I've been thinking about this lately and I've concluded that a big driver of overwork is the misguided quest for fulfillment.

Not really fulfillment like we normally call it, I'd say more like acceptance.

Perhaps many of us are seeking love and acceptance from bosses and coworkers, and overworking ourselves to obtain it.

I believe that building your identity on anything that isn't yours is stressful. Building your ego on your job performance or on the positive feedback you get from coworkers isn't healthy.

It's like emotional sharecropping. You are building your ego on someone else's land.

People need to remember that work is the place where they have "human resource" departments, where they will make cut and dried decisions on who to retain and who to lay off the moment they want to adjust a budget.