Employee burnout isn’t a new concept. But these days, it feels like it’s become a part of our daily workplace vocabulary. 

The truth is, if it feels like your organization is playing a never-ending game of burnout whack-a-mole, you’re not alone. As burnout continues to rise at record rates, chances are, you’ve either experienced it yourself or know someone who has.

But before you can take steps to prevent it, you need to recognize the impact it has on your employees and your business.

So let’s unpack everything you need to know about employee burnout.

What is employee burnout?

Employee burnout is job-related stress that results in mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion. When employees are burnt out, they lack the energy needed to effectively juggle workloads and complete their responsibilities. 

Burnout isn’t an official medical diagnosis but it still carries some pretty significant weight when it comes to employee well-being. In fact, burnout is so common that it’s recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an occupational phenomenon. 77% of employees have experienced burnout in their current roles. With over half experiencing burnout more than once in their careers.

According to the WHO, employee burnout is characterized by 3 things:

1. Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion.
2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job.
3. Reduced professional efficacy.

Career fatigue vs. job burnout 

Another term that often gets tossed around is career fatigue. While it might sound similar, it’s not quite the same thing as burnout.

Employee burnout doesn’t typically happen overnight. It takes weeks, if not months, of unmanaged stress to reach full job burnout.

But periods of elevated stress can create what we call career fatigue. Think of it like burnout’s little sibling. Some of the signs and symptoms are very similar. But it hasn’t matured into full-blown burnout.

So is it career fatigue? Or is it burnout? Here are a couple questions that can help narrow it down:

• Will time off solve the problem? Career fatigue can often be reset with some r&r, such as time off or a vacation. Meanwhile, with burnout, time away may temporarily alleviate symptoms but they will often return with a vengeance.
• Does the work still feel meaningful? Employees who experience career fatigue still find purpose in their work, it’s just temporarily become overwhelming. But when work no longer feels like it has a purpose, it’s likely that burnout is imminent.

That being said, there are more symptoms that can indicate if your team is experiencing burnout.

Recognizing burnout symptoms in your employees

Despite being the norm, burnout isn’t normal. Constant burnout can have some serious consequences for you and your employees. 

And as much as you want employees to be able to come to you with concerns, it’s not always the case. Some might not feel comfortable speaking up. Others may be hesitant due to fear of retaliation. And some folks might not even recognize signs of burnout in themselves.

As a leader, it’s critical to be able to recognize signs of burnout in your team so you can take steps to address it—before it gets out of hand.

Even though burnout isn’t a medical condition, there are some common symptoms that should raise red flags. Here are some of the signs that your team may be on the brink of burnout.

Mental and emotional signs of burnout

The first signs of burnout are often mental and emotional. These typically manifest as external or internal reactions, and you may notice them as behavioral changes.

Some signs to watch for include:

• Poor productivity: Employees who are experiencing burnout can often struggle with concentration and focus. Some employees may also experience cognitive difficulty, such as forgetfulness or trouble with decision-making. If employees are burning out, you might start to notice lower productivity or a lower quality of work.

• Lack of motivation: Burnout is usually synonymous with a state of disinterest where employees no longer feel purpose in their work and don’t feel motivated to perform. This can look like a high-performing employee no longer participating in meetings or no longer raising their hand to help on projects.

• Difficulty managing emotions: Employees who are facing burnout can often become more sensitive and struggle to manage their emotions. For example, you might find that an employee is more irritable than normal or is struggling to internalize criticism and feedback.

• Pessimism and negativity: An employee who is burnt out is more likely to have a glass-half-empty attitude. You might notice that they’re overly critical of themselves, their work or even those around them. 

But burnout isn’t just mental. Employees can experience physical signs and symptoms, particularly as burnout progresses.

Physical signs of burnout

Physical signs usually refer to changes in how a person’s body functions. These can range anywhere from illness and pain to physical changes. Physical symptoms of burnout can be a serious cause for concern when it comes to an employee’s well-being.

Studies have shown that employees who are burnt out are 23% more likely to visit an emergency room. And depending on the situation, it can have long-lasting effects on the employee. 

Of course, everyone reacts to stress differently, but physical signs of burnout can often include:

• Fatigue and exhaustion: Burnout can impact an employee’s ability to sleep and their quality of sleep. Keep an eye out for employees who constantly look tired or those who seem to be experiencing unexplained fatigue.

