Career & Leadership › Career Growth

Burnout

Chronic work stress, and how to notice and prevent it.

Also known as: work burnout, exhaustion

Burnout is a state of long-term exhaustion caused by sustained work stress. It can show up as persistent tiredness, cynicism about work that used to matter, and a drop in how effective you feel. It usually builds gradually, which makes it easy to miss until it’s serious.

Early signs are worth watching for. You might dread starting work, need longer to recover after weekends, find small tasks harder than they should be, or feel increasingly irritable with colleagues. A single bad week isn’t burnout, but a pattern that lasts is worth taking seriously.

Pattern to watch: several weeks of evenings and weekends, no real time off,
and a growing sense that nothing you do is enough.

Practical steps help. Take real time off, keep your working hours from spreading into your evenings, and talk to your manager about the workload. A sustainable pace is something you can plan for, and workload is a normal topic for a 1:1.

If the exhaustion is severe, lasts a long time, or affects your health, talk to a doctor or another professional you trust. This page can’t diagnose anything, and a professional can help in ways general advice can’t.