RESEARCH STARTER

Burnout (psychology)

Burnout is a psychological syndrome characterized by chronic physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment, often arising from prolonged exposure to stressors in work or caregiving environments. Coined by psychoanalyst Herbert Freudenberger in the early 1970s, burnout was initially associated with high-achieving professionals like healthcare workers and educators, but subsequent research has shown that it can affect a wide range of individuals, including corporate employees and students. The Maslach Burnout Inventory, developed by Christina Maslach, identifies three core dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal achievement.

Burnout can lead to significant psychological symptoms, including fatigue, difficulty concentrating, and personality changes, as well as physical issues such as headaches and cardiovascular problems. Recent studies indicate that a substantial percentage of workers report experiencing burnout, with factors such as unreasonable workloads, lack of support, and unfair treatment contributing to its prevalence. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated burnout, leading to increased stress and new phenomena like "Zoom fatigue" among remote workers. Strategies to combat burnout include self-care practices, emotional support, and prioritizing work-life balance. Understanding and addressing burnout is essential for maintaining individual well-being and overall productivity in various professional fields.

Full Article

There is no generally accepted definition for the term burnout. The term is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the standard guide for classifying mental disorders in the United States. Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychoanalyst who is generally credited with coining the term, used the analogy of a burned-out building to refer to a syndrome he observed in his clients, most of whom were high-achievers who had lost their optimism, passion for life, and sense of purpose. Freudenberger’s work and other early studies linked burnout to the caring professions, such as nurses, school teachers, legal-aid workers, social workers, and clergy, but studies have expanded those susceptible to the syndrome to include groups as varied as bankers, managers, homemakers, students, and other populations exposed to chronic stress.

Overview

Freudenberger’s early studies were conducted in the early 1970s, the tumultuous era of the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War, gasoline shortages, job instability, and economic uncertainty. His clients, mostly idealists who believed in the individual’s power to effect change, were highly vulnerable to disillusionment. They suffered from physical and emotional exhaustion, became cynical and detached, and were overwhelmed by contempt for themselves and for the people they were trying to help. Christina Maslach, author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, an instrument for measuring burnout that has been widely used since it was introduced in 1981, focused on subjects similar to Freudenberger’s clients because people in those professions were most willing to allow researchers access. She identified three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Although Maslach has found corporate culture in the twenty-first century more open to burnout studies, given the numbers of promising young employees who are leaving positions, she theorizes that the conditions that lead to what has been described as an “epidemic” of burnout holds true: overwork, presence of injustice, weak social support, lack of control, conflicting values, and inadequate rewards (money, prestige, or affirmation).

Burnout appears to develop in inverse proportion to the length of time in an occupation. Maslach concluded from her early studies that workers in social-service agencies were most likely to experience burnout within their first five years of employment. One report suggests that from 40 to 50 percent of public school teachers, another group with high burnout rates (as high as 30 percent according to some studies) leave the profession during their first five years. A University of Michigan study found that younger surgeons suffer burnout at a higher rate than their more experienced colleagues. Given that burnout is often the result of rewards failing to meet expectations, the higher burnout rate among young employees is not surprising. Another factor that may affect the age discrepancy is that single people and those without children are more likely to experience burnout than those in good marriages and those with children. A 2025 study found that younger Americans report burnout more often, with rates of 81 percent and 83 percent for ages eighteen to twenty-four and twenty-five to thirty-four respectively, compared to 49 percent in workers over the age of fifty-five.

Burnout is costly for the individual and for society. Psychiatric symptoms of burnout include fatigue, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, memory problems (including a lack of precision and organization), and personality changes (disinterest, cynicism, aggression). Substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and even suicide have also been linked to burnout. Common physical symptoms include headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and cardiovascular problems such as tachycardia, arrhythmia, and hypertonia. Social consequences may include withdrawal at the workplace, marital or sexual problems, and social isolation.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), significant numbers of workers experience a loss of productivity due to stress. In 2021, APA researchers found that 79 percent of workers in the US had experienced burnout at some point in the previous month; these individuals reported a number of related symptoms such as low energy, physical fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. A 2022 estimate from research firm Gallup produced similar results and suggested that 76 percent of workers experience burnout at least some of the time. Forbes reported that 66 percent of workers had experienced burnout in 2025; some factors included forced return-to-office policies, a lack of resources, labor shortages in the workplace, and excessive work responsibilities.

