@iBud: There's a couple other things I can think of that could cause more discomfort than is necessary when playing strings.  The first is the strings themselves.  Some brands/types of strings are harder on the fingers than others.  If you don't know the brand and gauge of the strings on it, then that could definitely be it.  How old the strings are can also be a factor.  As strings get older, they lose some of their ability to flex.  They become stiffer.  Others here have more experience with string brands than I do.  I can say that of the limited number of brands and types I have tried so far, D'Addario Pro Artes in medium gauge were about the most easy on the fingers.  But there may be better, for all I know.

Another thing is how high the strings are at the nut.  Tiny distances there make huge differences in comfort and playability.  Even 1 mm too high can make the difference between an instrument that plays comfortably and misery.

Calluses, I do not consider a plus, especially on violin. Some techniques, like vibrato (to pick everyones' fave bugaboo) rely on the skin on the fingertips being flexible.  Callused skin is tougher and harder and less flexible.  If calluses were really a desirable thing with no drawbacks, we could just wear plastic caps on the ends of the fingers.

I suspect that like many other things, people vary on how easily they build up callus.  Maybe it is like fingernails.  Some folks have hard fingernails, others not so much.  Some people need to trim their fingernails more often than others because they grow at different rates. 

I do not think of myself as someone who plays a lot.  I put in 45 min of practice on guitar and then 45 min on violin each day.  Just exercises, scales and etc.  Then I play as much as I like or have time for.  For me, "playing" is actual songs or pieces or improvisation.  I only keep track of the "practice" time.  Very conservative estimate, though, I play each of the two instruments over the course of the day at least as much as the practice time.  Sometimes considerably more.  On days that have a lot of stress or boredom, I play more.  To put it in psych terms, playing music is one of my "coping mechanisms". 

I also use playing music as part of my "process" for work.  You're in IT, so you might understand better than other folks if I say I am a "content provider".  I pick up an instrument and play a song or two while letting an idea for the development of an article or the slant to take on a product description or etc "develop" in my head.  In the time it took me to write this reply, for example, I paused to play one song on guitar and 3 on the violin. 

Maybe there's a trick for you there.. The more ways you can fit playing music into your everyday life, the more you play.  But actual time set aside for dedicated practice in my day is 45 min each for guitar and violin, as I said.

I don't think of it as a lot.  Maybe some would. 

I'm not good enough on violin yet, either.  LOL  Only been playing it around two and a half years so far. 

Music "content provider" isn't that great a gig.  It's ok, but mostly it amounts to writing/recording/producing musical clips for use as "beds" under other media for presentations, sites, software... Sometimes a little soundtrack work.  I do a bit of that, as well, but text is usually what is in demand.  Usually do that sort of work on midi keyboard since that way it is easy to edit quickly to fit, and use the midi to "play" a good library of instrument samples.

I'm a freelancer, work from home, so what a boss thinks (other than deadlines) doesn't matter to me much these days.  

Yeah, definitely good stress reduction, though.