• Frequent illness: High levels of stress can weaken the immune system. Employees who are burnt out are 63% more likely to take a sick day. So if you find an employee is consistently experiencing bouts of illness, it’s possible that their body is showing signs of burnout. 

• Changes in appetite and weight: Burnout can also impact an employee’s appetite. It can be different for everyone, but it’s common for employees who experience high levels of stress to rapidly gain weight or lose weight. While it’s important to be sensitive around subjects such as weight, quick and major changes can be a sign that something is wrong.

• Other physical stress responses: Mental stress can quickly turn into physical ones. It’s the body’s way of telling you to slow down. Common physical stress responses include frequent headaches, stomach pain and muscle aches. 

Read more: How to prevent employee burnout through meaningful workplace connections

12 stages of burnout

Not all employees will exhibit signs of burnout and some may be really good at hiding their symptoms. Another effective way to identify burnout in your team is to see if their behavior puts them on the burnout scale. 

Psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North broke burnout into 12 stages. 

A dozen stages might feel extremely granular, but it can help you better notice the subtle shifts in behavior that might suggest burnout is taking hold in your team. 

1. Ambition and enthusiasm: Employees take on more work to prove their worth and maintain success.

2. Working harder: Employees feel like what they’re doing isn’t enough, so they start piling on more. There are only so many hours in a work day, so this ultimately eats into personal time and impacts work-life balance.

3. Neglecting needs: Employees start to skip out on the basics, such as lunch breaks, meals, sleep and time with friends to balance the additional workload. At this stage, you might see fatigue creep in.

4. Displacement of conflicts: The denial stage, where employees may reject friends and loved ones' concerns around their work habits. Here’s where you might notice employees becoming more sensitive and agitated.

5. Revision of values: The denial continues, where employees avoid acknowledging the problem. They simply revisit their priorities so work comes first, this is how they justify that extra time spent on work.

6. Denial of new problems: As they continue to get busier and more stressed, they’ll likely blame it on others—whether it’s colleagues, clients, or other outside factors.

7. Withdrawal: But not from work. Employees may start to limit their social activity and withdraw from loved ones to compensate for the energy spent on work.

8. Additional impact and behavioral change: Employees will start to show signs of behavioral changes that impact others. For example, an employee might start forgetting things they wouldn’t have in the past. These behavioral changes may also bleed into their personal lives.

9. Depersonalization: Employees no longer feel interested in their work and will start simply going through the motions. This is where you may notice employees disengage with their work.

10. Inner emptiness: Employees start to feel hopeless and that the work they’ve put in has been for nothing. This is when employees are at a high risk of quitting or leaving the workforce altogether.

11. Depression: Here’s where everything feels dark, there’s a lack of purpose in work and in life. 

12. Burnout syndrome: At this point, employees have reached peak burnout. They’re extremely likely to experience physical symptoms that can take longer to recuperate from.

Remember: Burnout isn’t linear. Not everyone will experience all stages and some will progress through the stages quicker than others. So the sooner you can identify an employee slipping down the path of burnout, the more likely you’ll be able to course correct before it’s too late.

6 causes of job burnout 

It’s easy to find employers playing the burnout blame game. There’s a common misconception that employees should be the ones managing their own stress levels and workloads.

Of course, employees can and should play a role in reducing their own risk of burnout. But if burnout is running wild within your organization, more often than not, it’s a sign that there are some systemic issues in your workplace that are causing employee burnout.

1. Unsustainable workloads

Sometimes burnout is simply caused by too much work. Whether it’s scrambling during the work day or having to work extra hours, when there’s more work than an employee can reasonably complete, burnout usually isn’t far behind.

Employees never like to under-deliver, so when this happens they’re more likely to over-exert themselves trying to keep up. This is especially true among high performers. But when employees stretch themselves too thin, it creates a stressful environment that makes managing work increasingly difficult. It quickly becomes a vicious cycle that’s difficult to break.

Workloads can easily become a problem in remote work environments where managers and employees may experience a disconnect on how time is being spent. Home offices can also make it difficult to set boundaries between work and home life. 38% of remote employees suffer from work burnout because they feel pressured by management to work more hours at home.

2. Lack of purpose and recognition

Despite what some articles on the internet will have you believe, employees don’t want to be lazy and come to work just to collect a paycheck. They want to actively contribute and feel a sense of purpose in their everyday work.

