Why some people burn out and others don't
And no, it's not because you're not trying hard enough
You can take a group of people, subject them to the same stressors at work, and some will burn out and some won’t- and it’s nothing to do with your individual resilience, or that you’re not trying hard enough, despite what you might be told.
Burnout occurs because of prolonged and unsuccessfully managed stress at work. It is, by definition, a workplace problem. But, similar to other health problems, there will be some people that are more at risk of developing burnout compared to others. Knowing if you are at increased risk is powerful, because it means you can be proactive about protecting yourself. What it doesn’t mean, however, is that you are to blame if you do end up burning out, because burnout occurs because of unmanageable stress. Even the most resilient people have breaking points.
I had no idea before my own burnout that my high achieving, type A, perfectionist, high functioning anxiety personality type put me at risk, although writing this down now I find my prior naiveity embarrassingly astonishing. In fact, I thought quite the opposite about any risk to my mental wellbeing. I thought I was incredibly robust and able to cope with my stress really well. When I started to flounder under hugely intense work pressure, my personality type pushed me into coping strategies that inadvertently worsened things, such as working harder, staying late, blaming myself and feeling a total failure.
These individual risk factors might not even be things that the individual is consciously aware of. I’ve held off writing about this for a while because the last thing I want to do is to trigger any anxiety about increased risk, or attach any blame or stigma. I share these risk factors with you in the hope that they will help to empower you to reflect on how you can modify your risk profile.
Remember that these are risk factors and not direct causes of burnout! The direct cause is work stress, and so working on your risk factors alone in the context of huge stress at work will not be sufficient to protect you. True burnout prevention requires a multi-factorial approach that tackles the root cause and does not blame the individual that then ends up burning out.
In the same way that you need a spark to light a fire, the oxygen and fuel that is already present are not solely responsible for the ensuring blaze. Managing your risk factors is similar to putting safety measures in place to stop fires from happening, but without tackling the fundamental cause of burnout, the safety measures might not be enough.
The individual risk factors for burnout, according to the data:
Personality type- high achievers/type A personality types
Imposter Syndrome- an independent risk factor for burnout
Perfectionism and people pleasing: perfectionism is a sub-type of Imposter Syndrome.
Introversion- whilst introversion isn’t in itself a risk factor for burnout, if you are an introvert in a job that requires you to be extroverted without adequate rest/recovery then you’re at increased risk of burnout
Previous or current co-existing mental health problems, such as anxiety or depression
Neurodiversity- ADHD and ASD are both associated with burnout. I’ve written an article on ADHD, burnout, and women, which you can access here:
Coping styles- if you tend to be avoidant, passive or emotion-centred when coping with stress, this puts you at increased risk. Emotion-centred means trying to fix the emotional response to the stress, rather than the stressor itself.
Childhood trauma and trauma in adulthood- the changes that occur in the brain with burnout are very similar to the changes seen in PTSD, so it’s understandable that previous traumatic events will lower the threshold for burnout
Your upbringing- in particular mixed messages about achievement and conditional love vs academic achievement that puts people at risk. This also often feeds into perfectionism, people pleasing and Imposter Syndrome.
As you can see, some of these risk factors are modifiable, and not all of them are directly within your control (such as neurodiversity, or what happened in your childhood). What you can control, however, is how you now manage them as an adult.
I hope that this has been helpful and empowering for you. As always, I am here to answer any questions you might have in the comments.
I absolutely love how you've used highly relatable descriptions to label the nuances & multifaceted nature of burnout. It's an internal experience with often unrecognizable external symptoms, until you are the tipping point! This will definitely be an article I'll come back to often as a compass and/or as a salve. Deep gratitude for writing and sharing this article.
Thanks so much for this Claire.
I certainly identify with three of those risk factors. I know I’m a people pleaser, an introvert and I suffer from imposter syndrome (despite leaving big teams at work).
I’ve shared this with my network as I just know this will resonate and could help so many people be aware before it’s too late.