BURNOUT
Symptoms, Causes, and Solutions
Burnout is increasingly taking center stage in the news, too. Recently, it has been the focus in professional tennis. In 2024, soccer manager Jürgen Klopp cited burnout when he stepped down from Liverpool Football Club, and there were reports after reports quoting New Zealand’s former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern when she admitted she “no longer had enough in the tank.”
It isn’t just sports figures and politicians being affected. In 2020, 62% of Americans reported high levels of stress, loss of control, and extreme fatigue, which are huge risk factors. More recently, the McKinsey Health Institute reported one of every four workers experience burnout symptoms. That’s 1 in 4 globally!
I’m not going to sugarcoat it. Burnout is real, and it’s not great for your well-being. It increases your likelihood of physical illness, depression, and anxiety. It triggers absenteeism, kills engagement, and destroys team cohesion. It can even spread among team members like a contagion of negativity that’s incredibly hard to break.
But you’re not powerless.
You don’t need to run yourself into the ground for professional success—and you’re not going to burn out on my watch! So, let’s get serious about what burnout actually looks like, how to spot it, and most importantly, how to prevent it from derailing your career and your life.
IN THIS EDITION:
What Is Burnout?
Let’s start with the basic question: What is burnout?
The word “burnout” sounds like it could have been lifted from an 80s teen movie—I’m thinking Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Jump into the Way Back machine, and you’ll hear teens using it to describe people who smoke way too much marijuana. We still toss around phrases like, “I’m so burned out” as casually as we say “I need coffee.”
As a clinical term, “burnout” first showed up in 1969 when Harold B. Bradley used it to describe the fatigued staff at a young offender’s center. Then, in 1974, German-American clinical psychologist Herbert Freudenberger wrote an academic paper literally titled “Staff Burn-Out.” By 1981, American psychologists Christina Maslach, along with Susan Jackson, had developed the Maslach Burnout Inventory—a tool we still use today to measure occupational burnout.
The word itself might be modern, but the concept? Not by a long shot.
It was called Americanitis in the mid-20th century, industrial fatigue before that, and in Roman Egypt, a Christian monk, John Cassian, wrote about something he called “acedia” (pronounced ah-SEE-dee-ah), which roughly translates to Noonday Demon:
“He looks about anxiously this way and that, and sighs that none of the brethren come to see him, and often goes in and out of his cell, and frequently gazes up at the sun, as if it was too slow in setting…”
That’s basically the 4th-century version of constantly checking your phone, refreshing your email, and watching the clock tick by!
So, the word is new, but the concept has been around for ages.
Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” and it’s often mistaken for, or used instead of, stress, or sometimes depression.
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Burnout vs. Stress and Depression
Burnout involves bone-deep exhaustion, feeling emotionally checked out, and hearing a nagging devil on your shoulder whispering that nothing you do matters or makes a difference. And right about now, you might be thinking, “Wait a minute, Liane, isn’t that stress? That sounds a lot like depression.”
You’re not wrong, exactly.
Burnout has a lot in common with stress and depression. All those words I mentioned, acedia, Americanitis, industrial fatigue? Before we learned about burnout, they were used to describe stress and depression, sometimes synonymously, but there are some subtle and not-so-subtle differences.
What is Stress
Stress is basically your body’s alarm system going off and responding to real or perceived threats. It’s “too much“: too many demands, too much pressure, too many responsibilities piling up across your life. Your brain spots danger (or what it thinks is danger) and sends the signal: Do something! Now!
Not all stress is bad. There’s distress, which makes your heart race in a bad way and erodes your performance, and there’s eustress, which is the good kind that gives you that little zap of energy needed to tackle challenges.
Eustress is temporary and energizing, like when you’re presenting to the boss and you feel focused and clear. The problem comes when you’ve got too much distress for too long. When stress becomes chronic and unmanaged, that’s when you’re in burnout territory. So, stress is the warning light on your dashboard.