Purpose can look different for every employee but it can look like:

• Actively making a difference in the community.
• Aligning themselves with company goals.
• Contributing to company success.
• Making meaningful progress in their careers.

This sense of fulfillment is what makes your team more resilient to challenges that can contribute to burnout. Without it, it’s easy for employees to find themselves asking, “What’s the point?”

3. Lack of reward and recognition

The same can be said for recognition. Employees want to feel like they’re making a difference and that their work is valued.

But we’re not just talking about pay raises and promotions. It can be as simple as helping employees connect the dots between their success and that of their team. When employees feel appreciated and valued, their outlook is likely to be more positive. 

It’s not just that employees want to pat themselves on the back, respect and appreciation is a basic human need. That’s why if hard work goes unrecognized for long periods of time, employees can quickly feel frustrated and unmotivated. 

This is particularly true when employees already feel like they’re going above and beyond. All of which can push them over the edge of burnout.

4. Lack of organizational support and meaningful connection

They say teamwork makes the dream work. And it holds true when it comes to preventing burnout.

When employees don’t feel supported by their managers and employer, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and undervalued. This is super common among remote teams, where 48% of employees working from home say they lack emotional support. 

Burnout is isolating to begin with and the lack of meaningful connection can make employees feel even more lonely.

5. Lack of trust

Trust is a key component to building belonging in the workplace. And as we know, belonging creates better connections and workplace inclusion. 

A study of nurses found that there was a significant correlation between organizational trust and burnout. 

Employees are more likely to trust employers who:

• Prioritize DEI: When employees feel that they have fair access to opportunities, they’re 43% less likely to report feeling burned out.
• Foster a culture of transparency: No one likes to feel like secrets are being kept from them. Employees want to stay in the know about company decisions and priorities.
• Create safe spaces: Employees should feel comfortable being themselves, making mistakes and speaking up without fear of repercussion.

When employees don’t have confidence in you as an organization, they lose that resiliency against burnout. The constant pressure can also put them on edge, making them feel increasingly overwhelmed and exhausted.

6. Ambiguity in their role and career path

For employees to succeed in their roles, they need to know what’s expected of them. When expectations aren’t clearly defined, it’s impossible to know what they need to do. If the goal post keeps moving, they struggle to find a sense of accomplishment. Chasing a moving target can be emotionally draining.

The same can be said about career clarity. Employees want to know what they can do to make the next best move in their careers, whether it’s through career pathing or mentorship. Yet, a majority of employees have no career path in place.

This type of ambiguity can make employees feel like they’re spinning on a corporate hamster wheel that they don’t have control over. Eventually, they’ll lose morale and motivation—either causing them to burn out or leave the organization altogether.

The cost of employee burnout for an organization

One of the biggest concerns around burnout is the impact on employee well-being. No one wants to see employees struggle with mental and physical concerns related to work.

But burnout goes beyond the employee. Employers experiencing systemic burnout can also take a hit in more ways than one.

1. Impact on employee retention and engagement

Burnout isn’t sustainable. That’s why employees tend to disengage from their work when they experience chronic burnout. It’s not necessarily intentional, it’s simply their brain's way of telling them that they’re doing too much. 

Unengaged employees can be unproductive and produce subpar work. This doesn’t mean they aren’t capable, it’s just an unfortunate by-product of burnout. 

Burnt-out employees are also major flight risks. In fact, burnout is one of the biggest reasons employees leave companies. When 93% of employers are concerned about employee retention, this is a pretty big problem to have. Not only are you losing a valuable employee, but you’ll have to fork up to 2x an employee’s annual salary to replace them.

And let’s face it—employees talk. If your organization builds a reputation for creating a culture of burnout, you’ll likely face challenges when it comes to attracting new talent as well.

2. Impact on leadership and career development 

Career development helps foster employee engagement and employee satisfaction.

But employees who are drowning due to burnout don’t have the bandwidth to care about their career development. Their sole focus is trying to keep their head above water. But without any sort of career development plan in place, they’re more likely to feel the effects of burnout. It creates a vicious cycle that can be difficult to break.

Not only will employees struggle with their own career future but it can widen gaps in your organization’s internal talent pipeline.

Leaders aren’t immune to burnout either. When your people managers experience burnout, they experience many of the same symptoms. But the challenge is that it doesn’t just affect their own work. It can impact their ability to be effective leaders, hindering their own team’s success.

