EAP support reduces sick leaves by 33%, lost time by 40%, and work-related stress by 65%.
Explore Our EAP ServicesOdds are you’ve experienced workplace burnout at some point in your life: Waking up tired, blanking out at an empty screen, unable to form a cohesive thought during meetings, and feeling irritated and stressed out for not having accomplished anything at the end of the day.
Then, you reach home to find another set of strenuous tasks like laundry, cooking, and cleaning. It’s like you're a soda bottle that's been shaken too much, ready to explode, yet the lid is screwed on so tightly that nothing comes out.
Right now, this feeling is burnout. If left unresolved, it can quickly lead to withdrawal, depression, or anxiety.
The good news is that dealing with workplace exhaustion is possible. Let’s look into the signs, causes, and a simple approaches to overcome burnout, such as counselling.
What is Burnout?
Burnout is an occupational phenomenon. For example, employees may experience burnout when job demands (ie workload, long working hours, interpersonal conflict) are chronically disproportionate to job resources (ie EAP support, job autonomy, healthy work environment).
You may have burnout and workplace stress if:
- Every workday feels like a bad day
- You don’t have the energy to think about any aspects of your personal life
- You’re emotionally and physically drained all the time
- Nothing you do feels rewarding or worthy of appreciation
Exploring the Why: 7 Work Burnout Causes
Burnout results from persistent stress related to work that slowly wears down an individual’s sense of motivation, job satisfaction, purpose and overall mental and physical well-being.
While the exact causes of burnout at work may differ based on various factors, the following are some that show up across industries, job roles and countries:
1) Lack of Control
When employees have little say over their tasks, schedules, or workload, it can create a sense of powerlessness. Without necessary autonomy, employees may start feeling like cogs in a machine, becoming disengaged, dissatisfied and feeling undervalued.
2) Unclear Job Expectations or Shifting Priorities
Ambiguity in job roles and responsibilities, a lack of process, or frequent changes without proper communication may lead to disconnection, frustration, anxiety, and eventual work stress symptoms.
3) Toxic Workplace Culture or Poor Leadership
A work culture that fosters fear, blame, favouritism, or unhealthy competition can quickly become mentally and emotionally draining. Leadership that lacks empathy and fails to create psychologically safe work environments may push employees towards workplace stress and burnout, making them feel unsupported and expendable.
4) Mismatch in Values or Company Mission
When an employee’s personal values and ethics are at odds with a company’s mission, direction, practices or culture, it creates internal conflict.
Over time, this kind of dissonance can lead to reduced motivation and workplace burnout symptoms.
5) Lack of Recognition or Reward
Feeling undervalued, whether in terms of compensation, recognition or growth opportunities, is a significant contributor to burnout in the workplace.
6) Poor Work-Life Balance
Long hours, having to work during weekends, blurred boundaries (especially common in remote or hybrid work setups) and ‘always-on’ culture prevent proper balance between professional and work lives. When work keeps running over and personal time is constantly interrupted, burnout becomes inevitable.
7) Continuous high demands with low support
When workloads run high without adequate resources, processes, staffing or time, employees may be left overwhelmed, anxious and unable to manage stress related to work.
Signs of Burnout in The Workplace
Burnout in the workplace can affect you both mentally and physically – just like every other psychological condition.
For example, people who have generalised anxiety may often experience stomach aches or a condition known as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). Research shows that any mental distress can activate the central nervous system and affect the digestive processes.
You may have also noticed the opposite. Like having thyroid issues or diabetes can increase stress or cause mood swings.
The body-and-mind connection makes it all the more important for organisations to invest in burnout prevention strategies. To that end, let’s look at the signs and stages of burnout.
Stages of Burnout
Below are the 12 stages of burnout, as outlined by psychologists Herbert Freudenberger and Gail North.
The stages may not occur chronologically. Some individuals experience only certain stages of burnout in the workplace. Others may go through multiple stages concurrently.
1) The compulsion to prove oneself
Initially, there’s excessive ambition and the compulsion to prove oneself. This isn’t just about proving one’s worth to colleagues, but more importantly, to oneself. Hardworking employees and individuals who struggle to say ‘no’ may also end up here.
2) Working harder
This is an escalation of the first stage. Individuals accept more tasks than they can manage.