What is Depression
Depression is a different beast altogether. Unlike stress, which is usually tied to specific situations, depression casts a shadow over everything. It’s that pervasive low mood that’s thick, gray, and hard to see through. You lose interest in things that used to light you up, and there’s this persistent feeling that nothing will get better, regardless of what’s happening around you.
Depression can show up for different reasons. Sometimes it’s a psychiatric condition that needs clinical attention. Other times it’s triggered by medications, life events, or medical issues like thyroid problems. But regardless of the cause, depression doesn’t stay neatly contained in one area of your life—it seeps into everything.
If you take away the stressors that are causing burnout, the symptoms often start to lift. Depression, on the other hand, sticks around and often requires professional treatment.
How Burnout Differs from Stress and Depression
If stress is your engine revving too high for too long, and depression is when all the lights go out, burnout is when your work engine finally gives up and stops running altogether. It’s not yet considered a medical condition, and it develops gradually from chronic workplace stress—including academic environments for students and those in caregiving roles—that never gets resolved.
When you’re burnt out, you still enjoy dinner with friends or feel excited about a weekend trip with family, but the thought of Monday morning? Ugh, you’d rather call in sick. You laugh at a funny movie but feel nada, nothing, zip, zero when your boss praises your work. It’s compartmentalized, like the TV innies and outies in “Severence”, in a way that depression usually isn’t, but it’s more serious than stress because it’s chronic, not temporary.
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Causes of Burnout
Maslach’s research shows six key workplace forces driving burnout, which play out in varying degrees in almost every organization I work with:
1. Heavy Workload
You might be thinking, “Too much work and not enough time,” when you hear heavy workload. 24% of American employees feel the same, and certainly, having too much to do is part of it; however, there’s more to workload than volume and time. Another part, which sometimes gets overlooked, is the relentless pace and the way practically everything gets labeled “urgent” or “high priority.” Everything can’t share the top spot on your to-do list. How ridiculous!
It comes down to unsustainable workload, where the demands of your job consistently exceed your limits. This shows up in different ways. Another 24% of U.S. workers reported stress from not having enough resources or the right tools to do their job properly. Sometimes the work is simply too complex for what you’ve been equipped to handle, which could be due to a lack of training. And sometimes, like former New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern discovered, you just don’t have enough in the tank.
2. Lack of Control
I see lack of control in managers, who are expected to hit ambitious targets without the budget or authority, in project leads responsible for deliverables but with no say in unrealistic timelines, and I hear it from front-line employees blamed when customers are unhappy about policies they didn’t create and that they cannot change. Our sense of autonomy has worsened in our hyper-connected world, where 55% of workers check their work emails outside of hours. If we feel powerless to escape work stress, how can we avoid burnout?
3. Recognition Gap
Fair financial compensation and benefits matter, of course, and we all want those rewards, but the real issue in terms of the recognition gap is when your good work disappears into a black hole of indifference. When was the last time your boss took the time to recognize something you did well? And I don’t mean a quick, “Thanks,” in passing.
Don’t feel bad if you can’t remember. According to Gallup, only 26% of employees say they receive adequate recognition, and when people consistently feel undervalued, cynicism increases, giving burnout a chance to pick the lock and move in.
4. Community Breakdown
You’re barely interacting with anyone at work, you’re left out of meetings, everyone feels like no one is listening, there’s friction over the most insignificant issues, and people are gossiping behind your back. When your workplace community is negative and your environment fails to meet your basic needs for connection, you’re less engaged, and engagement is a crucial buffer against stress and burnout.
5. Unfair Treatment
One team member consistently uses the company credit card to go on dates with nothing but a slap on the wrist. Another team member gets theirs taken away when they use it for a cab ride from work when there’s a family emergency. This is an extreme example, but when some colleagues get away with behaviors that others are punished for, we start to question whether rules mean anything.
