What is Burnout? Understanding Burnout and How It Differs from Stress
We’ve all been there—feeling exhausted after a long day of work, counting the hours until the weekend, or struggling to keep up with all the demands thrown at us. But what happens when those feelings don’t go away? When the stress becomes chronic, and you start to feel completely detached from your work? That’s when burnout comes into play.
Burnout is more than just feeling tired or stressed after a tough week, though. When I experienced burnout in 2017, it wasn’t just stress. It was a persistent state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion cause by chronic, unmanaged stress. It took a toll on my health, wellbeing, and ultimately led to me taking time off from work.
Terms like burnout gets thrown around a lot these days. We often use it to describe feeling tired or particularly worn down after a long week at work.
In this post, I’ll explore exactly what burnout is, how it differs from conditions like stress and fatigue, and what makes it so important to recognize and address. As a job stress and burnout researcher, I love a good definition. When we clearly define one experience versus another it helps us identify the right solutions.
What is Burnout?
Let’s start with the basics. Burnout is a state of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion caused by long-term stress that is typically related to work. It's not just about being tired; it’s an ongoing sense of being completely overwhelmed, worn out, and detached from your job. Even the best night of sleep or the perfect weekend getaway doesn’t seem to help.
Unlike stress, which can sometimes motivate us to push harder, burnout leaves you feeling like you have nothing left to give. It drains your energy and motivation to the point where even simple tasks feel like monumental challenges because of changes in the brain. Over time, burnout can affect your ability to function effectively, both in and outside of work.
Sounds terrible, right? Having gone through it, I can confirm that it is - but it is also a signal that something needs to change in the way you approach life and work. In that way, burnout is your body trying to communicate with you, so let’s listen!
The Dimensions of Burnout
Burnout is often described as having three key dimensions. Each dimension has signs of burnout.
1. Emotional exhaustion: you feel mentally and physically depleted, making it difficult to engage with work or maintain focus.
2. Cynicism & Depersonalization: You become detached or even cynical about your job, colleagues, or tasks. Things that once interested or motivated you now feel draining and frustrating.
3. Reduced professional efficacy: you start to feel like you’re not going enough, or that your contributions aren’t effective, even though you may be performing well.
How Burnout Differs from Stress, Fatigue, and Depression
A lot of people mix up burnout with other conditions like stress, fatigue, or even depression. While they can overlap, it’s important to understand the distinctions, especially if you’re trying to figure out what’s going on with your own mental health or the mental health of your team.
It’s totally okay to use these terms interchangeably in your day-to-day conversations, but when it comes to prevention and recovery disctinctions matter.
Burnout vs. Stress?
We all deal with stress from time to time. My favourite way to define stress, as someone who studies work-related stress from a neuroscience perspective, is as a psychological and physiological response to changes in the internal or external environment.
That was wordy and scientific, so let’s break it down; when you encounter a situation that you need resources to respond to, your experience stress. The situation could be external, meeting a tight deadline or juggling multiple tasks at once, or internal, in your own mind or body – no, you’re not the only one who invents totally fake and highly stressful situations in your mind. Guilty!
Stress is our body’s natural response to these situations. The response is both psychological (thoughts, feelings, focus) and physiological (heart rate, cortisol, etc.) Stress can be motivating in small doses. It pushes us to stay focused and get things done! However, when stress becomes chronic and relentless, that’s when it can lead to burnout.
The difference is that stress is temporary and can often be managed with better time management, relaxation techniques, or by taking breaks. Burnout, on the other hand, is more like hitting a wall. It’s the result of ongoing, unrelenting stress that never seems to let up.
When you’re burned out, you’re beyond stressed—you’re depleted.
Burnout vs. Depression
Now, let’s talk about burnout vs. depression. While the two can share similar symptoms, like feeling hopeless, irritable, or withdrawal, they are not the same thing. Depression is a mental health condition that affects all areas of your life, not just your job.
People with depression often feel a persistent sense of sadness, worthlessness, or loss of interest in activities that used to bring them joy, and these feelings aren’t necessarily tied to their work environment.
Burnout is specifically related to chronic work-related stress. While it can lead to depression if left untreated, burnout is primarily focused on feelings of exhaustion and detachment from professional responsibilities. Depression tends to have a much broader impact on your overall emotional state and persists even if work-related demands are resolved.
Burnout vs. Fatigue
Fatigue is another common issue people confuse with burnout. Fatigue is a feeling of extreme tiredness, which is commonly experienced in burnout… so why am I saying they’re different?