In general, burnout continues to be closely studied as experts consider understanding the causes of burnout and the best methods to avoid it as crucial to maximizing employee health, satisfaction, productivity, and creativity. The root of burnout is often deeper than just total work hours, as work experiences such as insufficient managerial support and communication; unreasonable workloads, expectations, and time pressures; and treatment viewed as unjust were also found to be major contributors to burnout.

Burnout attracted significant media coverage in the early 2020s due to the exacerbated stress of the chaotic public health crisis that emerged with the declaration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020. Particularly as the health care system in the United States was rapidly overwhelmed by the influx of people infected with COVID-19, calls were increasingly made for reforms to decrease physician burnout that had already been an issue. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 2025 saw physician burnout rates finally decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rate dropping to 45 percent. They also found that job satisfaction was 76.5 percent in 2024, compared to 68 percent in 2022. Despite this positive change for physicians, the burnout rate for nurses was 65 percent in 2024 according to a study done by Cross Country Healthcare and the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University.

Because the pandemic led to nationwide lockdowns, quarantines, and shifts to working from home to contain the spread of the virus, larger numbers of people were at risk of, or reported struggling from, burnout due to greater childcare responsibilities, less structure, and reduced work-life balance. Some economists and mental health professionals suggested that employee burnout may have played at least a partial role in the Great Resignation, a term referring to the surging rates of people quitting their jobs in the early 2020s.

One aspect of work-related burnout that emerged alongside the COVID-19 pandemic was the concept of so-called Zoom fatigue, a type of burnout or anxiety affecting individuals engaged in remote work, particularly those who make heavy use of videoconferencing technologies such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This phenomenon was often discussed alongside larger conversations regard the negative mental health impacts of excessive screen time.

Simple self-care strategies for combatting burnout include getting sufficient rest and exercise, engaging in relaxation techniques such as meditation, focusing on non-work-related social activities such as hobbies or volunteering, limiting exposure to communications technology, and organizing one's priorities while advocating for flexibility. Attitude adjustment, emotional support from loved ones and counseling professionals, and self-reflection about specific stressors can help as well.


Bibliography

Abramson, Ashley. “Burnout and Stress are Everywhere.” American Psychological Association, 1 Jan. 2022, www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Armon, Galit, Arie Shirom, and Samuel Melamed. “The Big Five Personality Factors as Predictors of Changes across Time in Burnout and Its Facets.” Journal of Personality 80.2 (2012): 403–27.

Bährer-Kohler, Sabine. Burnout for Experts: Prevention in the Context of Living and Working. New York: Springer, 2012.

Berg, Sara. "U.S. Physician Burnout Hits Lowest Rate Since COVID-19." American Medical Association, www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/us-physician-burnout-hits-lowest-rate-covid-19. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Beyond the Bedside: The State of Nursing in 2025." Cross Country, 2025, www.crosscountry.com/beyondthebedside. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Brooks, Arthur C. “The Trouble With Zooming Forever.” The Atlantic, 14 July 2022, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/07/how-to-fight-zoom-fatigue/670513/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Freudenberger, Herbert J., and Geraldine Richelson. Burn-Out: The High Cost of Achievement. London: Arrow, 1985.

Gerry, Lisa M. "10 Signs You're Burning Out—And What to Do About It." Forbes. Forbes.com, 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 May. 2015.

Hemphill, Beth. “Uncomfortable (but Necessary) Conversations About Burnout.” Gallup, 6 Dec. 2022, www.gallup.com/workplace/406232/uncomfortable-necessary-conversations-burnout.aspx. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Job Burnout: How to Spot It and Take Action." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Research and Education, 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 May. 2015.

Kudler, Taryn, et al. “Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Social Support.” Pastoral Psychology 60.5 (2011): 633–49.

Robinson, Bryan. "Job Burnout at 66% in 2025, New Study Shows." Forbes, 8 Feb. 2025, www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/02/08/job-burnout-at-66-in-2025-new-study-shows/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Stressed Workers Costing Employers Billions." Colonial Life, 14 Mar. 2019, www.coloniallife.com/about/newsroom/2019/march/stressed-workers-costing-employers-billions. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Thomason, Bobbi. "Help Your Team Beat WFH Burnout." Harvard Business Review, 26 Jan. 2021, hbr.org/2021/01/help-your-team-beat-wfh-burnout. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"What Is Burnout?" Cleveland Clinic, 1 Feb. 2022, health.clevelandclinic.org/signs-of-burnout. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Wigert, Ben. "Employee Burnout: The Biggest Myth." Gallup, 13 Mar. 2020, www.gallup.com/workplace/288539/employee-burnout-biggest-myth.aspx. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Full Article