Unfair treatment represents the single largest predictor of work burnout across 15 countries, and the inconsistent application of policies and standards is just the tip of this iceberg. Toxic workplace behaviors like bias and favoritism, excessive or absent supervision, and poor conflict resolution affect one in four employees, making them eight times more likely to experience burnout.
6. Values Misalignment
Values misalignment is Maslach’s final burnout cause, and it happens when your personal beliefs clash with organizational demands. For instance, if you value honesty, but your company encourages misleading customers to close sales, or you value trust and collaboration, but your team practices “dog-eat-dog” tactics.
Any time you’re asked to make ethical compromises for your job, or there’s a disconnect between what your company claims to value and what it actually practices, there’s a value mismatch. And when work consistently violates your values, you start to feel complicit in something that feels wrong, which breeds the cynicism and detachment that define burnout.
Video Series: Stress Management
The Cost of Ignoring Burnout
And the costs of ignoring the causes are personally and organizationally disastrous. McKinsey’s 2022 global survey found that employees experiencing burnout symptoms are “six times more likely to say they intend to leave their employers in the next three to six months.” Replacing employees is expensive, but so are the higher rates of sick leave and absenteeism associated with burnout.
When it comes to the individual toll, research shows that burnout creates a cascade of psychological consequences, including concentration and memory problems, indecision, and low self-esteem. The physical health impacts are serious too: joint pain, heart problems, and even an increased risk of type 2 diabetes.
Most concerning is how burnout spreads. Like emotional contagion, it creates a ripple effect throughout organizations, reducing the quality of services, increasing friction, and generating what we call a “contagion effect” that poisons the entire work environment.
Recognizing the signs early gives you the best chance to turn things around before they get worse, but what do you look for?
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here are some more insights into stress management from the blog:
Signs and Symptoms of Burnout
It’d be amazing if burnout symptoms showed up with a neon sign flashing “BURNOUT!” But they don’t. They sneak up on you, disguised as problems you might brush off or chronic issues that get heavier and heavier to carry. What’s especially challenging is that they don’t look the same for everyone. I might struggle with exhaustion and cynicism while Johan down the hall wakes up in the middle of the night and can’t do anything right anymore. Or, maybe we’re experiencing varying combinations of the same symptoms at different intensities.
Burnout affects us internally and shows up externally, so how do you know if you’re burning out?
Body Signals
Pay attention if you’re exhausted all the time, no matter how much you sleep. I’m not talking about being tired after a long day. This is a bone-penetrating exhaustion, where you wake up feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck. Your immune system might start waving red flags, too, so watch for frequent colds or infections that seem to linger longer than they should.
What could happen, which might be confusing, is that even with deep exhaustion, sleep itself becomes your enemy. Exhaustion and sleep problems can coexist in burnout, and some people find themselves lying awake at 3 AM with their mind racing, or waking up hours before their alarm, feeling wired but not rested. Your digestive system might rebel with stomach issues, or you could develop tension headaches that feel like they’ve crashed into your skull and thrown an endless rave.
Emotional Temperature
The emotional symptoms of burnout are where cynicism and depersonalization really show up. Stress often makes us feel more emotional; burnout tends to make us feel less, so if you’re burnt out, you might notice you’re going through the motions at work without any real engagement or enthusiasm.
Projects that used to excite you now feel meaningless. You might catch yourself being more critical or negative about your job, your colleagues, or your organization. Karen, who used to just mildly annoy you, now makes you want to hide in the bathroom. You feel disconnected, maybe even from yourself.
Your Mind
Your concentration feels scattered, like trying to focus through a thick fog. Making decisions becomes harder, even routine ones that used to be automatic. This is where inefficacy rears its head, manifesting as cognitive symptoms that directly impact your ability to do your job well.
You might find yourself staring at your computer screen, knowing you have work to do but feeling paralyzed about where to start. Memory problems sneak in, forgetting meetings, losing track of important details, or having to re-read emails multiple times to absorb the information.