Fatigue can also be a symptom of other common health issues. The key different between fatigue from health issues and burnout is the source. With burnout, the primary source of feeling rundown is excessive work-related stress. Fatigue can be the result of any number of health issues.
This is one of many reasons that it is so important for us to address burnout in organizations! Burnout can look like other conditions. If we have healthy work environments that support wellbeing, it will be easier to determine when people are experiencing other conditions.
Common Causes of Burnout
Now that we’ve clarified what burnout is, let’s take a look at the factors that often lead to burnout in the workplace. Burnout doesn’t just happen out of the blue—it’s usually the result of ongoing issues that haven’t been addressed.
Here are some of the most common causes of workplace burnout:
Work Overload
One of the biggest contributors to burnout is having more work than you can realistically handle. Excessive workload and unclear expectations (that lead to unnecessary work) are the number one complaint that I hear from teams in workshops. Over time, an excessive workload depletes your energy and leaves you feeling like no matter how hard you work, you’ll never get ahead.
Lack of Control
Another common cause is a lack of control over your work. If you feel like you have little say in your job responsibilities, schedule, or decision-making processes, it can be incredibly frustrating. This ultimately contributes to burnout because people feel as though how they expend their energy at work is not within their control.
Lack of Recognition
If your hard work is going unappreciated at work, it’s easy to get frustrated. When you produce work, you do so with the expectation of some kind of return. Whether it’s a lack of financial rewards, promotions, or simple verbal recognition, not feeling valued at work can contribute to feelings of burnout because it feel like you are expending energy for no reason.
Unfair Treatment
Burnout is also more likely when employees feel like they’re being treated unfairly, whether that’s in terms of workload distribution, pay, or promotions. As humans, we are very concerned with fairness, but we are generally less concerned with the outcome of a situation than how that outcome was determined. Transparency goes a long way!
Toxic Work Environment
Lastly, working in a negative or toxic work environment with disrespectful, unethical behaviours can fast-track burnout. When you’re surrounded by negativity, it drains your emotional energy and makes it much harder to stay motivated and engaged.
Can Burnout Be Cured?
The good news is that burnout isn’t permanent, but it does take time and effort to prevent and recover from. Burnout is more than just feeling tired, so the solution isn’t as simple as taking a few days off.
Ultimately, burnout is the result of how you are interacting with your work environment, so real recovery involves changing this dynamic. Overcoming burnout requires personal and work-related strategies. I could talk about recovering from burnout all day (and I will, in another post), but here are some quick tips to get you started:
Recovery Tips
Take meaningful breaks: Don’t just take a few hours off—schedule regular breaks where you completely unplug from work and engage in activities that help you recharge.
Set boundaries: One of the key causes of burnout is overworking. Setting boundaries around your time and learning to say no to unreasonable demands can protect your energy and well-being. This is a great book on setting boundaries.
Talk to someone: Whether it’s a manager, a colleague, or a mental health professional, don’t be afraid to speak up about your feelings of burnout. Seeking support is an essential step in addressing the problem.
Evaluate your job: when recovering from burnout it is important to ask if you can realistically do so in your current work environment. You may need to take time or quit your job after burnout if you feel that you really can’t get better in that setting.
How to Prevent Burnout
Preventing burnout requires proactive steps to manage stress and maintain a healthy balance between work and personal life.
You’ll notice that the strategies needed to prevent burnout are really similar to the strategies needed to recover from burnout. It is harder to recover from burnout than to prevent it because burnout changes the brain, but the strategy is ultimately the same: increase personal wellbeing and decrease work-related demands.
Here are a few strategies to keep burnout at bay:
Prioritize stress management: stress management is, ideally, a regular part of your workday! When you relieve stress throughout the day, you stop it from piling up in your body and causing emotional exhaustion. Not sure how to do this? I have a whole TEDx Talk on How to Relieve Stress When You’re Overwhelmed.
Address kob factors: remember, burnout is not all on you - the work environment matters. Connect with your team about how you can establish new norms and policies that will support wellbeing. Check out my free team burnout assessment to get started.
Boundaries: see, I told you there would be overlap! Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries - protect your personal time and make sure work isn’t taking over every aspect of your life.
Cultivate hobbies: the opposite of burnout is not feeling rested, it’s feeling engaged in your life and work. Even if it’s just an hour or two a week, cultivate your life outside of work. This will give you more meaning, energy, and help motivate you to protect your boundaries.
Burnout is a serious issue that goes far beyond just feeling stressed or tired from work. It’s a chronic condition caused by prolonged, unmanaged stress that leaves you feeling emotionally and mentally drained. Understanding what burnout is and how it differs from stress or other conditions is the first step in recognizing and addressing it.