There is no generally accepted definition for the term burnout. The term is not in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5), the standard guide for classifying mental disorders in the United States. Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychoanalyst who is generally credited with coining the term, used the analogy of a burned-out building to refer to a syndrome he observed in his clients, most of whom were high-achievers who had lost their optimism, passion for life, and sense of purpose. Freudenberger’s work and other early studies linked burnout to the caring professions, such as nurses, school teachers, legal-aid workers, social workers, and clergy, but studies have expanded those susceptible to the syndrome to include groups as varied as bankers, managers, homemakers, students, and other populations exposed to chronic stress.

Overview

Freudenberger’s early studies were conducted in the early 1970s, the tumultuous era of the Watergate scandal, the Vietnam War, gasoline shortages, job instability, and economic uncertainty. His clients, mostly idealists who believed in the individual’s power to effect change, were highly vulnerable to disillusionment. They suffered from physical and emotional exhaustion, became cynical and detached, and were overwhelmed by contempt for themselves and for the people they were trying to help. Christina Maslach, author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, an instrument for measuring burnout that has been widely used since it was introduced in 1981, focused on subjects similar to Freudenberger’s clients because people in those professions were most willing to allow researchers access. She identified three dimensions of burnout: emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment. Although Maslach has found corporate culture in the twenty-first century more open to burnout studies, given the numbers of promising young employees who are leaving positions, she theorizes that the conditions that lead to what has been described as an “epidemic” of burnout holds true: overwork, presence of injustice, weak social support, lack of control, conflicting values, and inadequate rewards (money, prestige, or affirmation).

Burnout appears to develop in inverse proportion to the length of time in an occupation. Maslach concluded from her early studies that workers in social-service agencies were most likely to experience burnout within their first five years of employment. One report suggests that from 40 to 50 percent of public school teachers, another group with high burnout rates (as high as 30 percent according to some studies) leave the profession during their first five years. A University of Michigan study found that younger surgeons suffer burnout at a higher rate than their more experienced colleagues. Given that burnout is often the result of rewards failing to meet expectations, the higher burnout rate among young employees is not surprising. Another factor that may affect the age discrepancy is that single people and those without children are more likely to experience burnout than those in good marriages and those with children. A 2025 study found that younger Americans report burnout more often, with rates of 81 percent and 83 percent for ages eighteen to twenty-four and twenty-five to thirty-four respectively, compared to 49 percent in workers over the age of fifty-five.

Burnout is costly for the individual and for society. Psychiatric symptoms of burnout include fatigue, exhaustion, difficulty concentrating, memory problems (including a lack of precision and organization), and personality changes (disinterest, cynicism, aggression). Substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and even suicide have also been linked to burnout. Common physical symptoms include headaches, gastrointestinal disorders, and cardiovascular problems such as tachycardia, arrhythmia, and hypertonia. Social consequences may include withdrawal at the workplace, marital or sexual problems, and social isolation.

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), significant numbers of workers experience a loss of productivity due to stress. In 2021, APA researchers found that 79 percent of workers in the US had experienced burnout at some point in the previous month; these individuals reported a number of related symptoms such as low energy, physical fatigue, and emotional exhaustion. A 2022 estimate from research firm Gallup produced similar results and suggested that 76 percent of workers experience burnout at least some of the time. Forbes reported that 66 percent of workers had experienced burnout in 2025; some factors included forced return-to-office policies, a lack of resources, labor shortages in the workplace, and excessive work responsibilities.

In general, burnout continues to be closely studied as experts consider understanding the causes of burnout and the best methods to avoid it as crucial to maximizing employee health, satisfaction, productivity, and creativity. The root of burnout is often deeper than just total work hours, as work experiences such as insufficient managerial support and communication; unreasonable workloads, expectations, and time pressures; and treatment viewed as unjust were also found to be major contributors to burnout.

