growth opportunities do you offer developers on your team? 

PEAK6 empowers team members through several engaging opportunities.

We’re big on guided growth. We assign all junior developers a senior mentor whom they shadow and work with on real projects, enabling them to gain valuable decision-making and strategy knowledge.

Junior developers are also encouraged to engage with colleagues from other teams to understand the complete development lifecycle and participate in challenges to learn new skills and collaborate creatively. We offer internal talks and workshops, as well, that foster knowledge transfer and public speaking skills.

By promoting these diverse opportunities, we’re able to cater to individual interests, fostering a culture of continuous growth and engagement and resulting in a well-rounded team equipped for success.

PEAK6’s approach to work-life balance is grounded in intentional ways of working that prioritize flexibility and focus. By rethinking how and when collaboration happens, the company creates space for deep work while still enabling meaningful team interaction. This balance of asynchronous communication and structured collaboration helps employees manage their time more effectively and maintain productivity without constant interruptions.

“We are intentional about any meeting at the team level. For example, we have shifted many meetings to documents that are shared with a timeline for feedback. This allows our engineers to consume, process and respond to information within a timeframe that works for them. For conversations that benefit from synchronous interactions — like my favorite, whiteboarding — we have two hours blocked off across the entire organization for self-organized collaboration. Many ad hoc meetings end up within these time blocks, which has led to more blocks of focus time.”