Signs of burnout at work and how to deal with it
Stress has always been an issue, but the world of work is facing an all-out burnout crisis.
Mental Health UK's 'The Burnout Report' (2025) found that 1 in 5 workers (21%) needed to take time off work due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress in the past year, compared to 20% of workers in 2024.
Unless you truly adore your job, the odds are good that you’ve felt worn out, or even experienced true burnout at work. It’s a fact of life. However, the problems come in when you or your employees hit a crisis point. What is the crisis stage of burnout, what causes it, and how can you protect your employees from it?
What is burnout?
Simply put, burnout is a state of physical and mental exhaustion that’s caused by long-term stress or pressure. Burnout can be caused by pressures and responsibilities in your personal life, although it’s most commonly thought of in the context of the workplace.
The World Health Organization (WHO) classifies burnout as a syndrome rather than a medical or mental health condition. However, when left untreated burnout can lead to more serious health issues like depression or anxiety, so it’s important to recognise the early warning signs and know how to deal with them.
What are the symptoms of burnout?
Burnout can take the form of a combination of physical, emotional, and behavioural symptoms. Sometimes the people around you may recognise your symptoms of burnout before you do, so it’s important to know what to look out for.
Physical symptoms of burnout include:
- Feeling tired or exhausted most of the time
- Reoccurring insomnia
- Frequent headaches
- Frequent illness due to lowered immunity
- Changes in appetite
- Breathing issues
Emotional symptoms of burnout include:
- A feeling of detachment or loneliness
- Self-doubt, feeling helpless or worthless
- Feeling overwhelmed or trapped
- Having a cynical, negative outlook
- No sense of satisfaction or achievement
- Loss of interest, motivation or enjoyment
- Frequent feelings of dread, worry and anxiety
Behavioural symptoms of burnout include:
- Procrastination
- Difficulty concentrating or completing tasks
- Becoming socially isolated and withdrawing from responsibilities
- Relying on food, drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism
- Being irritable and short-tempered
- Sudden outbursts of frustration
- Higher absenteeism and tardiness
The impact of burnout
All the symptoms mentioned above can have a huge impact on your mental and physical health. For example, if burnout is preventing you from sleeping, then this can weaken your immune system, making you more likely to get sick. Around 64% of people felt that poor sleep could contribute to burnout.
In extreme cases, burnout can lead to some more dangerous behaviours, including substance abuse and harm to intrapersonal relationships.
Even beyond the personal impact, burnout can have a huge impact on the workplace itself. 1 in 5 employees need to take time off work due to burnout. Even if they make it into work, burnout makes people less creative, less productive and more prone to making errors. Burnout also tends to spread among employees; if one is worn out, others can become so too.
What are the main causes of burnout in the UK?
According to research from Microsoft, 50% of employees said they were feeling burned out at work.
Work stress on its own won’t cause burnout. Burnout is typically caused by a prolonged period of pressures at work and at home. Workplace stressors can include things like:
- Working long hours
- Long commutes
- Customer facing roles, requiring high degrees of empathy
- Feeling like they have no control over work
There are also several personal factors that can lead to burnout, including caretaking responsibilities, money worries, issues in romantic relationships and poor self-esteem. Typically, this will compound with professional stressors, making one more vulnerable to burnout.
Interestingly, Mental Health UK’s report found that working location can also impact burnout at work. Those working from field-based locations and those working from home were most likely to report feeling isolated at work (39%), compared with those who worked in a fixed location like an office (36%) or those working in a hybrid way (35%).
How does age impact burnout across different generations?
Younger generations are disproportionally affected by stress and burnout. According to Mental Health UK, those in the 18-24 age group were the most likely to agree with the statement that they needed time off work due to poor mental health caused by pressure or stress in the last year (35%).
29% of those aged 25–34 agreed with the above statement, compared to 25% of those aged 35–44, 14% of those aged 45–54, and 10% of those aged 55+.
This generational divide may be due to the de-stigmatisation of stress and burnout among younger generations, who tend to be the main drivers in the conversation surrounding mental health in the workplace. To retain talent from these generations, organisations should be taking proactive steps to combat workplace burnout and support employee wellbeing.
How gender impacts burnout in the UK
Burnout does not discriminate; anyone experiencing chronic stress can become burned out. However, Mental Health UK’s report did find that gender can be a factor that affects your likelihood of experiencing burnout.
The findings showed that women are 13% more likely than men to experience high or extreme levels of stress ‘always’ or ‘often’. Women were also 5% more likely than men to say that ‘regularly working unpaid overtime beyond contracted hours’ had caused stress and contributed to burnout.
How to deal with workplace burnout
Understanding what causes burnout can help you put strategies in place to make sure that your employees aren’t impacted by it too strongly.
Obviously, you can’t remove everything that might cause an employee stress, but giving them tools and resources to cope more effectively, as well as not putting too much pressure on each employee, will help support this.
There are numerous wellbeing initiatives you can put in place to smooth over some of the stresses of life. This can include:
- Financial coaching
- Flexible working arrangements
- Strong policies to prevent chronic stress, with regular assessments to support
- Holding check-ins with employees to discuss workload and wellbeing
- Avoiding unreasonable deadlines
- Encourage regular breaks, including full use of annual leave entitlement
- Regular training to discourage stigmatising mental health
- Providing financial wellbeing support
Talent management strategies will also apply here. Anything that ensures your employees have a good, consistent experience will help reduce burnout significantly. This will also ensure you keep your talent keen to keep working with you.
To learn more about talent management and how you can support your employees in avoiding burnout, check out our guide on mental health at work.