Burnout attracted significant media coverage in the early 2020s due to the exacerbated stress of the chaotic public health crisis that emerged with the declaration of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in March 2020. Particularly as the health care system in the United States was rapidly overwhelmed by the influx of people infected with COVID-19, calls were increasingly made for reforms to decrease physician burnout that had already been an issue. According to the American Medical Association (AMA), 2025 saw physician burnout rates finally decrease since the COVID-19 pandemic, with the rate dropping to 45 percent. They also found that job satisfaction was 76.5 percent in 2024, compared to 68 percent in 2022. Despite this positive change for physicians, the burnout rate for nurses was 65 percent in 2024 according to a study done by Cross Country Healthcare and the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing at Florida Atlantic University.

Because the pandemic led to nationwide lockdowns, quarantines, and shifts to working from home to contain the spread of the virus, larger numbers of people were at risk of, or reported struggling from, burnout due to greater childcare responsibilities, less structure, and reduced work-life balance. Some economists and mental health professionals suggested that employee burnout may have played at least a partial role in the Great Resignation, a term referring to the surging rates of people quitting their jobs in the early 2020s.

One aspect of work-related burnout that emerged alongside the COVID-19 pandemic was the concept of so-called Zoom fatigue, a type of burnout or anxiety affecting individuals engaged in remote work, particularly those who make heavy use of videoconferencing technologies such as Zoom or Microsoft Teams. This phenomenon was often discussed alongside larger conversations regard the negative mental health impacts of excessive screen time.

Simple self-care strategies for combatting burnout include getting sufficient rest and exercise, engaging in relaxation techniques such as meditation, focusing on non-work-related social activities such as hobbies or volunteering, limiting exposure to communications technology, and organizing one's priorities while advocating for flexibility. Attitude adjustment, emotional support from loved ones and counseling professionals, and self-reflection about specific stressors can help as well.


Bibliography

Abramson, Ashley. “Burnout and Stress are Everywhere.” American Psychological Association, 1 Jan. 2022, www.apa.org/monitor/2022/01/special-burnout-stress. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Armon, Galit, Arie Shirom, and Samuel Melamed. “The Big Five Personality Factors as Predictors of Changes across Time in Burnout and Its Facets.” Journal of Personality 80.2 (2012): 403–27.

Bährer-Kohler, Sabine. Burnout for Experts: Prevention in the Context of Living and Working. New York: Springer, 2012.

Berg, Sara. "U.S. Physician Burnout Hits Lowest Rate Since COVID-19." American Medical Association, www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/physician-health/us-physician-burnout-hits-lowest-rate-covid-19. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Beyond the Bedside: The State of Nursing in 2025." Cross Country, 2025, www.crosscountry.com/beyondthebedside. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Brooks, Arthur C. “The Trouble With Zooming Forever.” The Atlantic, 14 July 2022, www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/07/how-to-fight-zoom-fatigue/670513/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Freudenberger, Herbert J., and Geraldine Richelson. Burn-Out: The High Cost of Achievement. London: Arrow, 1985.

Gerry, Lisa M. "10 Signs You're Burning Out—And What to Do About It." Forbes. Forbes.com, 1 Apr. 2013. Web. 29 May. 2015.

Hemphill, Beth. “Uncomfortable (but Necessary) Conversations About Burnout.” Gallup, 6 Dec. 2022, www.gallup.com/workplace/406232/uncomfortable-necessary-conversations-burnout.aspx. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Job Burnout: How to Spot It and Take Action." Mayo Clinic. Mayo Foundation for Medical Research and Education, 8 Dec. 2012. Web. 29 May. 2015.

Kudler, Taryn, et al. “Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Social Support.” Pastoral Psychology 60.5 (2011): 633–49.

Robinson, Bryan. "Job Burnout at 66% in 2025, New Study Shows." Forbes, 8 Feb. 2025, www.forbes.com/sites/bryanrobinson/2025/02/08/job-burnout-at-66-in-2025-new-study-shows/. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"Stressed Workers Costing Employers Billions." Colonial Life, 14 Mar. 2019, www.coloniallife.com/about/newsroom/2019/march/stressed-workers-costing-employers-billions. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Thomason, Bobbi. "Help Your Team Beat WFH Burnout." Harvard Business Review, 26 Jan. 2021, hbr.org/2021/01/help-your-team-beat-wfh-burnout. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

"What Is Burnout?" Cleveland Clinic, 1 Feb. 2022, health.clevelandclinic.org/signs-of-burnout. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

Wigert, Ben. "Employee Burnout: The Biggest Myth." Gallup, 13 Mar. 2020, www.gallup.com/workplace/288539/employee-burnout-biggest-myth.aspx. Accessed 4 Aug. 2025.

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