Your Relationships
Sometimes the people around you spot the behavioral changes before you do. You might start withdrawing from colleagues, skipping the coffee runs or lunch invitations you used to enjoy. Procrastination becomes your default mode, even on tasks you know are important.
Some people swing the other way and become compulsive about work, staying later and later, but actually getting less done. Either way, your productivity takes a hit, which rarely goes unnoticed by your boss, team members, and colleagues.
Progression Matters
These are just some of the signs and symptoms. Research shows that burnout follows a predictable pattern. In the early stages, you might find yourself working harder while neglecting your personal needs, followed by increasing conflicts and a tendency to blame others or circumstances. The middle stages involve denial, “I’m fine, just busy,” while work becomes all-consuming and personal relationships suffer. By the advanced stages, you’re dealing with emotional numbness, inner emptiness, and potentially serious depression.
If you recognize any of the signs and symptoms in yourself, you’re likely still in the early stages where there’s plenty you can do to reverse course. The key is not waiting until you hit that wall, so what can you do to prevent burnout?
Burnout Prevention and Recovery
In an ideal world, prevention would start at the top. Organizations should do better in providing you with adequate resources, reasonable workloads, and hiring or training leaders who support you instead of burning you out, but let’s not hold our collective breath.
Managers do have some power to do better. Leadership style directly impacts whether you burn out or thrive, and guess what? Authentic, supportive leadership reduces burnout levels significantly, but let’s focus on what you can do for yourself:
How to Minimize Burnout
Listen to your body. It doesn’t suddenly spring into Defcon 1 at the first sign of stress. It starts at Defon 5: racing heart, disrupted sleep, digestive issues, headaches. Stop telling yourself you’re fine, trust those signals, and pay attention to what your body is saying. Keep a stress diary to track when symptoms spike and jot down what triggered them. You’ll start seeing patterns that help you get ahead of burnout.
Enforce your boundaries. Setting boundaries at home might be easy, but at work? “Ha!” The thought itself might cause trepidation, but this isn’t the 19th century, and your organization isn’t a Dickensian workhouse. Limiting yourself to 40 hours a week now can protect you from dropping down to fewer hours if you do burn out, so… turn off notifications after hours, stop checking email at midnight, just say no to meetings that aren’t essential, and for Pete’s sake, don’t feel guilty about it!
Triage your workload. Take a minute at the start of your week, or your day, to figure out what needs to get done and what would be “nice to get done.” While you’re at it, note anything that doesn’t need doing at all. Tackle the must-dos first and you’ll have the essentials covered before your stress levels rise. The rest can wait.
Deepen your relationships. Heading to lunch, or even the corner coffee shop, is a great way to strengthen connections with colleagues you like, but stopping by someone’s desk to say hi and have a quick chat goes a long way, too. Of course, many of us do hybrid work, or work from home, so that’s not always possible. If you’re a hybrider, you probably still have meetings in the office. Arrive a few minutes early for casual conversation. Ask people what they’re excited about. They’ll likely light up, and since emotions are contagious, their good mood will spread to you. And if your workplace can’t provide human connection, or you work from home, find connection elsewhere. But don’t try to go it alone.
Move your body. Exercising has huge benefits, and research shows even better benefits to exercising near trees. Green spaces amplify the stress-reduction benefits, so walk, jog, dance, or join in on that tai chi-in-the-park class. If you can’t exercise in nature, just make sure you’re getting physically active, because it moderates the effects of burnout. Find something you’ll do consistently. It doesn’t have to be in the park, and it doesn’t have to be the gym, but it should be something you’ll do: golf or a daily walk around the block.
Complete one task daily. When you feel overwhelmed, don’t just sit there—do something. It doesn’t have to be physical or huge, but it needs to create momentum. Momentum breeds hope. It can shift you from feeling like a victim of circumstance to feeling like you have agency over your own life, so make sure to take one action every day: make one phone call, write one email, tackle one small task to avoid inertia.
