Who burns out? This is a great question to ask. You can take a group of people, put them all under the same stress at work, and some will burn out and some won’t.
Now, burnout occurs because of prolonged and unsuccessfully managed stress at work. It is, by definition, a workplace problem. Both the cause and the solution to burnout are making changes at work. If you aren’t already familiar with the 6 workplace factors that directly cause burnout, then you can read more about them here.
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.
Who burns out? Why burnout is like a physical health problem
To help you to understand how you might be at an increased chance of burning out, let’s compare burnout to a physical health problem. For this example, lung cancer is a useful problem to compare to. You will already be familiar with the disease, and how it is caused. As most people already know, the cause of lung cancer in the overwhelming majority of cases is smoking.
However, not everyone that smokes will develop lung cancer. Some people will be protected from it due to other factors, such as their genetics, or their environment.
The same is true in burnout. Work factors leading to burnout is similar to how smoking leads to lung cancer. Not everyone that experiences stress at work will burn out, because some people are more protected from it than others.
Let’s go on to talk now about the 9 things that mean you are more likely to burn out when you are stressed at work.
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.
Who burns out? The 9 things that put you at risk outside of work stress- and why
There are 9 things that mean you are more likely to burn out. It’s important to know what they are, so that you can be empowered to manage your work stress better!
1. Imposter syndrome
Imposter Syndrome is the feeling of being a fraud, and that you don’t deserve your achievements despite being a very high achiever. It increases the risk of burnout by causing the following: overwork, procrastination, avoidance of work, perfectionism and comparison.
2. Perfectionism
Perfectionism fuels burnout by making you take on too much work, and by worsening emotional exhaustion.
3. People pleasing
People pleasing puts you at risk from burnout by causing low self esteem and self worth, which then leads to poor professional boundaries. Ultimately, the people pleaser inadvertently takes on too much at work in an attempt to help everyone around them.
4. Personality type
Being an introvert in an extroverted role without enough time to recharge your social batteries causes burnout by causing emotional exhaustion. Type A personalities are also at risk, as they tend to manage stress by avoiding it (see below on coping skills!).
5. Your childhood
Mixed messages about achievement in childhood means you are more likely to burn out as an adult. Any trauma experienced in childhood also increases burnout risk. This is because brain changes in burnout are very similar to the changes after trauma.
6. Trauma in adulthood
Traumatic events as an adult cause changes to the brain that are very similar to the burnt out brain.
7. Pre-existing mental health problems
Burnout isn’t always linked with mental health problems, However, if you already have a mental health problem such as depression or anxiety, then you will be at increased risk of burnout. The reasons for this are multiple.
8. Coping skills
Most people that end up in full-blown burnout will have used coping strategies to soothe how they feel about the stress, and to manage their own emotions. People that are protected against burnout tend to cope with stress by tackling the root cause (i.e. the stressor itself). This is important, because tackling the root cause means you are making changes to the stressor itself, and therefore reducing its impact.
9. Neurodiversity
Those with ADHD and ASD in particular experience rapid burnout cycles. These cycles are driven by the effects, and the stress of being neurodivergent in a neurotypical world.
So, now you know who burns out when things get stressful at work.
Who burns out? Now you’ve identified the things that might predispose you to burnout, what can you do about it?
If you have realised that you have one of more of the things that put you into an at-risk group for burnout, then happily there are things that you can to protect yourself.
The first is to tackle your work stress.
The second is to put things in place to help reduce the effects of the risk factors on your ability to cope with stress. This might look like having coaching or therapy to reduce the impact of imposter syndrome on how you cope with work stress. It could mean having support measures put in place to help you if you have ADHD- things like being able to wear noise cancelling ear phones in noisy office environments. Or, it might mean seeing your doctor for help with depression, anxiety or PTSD.
I go into these risk factors in much more detail in my upcoming book The Burnout Doctor! Released on Jan 30th 2025, it is available to pre-order from Amazon UK here.