However, their excessive ambition and compulsion to prove themselves drive them to complete all their work by themselves. They don’t ask for help. Employees may also feel ‘irreplaceable,’ leading to work-related stress symptoms.
EAP support reduces sick leaves by 33%, lost time by 40%, and work-related stress by 65%.
Explore Our EAP Services3) Neglecting personal needs
As a result of all the extra effort, work takes centre stage. Other aspects of life, such as eating well, getting enough sleep, and engaging in social interaction, become less important. At times, they even seem unnecessary.
4) Displacement of conflicts
As more mistakes occur due to the individual’s high workload and lack of rest, interpersonal conflicts ensue. Employees start to come up with excuses for their mistakes.
Employees may even blame others. Employees recognise that something is ‘off’. However, they are unable to identify the source of their problems.
Furthermore, uncovering and addressing the root cause is viewed as an internal crisis and even threatening. At this stage, the first burnout signs and symptoms, such as exhaustion, appear. Revisiting your values periodically allows you to identify what no longer aligns with you and may be contributing to your burnout in the workplace.
5) Revision of Values
Here, the employee’s values start to change. Work becomes the most important aspect of life.
Meanwhile, family, friends, hobbies, and interests are seen as irrelevant and are dismissed. Consequently, the individual’s self-worth is measured solely by their work. Furthermore, employees are unaware of the impact of their behaviour on others. The revision of values ultimately occurs due to poor workplace mental health.
6) Denial of Emerging Problems
Individuals start becoming intolerant of social interaction. They increasingly view others negatively. For instance, colleagues may be labelled as stupid, lazy, or demanding.
The employee is still unable to identify the root cause of their problems. Instead, they blame their workload or tight deadlines.
7) Withdrawal
At this stage, their already limited social life is reduced to a minimum. It may even be non-existent.
Socially isolated, the employee may therefore turn to alcohol or drugs to relieve stress. Workplace burnout symptoms, such as feelings of hopelessness, increase.
8) Obvious Behavioural Changes
Changes in the employee’s behaviour become so apparent. Their family, friends, and colleagues are increasingly concerned. Changes are hard to ignore.
9) Depersonalisation
At this stage, the employee feels detached from the situation. The employee’s view of life is limited to the present moment.
Life is reduced to mechanical functions. The employee does not value themselves or others. They are unable to perceive their own needs.
10) Inner Emptiness
By this stage, the employee feels empty. To overcome this, the employee engages in and exaggerates other activities. These may include overeating, sex, alcohol, or drugs.
11) Depression
Here, the employee experiences depression, which is one of the major work stress symptoms. The employee is overwhelmed with feelings of indifference, hopelessness, and exhaustion. It begins to feel like life has no meaning.
12) Burnout Syndrome
By this point, the employee collapses physically and mentally. Suicidal thoughts may set in.
If you are feeling suicidal, contact your national suicide prevention hotline. Alternatively, go to the emergency department of a hospital.
Tips for Managing Stress Related to Work
- Increase your self-awareness. Increasing your self-awareness is a good way to start addressing your stress. When you are clear about what your needs are (both body and mind), it is easier to communicate them to others succinctly.
- Know your limits. How much work is too much for you? What kind of tasks may you require more guidance or instructions on? How much time are you willing to spend at work each day or week?
- Know your triggers. What upsets you the most at work? Examples include being overworked, vague instructions, being micromanaged, interacting with certain colleagues, perceived unfairness, and last-minute changes. How do these triggers impact you? What else affects you?
- Ask for help. Many people worry that asking for help regarding burnout in the workplace makes them appear weak, while others believe that asking for help ‘burdens’ the people they ask. No one is perfect, however, and it is absolutely normal for all of us to need some help from time to time. Think about the specific kind of help you would like to ask for, and from whom. For instance, you may wish to ask close colleagues for resources or advice on specific projects. If you prefer to keep your personal issues separate from work, consider online counselling. Online counselling provides several benefits such as increased accessibility, convenience, affordability, etc.
Burnout Prevention Strategies
Finding solutions to stress and burnout management requires careful consideration of the employee, employer, and the workplace.
Whether you are an employee or an employer, think about these two questions:
- Who is burning out?
- Why am I/is this person burning out?
Which of the above do you think is the right question?
