Burnout at work: how to recognise it and what to do while you still have the strength

"I'm just tired." That is how the conversation often begins — and then it turns out to be a conversation about burnout. The difference is that a day off helps with tiredness. It does not help with burnout. The weekend passes, the holiday passes, and on Monday everything inside is the same: empty, heavy, and you no longer know what any of it is for.

What burnout is

Burnout is a state of exhaustion that develops in response to prolonged stress, most often related to work. It has three recognisable features:

• Exhaustion. There is not enough energy for work — or for life after work. Rest does not restore you.
• Detachment. Things that used to have meaning start to irritate you or leave you indifferent. Cynicism creeps in towards colleagues, clients, the work itself.
• A sense of ineffectiveness. It feels as though you are doing everything worse than before — even when, objectively, that is not the case.

It matters to say this clearly: burnout is not weakness of character and it is not laziness. It is a natural response of mind and body to resources being spent faster than they are replenished, for a long time.

How to spot it early

Burnout rarely happens in a single day. Usually there are early signals that are easy to dismiss as "just a rough patch":

• in the morning it is hard to make yourself open the work chat or your inbox;
• small things that never used to bother you now irritate you;
• it is hard to concentrate, and simple tasks stretch out for hours;
• sleep has got worse — you struggle to fall asleep, or wake up already tired;
• headaches, tension in the body, frequent colds;
• no energy for people, hobbies, or anything that used to bring you joy.

If you recognise yourself in two or three of these, that is already reason enough to pause and look more closely.

Where it comes from

Most often, burnout is not about how much work there is but about how the work is set up. Constant overload with no say in the process. Blurred boundaries: work seeps into evenings and weekends. The feeling that no one notices your effort. A gap between what matters to you and what is demanded of you.

There are internal factors too. The habit of never saying no. The belief that a person's worth is measured by their productivity. An inner critic for whom "good enough" does not exist. These beliefs make you squeeze out the last of yourself long before the body starts to push back.

What you can do

There is no universal recipe, but there are directions that help most people.

1. Take an honest look at where your energy goes

Observe yourself for a week: after which tasks, meetings and people do you feel drained, and after which do you feel at least neutral? It often turns out that what exhausts you is not the volume of work but two or three specific sources.

2. Bring back your boundaries

Set a time after which work notifications are off. This is not selfishness — it is the condition under which you can keep working at all.

3. Rest properly

Lying on the sofa with your phone and resting are different things. What restores you is what switches you off: movement, being outdoors, real conversation, something you do without needing to get anything out of it.

4. Notice your inner dialogue

Listen to what you say to yourself when you fall behind or make a mistake. If you hear "you have to", "you can't let them down", "everyone else copes" — those are exactly the beliefs that will not let you stop. They can be worked with, and that is one of the main tasks of therapy for burnout.

5. Don't stay alone with it

Talking to someone close to you, a colleague you trust, or a psychologist is not a sign that things are "really bad". It is a way to see the situation from the outside while you still have the strength to change something.

When to seek help

If the state lasts more than a few weeks, if you notice you have stopped enjoying anything, if thoughts like "I wish none of this existed" appear — do not wait. Burnout responds well to therapy, especially the cognitive behavioural approach: we look at what exactly is draining you, which beliefs keep you from stopping, and learn to arrange your life so that your resources are not only spent but also come back.

If what you have read here feels familiar, you can start with a free 20-minute intro call. Just to talk, and to work out where to begin.