Why we get burned out — and what helps

By · Published November 8th, 2024 ·

The idea this week: there are no magical fixes for career burnout, but there are concrete steps that can help.

When I was in the last years of my PhD studying representations of science and technology in fiction, I started feeling tired every day. I was checked out from my research, and I had a nagging sense that I wasn’t as good at it as I used to be.

I now realise I was experiencing burnout — and these feelings are quite common.

The World Health Organisation will tell you that burnout is an occupational syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress. It’s characterised by energy depletion, increased negativity and cynicism about your job, and reduced efficacy.

In my case, I was struggling with a mismatch between my work and what I thought really mattered. I was doing a PhD to become a literature professor, but my research seemed fundamentally disconnected from what I cared about: helping with pressing world problems.

Once something feels pointless, it’s very difficult to muster the motivation to get it done.

The silver lining is that now I can use this experience to help others in my role as a career advisor. And here is one piece of advice I often give: if you can, try to find work that aligns with what you think matters. In order to do this, it’s important to first reflect on what problems you care about and how to best tackle them.

That said, there are many different ways people develop burnout. For example:

  • If you’re working on something you think is important, the fact that it feels important can make it more overwhelming and stressful.
  • You believe that your work is important but find it uninteresting or unpleasant — especially if it conflicts with other life priorities. That’s why we recommend taking your personal fit into account when choosing a role or career path.
  • Your working environment is toxic in some way, e.g. you lack people who support you and value your contributions.
  • A breakdown in expectations arises between you and others in your workplace, or between your expectations and what’s realistic, leading to frustration.

One common misconception is that burnout is always caused by overworking, which can make it difficult to identify burnout early. Long hours can definitely contribute to burnout. But some people work 10-hour days and avoid burnout, while someone else might “work” on her PhD thesis (i.e. look at a blank page) for three hours a day and burn out quickly.

For this reason, vacations and holidays aren’t necessarily a simple fix. Burnout is caused by systemic issues that make you associate work with negative feelings, especially feelings of failure. Unless those root causes are addressed, time off may only provide temporary relief.

With the caveats that the causes of burnout are still not very well understood, and that I’m not a mental health professional, here are some tools that might help if you’re suffering from burnout or trying to avoid it:

  • Get support from peers, leadership, and mental health professionals. This is one of the most consistent findings in the scientific literature. Talking to others can help you get the validation that you may struggle to provide for yourself, brainstorm coping strategies, and find solace in shared challenges.
    • If you’re trying to find a therapist, it’s important to find one who has the right skills and tools to help you. Our career guide has some tips and additional resources that can help.
  • If you can, try to find alignment between your work, goals, and values. You can make a long-term plan to make a career change if that could be helpful. But there will always be trade-offs you have to make with your career — for example, supporting your family may require staying at a job you find less than ideal. Remember that there are ways to pursue your values and have an impact, no matter your job.
  • Try to avoid ambiguity in your role. This is an extension of the above. If you don’t even know what the underlying purpose of your work is, or what you’re supposed to be doing and why, you can’t tell if you’re succeeding. It’s easy to feel like a failure when you have not established a winning condition. Talking to your manager or others on your team about what it means for you to do well in your role may be valuable.
  • Don’t forget the basics: getting enough sleep, shortening (or somehow improving) your commute, getting exercise, and making room for things that make you happy outside of work. If your job is making your life miserable in a bunch of different ways, and possibly even affecting your physical health, it’s only natural to develop negative feelings towards it, and for your productivity to take a hit.

Our society has normalised the idea that work is synonymous with suffering, something to be endured for the sake of survival. I feel immensely privileged that this is not my experience. If you’re struggling with a job that feels meaningless, I hope you know this fate is not inevitable.

And if you’re already pursuing a fulfilling career that does good, but always falling short of your very high standards, I’m afraid there are no magical solutions. But there are some things that might help. Surround yourself with people you respect who will remind you of the good work you’re doing — even when it’s difficult for you to believe it. Set clear and realistic goals. Also: get enough sleep!

If you know of any magical solutions, do let me know. Asking for a friend.

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