Remember that it is in the ‘why’ of everything that we can deconstruct the roots of any problem. So, if you’ve already guessed it, the 2nd question is more impactful.
5 Strategies to Manage Burnout in the Workplace
1) Time-blocking or prioritisation tools
When everything is ‘urgent’, the end result is often minimal productivity and maximum overwhelm.
Time-blocking is a useful tool that can help you structure your workday with intention, dedicating specific time slots to different tasks, including breaks, and planning them based on priority.
2) Taking Micro-breaks During the Day
More often than not, regular micro-breaks make a bigger difference than a whole week off work.
Take short pauses to stretch, grab a glass of water, have a cup of coffee, call a friend, or just step away from your screen. These small but intentional acts can help reset your nervous system, preventing work stress from turning into burnout.
3) Prioritise Your Physical Health
Symptoms of stress related to work may be addressed by intentionally making your physical health a priority.
In order to prioritise sleep, for instance, some people find it helpful to set a daily alarm at a specific time to prepare for bedtime. This may include winding down for the day and putting devices aside. You may also find it helpful to have someone to exercise with regularly or to engage a fitness trainer.
4) Respond, Rather Than React
When faced with unfavourable situations such as receiving an accusatory comment, peer pressure or complaint email, it is natural to react defensively and emotionally at first.
However, try not to pour out your emotions instinctively into an immediate email reply, which may cause more problems.
Pausing and waiting until you are calmer before responding can help you respond in a more objective and professional manner. This protects your work relationships and prevents further escalation of any signs of burnout in the workplace.
5) Seeking Mental Health Support
If work stress persists and seems to start snowballing into burnout, it may be a good time to speak to a mental health professional like a counsellor in Malaysia.
Therapy offers a safe, confidential and nurturing space to unpack experiences, explore underlying causes and develop personalised coping strategies to support your healing journey.
These days, many employers offer Employee Assistance Programmes (EAPs), which are employer-sponsored corporate mental health support services.
Leadership Burnout Prevention
Employers Can
- Make use of surveys or free questionnaires such as the burnout assessment tool (BAT) to measure the occurrence of burnout once or twice a year
- Periodically conduct self- or group-reflection activities to assess workloads, working hours, bandwidth, and team dynamics
- Evaluate their workplace values and whether the company is following through with them.
- Look into employee assistance programs (EAP) to provide regular mental health services to their employees.
At TYHO, we provide EAP services such as talk therapy, empathy circles (ie small group discussions), workshops, seminars and on-site support for crisis situations.
If you're thinking about starting counselling, explore our blog on "What Happens In A Counselling Session? 5 Stages To Know" to get started.
Key Takeaways
Burnout in the workplace can affect employees, employers, and the entire organisation.
Causes of burnout at work are unrealistic job expectations, poor work-life balance, and more.
Burnout signs and symptoms include both mental and physical issues.
There are 12 stages of burnout, and individuals may or may not experience them in chronological order.
Managing stress in the workplace is possible when both employees and employers act proactively and seek professional EAP support.
About the Reviewer
Glennamarie MeenachiClinical Psychologist
Glennamarie is a clinical psychologist practising since July 2020, registered with the Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council (MAHPC (CP) 00265) and a Full International Member of the Singapore Psychological Society (FM023020M). She works with mood instability, work-related stress, anxiety, depression, self-esteem, trauma, bipolar disorder, OCD, ADHD and PTSD, conducts psychological assessments for neurodevelopmental conditions (ADHD, ASD, SLD), and previously served as a Crisis Support Officer in vulnerable communities. She reviews TYHO articles for clinical accuracy.
Read more about our editorial process.
View full profile- Master of Clinical Psychology (MClinPsych), University of Cyberjaya (Malaysia)
- Bachelor of Science in Psychology (BSc Psychology), Centro Escolar University (Philippines)
- Standard Mental Health First Aider
- Certified Crisis Support Officer (WAO)
- Malaysian Allied Health Professions Council, Registered Allied Health Practitioner (MAHPC (CP) 00265)
- Singapore Psychological Society, International Full Member (SPS: FM023020M)
- Malaysian Society of Clinical Psychology, Full Member (MSCP: CP1-0350)
- American Psychological Association, International Affiliate (APA: C2405020803)