Minimize energy drains. Watch for energy vampires. Are there meetings, tasks, or even social plans that will suck your energy? There’s no point putting effort into charging your batteries if you’re just going to let other activities deplete them. Don’t be afraid to delete, delegate, or scale back wherever possible—and yes, this might include limiting exposure to certain people outside of work, too.
Manage your stress. Ask yourself, “Am I doing enough to manage my stress?” You know what works for you, but maybe you need to do just a touch more. Whether it’s reading, meditating, or feeding ducks, start now, because if you’re already feeling burnt out, it’s no longer optional. And if you can do it in nature, and near water (which lowers your blood pressure), you’ve hit the stress-reduction pot of gold.
Find Professional Help. In our connected world, it’s tempting to self-diagnose stress or burnout using Google or turn to an LLM like ChatGPT, but AI is still unproven as a mental health tool. It’s not a personal failure to talk to a real professional. They’re skilled listeners and trained to make assessments, rule out more serious mental or physical health issues, and help you develop better emotional regulation, problem-solving skills, and coping strategies before you get worse.
Epilogue
Remember those TV shows I mentioned at the beginning? They’re popular because they resonate with our own experience. Those sports figures and politicians? They model the kind of proactive response that can protect you from burnout, because it isn’t inevitable. Burnout happens gradually. It has identifiable causes, and when you can recognize how workplace stressors affect you, you can start addressing them by setting better boundaries, strengthening connections, advocating for workplace changes, or seeking professional help. Your goal isn’t to eliminate all stress from your work life; some stress can be energizing and productive. Your goal is to prevent chronic, unmanaged workplace stress from interfering with your career and your life.
SOURCES CITED
[1] A star soccer coach steps down and shines a spotlight on burnout – Teddy Amenabar | The Washington Post
[2] Jacinda Ardern’s burnout highlights the pressure world leaders face – Alice Cuddy | BBC News
[3] Stress in America 2020: A National Mental Health Crisis – American Psychological Association
[4] Addressing Employee Burnout: Are You Solving the Right Problem? – McKinsey Health Institute | McKinsey & Company
[5] Staff Burn-Out – Herbert J. Freudenberger | Journal of Social Issues
[6] Maslach_Burnout_Inventory – Wikipedia
[7] Acedia – Wikipedia
[8] Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases – World Health Organization
[9] Burnout: Symptoms and Signs – WebMD
[10] Depression: Learn More – What is burnout? – InformedHealth.org | NCBI Bookshelf
[11] The 6 Causes of Professional Burnout (and How to Avoid Them) – John Rampton | Forbes
[12] Job Burnout at 66% in 2025, New Study Shows – Bryan Robinson | Forbes
[13] Over half of American employees have used AI to take workplace training, according to new data – Martha Karmali | Moodle
[14] How Does Emailing After Hours Create Burnout and Impact Your Mental Health? – Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi | Discover Magazine
[15] Gallup’s State Of The Global Workplace Report Summary – Elle Whitehead-Smith | The Happiness Index
[16] What is Burnout? – McKinsey & Company
[17] Burnout: A Review of Theory and Measurement – Edú-Valsania S, Laguía A, Moriano JA | International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
[18] On the nature of burnout–insomnia relationships: A prospective study of employed adults – Galit Armon, Arie Shirom, Itzhak Shapira, Samuel Melamed | Journal of Psychosomatic Research
[19] What is the Best Dose of Nature and Green Exercise for Improving Mental Health? A Multi-Study Analysis – Jo Barton, Jules Pretty | Environmental Science & Technology
[20] How does urban blue space affect human well-being? A study based on the stimulus-organism-response theory – Pei Lu, Norazmawati Md. Sani, Yuan Li, Yuan Wang | Frontiers in Psychology