3. Financial costs of burnout for an organization

Turns out, you can put a price on burnout. Workplace stress is estimated to cost the U.S. economy more than $500 billion dollars a year. 

Burnout can quite literally burn a hole in your organization’s pocket. Employers can incur financial costs related to burnout due to:

• Increased number of employees taking sick days: A Gallup study found that employees who experience low well-being can cost your company up to $28,000 a year in sick-day expenses and lost productivity.
• Reduced levels of productivity: Every year, 550 million workdays are lost due to workplace stress. 
• Employee turnover: Over a trillion dollars are lost every year in the U.S. due to voluntary employee turnover, including turnover due to burnout.
• Revenue and customer experience: When employees are less engaged, you’ll typically see a drop in customer satisfaction, which can also impact your business’s overall performance.

Who does employee burnout affect the most?

All employees can be affected by burnout. But there are certain groups of employees that are much more likely to be impacted.

Who’s most at risk? High performers, high potential talent, diverse employees and managers.

1. High performers

High performers are employees who do their jobs exceptionally well. Whether they’re hard workers or extremely skilled they often exceed what’s expected of them. While having high performers on your team is an asset, they’re also often the first groups of employees to experience burnout.

Because high performers are driven and highly motivated to excel, they may have the tendency to overachieve and can often have trouble saying no. And because high performers do good work, they tend to get put on the most important (read: stressful) and challenging projects. Which is why you’ll often find high performers on the fast track to burnout. 

2. High potential talent

High potential employees are typically on the path to senior leadership. They have a track record of excellent work and show potential. But studies have shown that 86% of high-potential talent are at risk of burnout.

These individuals are typically ambitious and are often aware that they’re considered high-potential employees. And more often than not, they’re also considered high performers. This means they’re often working on many key projects. But they also feel the pressure to keep performing, so don’t lose their status as a high-potential employee and risk losing out on future opportunities.

Mix it all together and you’ve got the perfect recipe for burnout.

3. Diverse employees 

Underrepresented and diverse employees face unique challenges in their day-to-day lives and in the workplace that can make them more susceptible to burnout. 

Barriers and stressors in the workplace, like microaggressions and racial slights, can create a lack of belonging and isolation that contributes to mental stress. The additional mental energy and anxiety that is needed to deal with these challenges can easily turn into burnout.

A Gallup report found that women are also at greater risk of burnout, particularly in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

4. Managers and senior leaders

More than 50% of managers report feeling burnt out. 

It’s not entirely surprising that managers experience higher-than-average rates of burnout. People managers have the unique burden of having to balance their own responsibilities with the well-being of their team members. It’s easy for managers to feel like they’re living in a pressure cooker.

Managers are also more likely to feel isolated from their peers as they progress into senior roles. The increased sense of responsibility mixed with loneliness makes it easy for managers to slip into bouts of burnout.

Why organizations need to help employees prevent burnout

There’s no way around it—burnout is a beast. It can impact anyone from top performers to senior leaders. And when it appears, it’s detrimental to your employees’ health and well-being. And it can cost your organization a pretty penny as well.

It’s easy for companies to resign to a culture of burnout, especially when you find yourself face-to-face with a team of burnt-out employees.

But we have some good news—burnout is completely preventable. 

The key is addressing the root causes rather than the symptoms. When you focus your efforts on preventing burnout in the first place, you can avoid the challenge of pulling employees out of that pit of burnout.

Not sure where to start? 

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Employee burnout FAQ

What is employee burnout? 

Employee burnout is chronic work-related stress that can create a sense of exhaustion, not only physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. Employees who experience burnout are often less productive, have lower rates of job satisfaction, and may even experience physical symptoms.

What are the signs of employee burnout?

The physical, mental, and emotional signs of employee burnout include (but aren’t limited to): 

• Physical exhaustion and fatigue
• Illness and physical pain
• Headaches and stomach pain
• Low motivation and disengagement
• Decreased productivity
• Lack of engagement and disinterest
• Emotional sensitivity

It’s important to remember that not everyone will show signs of employee burnout in the same way. So make sure to keep an eye out for a range of factors when identifying burnout in yourself or your team.

What causes job burnout?

Job burnout is caused by prolonged periods of work-related stress. While burnout can be caused by high workloads, it’s often associated with lack of meaningful workplace connections, purpose, clarity, and control.