Note: This post contains mentions of suicidal ideation and pregnancy loss.
Burnout occurs when prolonged stress leaves you feeling completely mentally, physically, and emotionally exhausted. Burnout at work can make you feel hopeless, ineffective, cynical, and filled with dread before each shift begins.
Recently, people shared their personal red flags of burnout that they wish they'd noticed sooner, and it generated a lot of discussion. There were dozens of comments where people shared even more important signs of burnout to watch for, plus some of the things that made them feel better:
1. "I would curse a lot and just be in an overall bad mood in the mornings. My coworkers knew not to bug me before 11 a.m. and thought my cursing was 'funny' — it became part of my personality. When I started a lower stress job for better pay, I was notably happier."
2. "I started burning dinners. I'm normally a really good cook and have never used timers because I just seem to know when something is ready or needs turning. But night after night, even cooking simple meals, I just totally messed up, and they were disgusting or inedible. Not long after that, I couldn't retain any information and then was crying all the time and vomiting from anxiety almost every day."
"I took two weeks off but spent the entire time thinking, 'Oh god, it's only 10 days before I have to go back.... it's only three days...' and so on. I went back to work and lasted a day before I fully broke and ended up off sick for four months. I'd never taken any sick leave and felt so guilty for doing so, but I couldn't function. I slept, exercised, went to therapy, and got on medication and was able to go back."
3. "I’m a teacher. I make my career my life and therefore burn myself out. But I also have both a mental and a physical disability. I knew when I chose my profession that it would always be challenging with the health issues I have, but sometimes it feels like I’m drowning. Literally. I can’t catch my breath. I have a pulse oximeter for other reasons and out of curiosity check it during these episodes. It is quite literally impacting me physically. I left a toxic administration (though a faculty that I loved and miss) and now work in a much more healthy school climate, but am still coming home often and just passing out."
"The thing that keeps me from TOTAL burnout is that I do have the luxury of feeling like I’m contributing in a meaningful way. Even with 150 middle schoolers just being middle schoolers, there’s always at LEAST one moment every day when I know at least one kid had a slightly better day or made a breakthrough. That’s good enough to keep me wanting to do this. I keep every single scrap of a note a kid has given me in my home office. They may forget I exist, but to me, that note they took the time to write, maybe even just that partial sentence, is a boost."
4. "I knew I was burnt out when I reviewed some client charts and realized how little I was engaged in their care compared to when I first started. I am no longer working in that field."
5. "I work as a cleaning lady, which is a fairly solitary job. I cry nearly every shift as I often feel like the kid who has to sit out on the benches while everyone gets to play ball. I feel burnt out not only from the grunt work but from the loneliness of the job."
6. "I feel like a robot. My feelings shut down the entire work day. I drive home and go to sleep at 6:30. Every day I say to myself, you need to work properly, you cant leave things unmarked, you need to emotionally engage with your class. But I feel like an empty cup."
7. "For me, it was when I was absolutely dreading going to work every morning. I’m talking getting into bed and dreading having to work the next day, and then waking up to my alarm the next morning and dreading work so much I would just lie there. I was always running late. I also developed anxiety because of that job."
8. "I decided that I should schedule a medical procedure I’ve been putting off, just so I can have six weeks off to rest and not deal with work, so yeah, that’s probably burnout. I’m leaving my boss in the lurch for a bit this summer since he throws me under the bus daily."
9. "I'm so burnt out I've lost 60 pounds in six months. You would think that is a good thing, but my hormones are so off that my diabetes is back. Before this, I'd been off of diabetes meds for three years. I take up to four Xanax a day, and it doesn't even faze me anymore. My psychologist told me I need to quit my job, but I have been unable to find work that pays enough, and I'm under an intense non-compete/non-solicit agreement. I want out of my line of work, but I can't get out of what I have been doing for 10 years. I just don't know what to do anymore."
10. "Just at the end of 2021, I reached my limit with burnout. I started to work 60-70 hours a week regularly, picked up smoking again after having quit for four years, talked about nothing but work when I was home, and struggled to connect with my partner. I ended up nearly fainting while getting ready for work, and couldn’t shake the dizzy feeling. Called out to go to Urgent Care."
11. "I actually made a 'joke' in a meeting that I was so tired that I wish I could get in a semi-bad car accident so that I could be put on medical leave for awhile. Did my employers talk to me about being burnt out or needing a break? Nope! Did they ask if I was homicidal? Yep. Needless to say, I quit a few months later."
12. "I was a medical aircraft dispatcher. I was just constantly quietly enraged by everything, and I ground my teeth horribly at night. I finally quit that job six months ago, and I still feel like I haven't recovered. I don't have a lot of motivation to do much outside of my job, being with my husband and my dog, and doing chores. I really hope I finish recovering soon."
13. "I was in such a depressed mood that I sometimes wished I could be hospitalized, just so I'd have a break. After starting weekly therapy, getting my position shifted, and a coworker who was a big stressor leaving, I am doing much better now."
14. "I was burnt out, but it took me a very, very long time to realize it. I'd work 9-5, Monday through Friday, but often with an on-call element, so I'd be on duty for 24 hours once every fortnight. I could sleep during that time if I wasn't called. I often cancelled plans on the weekends and evenings, and viewed the weekends as 'recharging time' — I wouldn't leave the house all weekend. I viewed visiting my gym as self-care, but I was often too exhausted for it."
"I left my role to pursue my master's degree, and I've never been happier. It's a healthier type of stress, I've got more self care in the calendar now, and I feel much healthier. It took me six weeks to sleep off the burnout, though."
15. "At one point, I was so stressed from work that I would get home, sit in a chair, and keep my hands balled up in a fist. I even accidentally cut my palms with my nails. Then, I would eat raw Chinese noodles because I didn't have the mental energy to boil them first. The way I got over it was to get a new job."
16. "I’ve been a contract worker for this company for 10 months. People have been leaving in droves, and they have been piling their leftover work on me. I’ve been doing the work of (no exaggeration) eight people — three of whom used to be MY managers. Since I’m contract, I don’t have any vacation days accrued (even with the firm that hired me)."
17. "A major red flag for me is not having emotional reactions to things that would normally elicit a response in me. Work has been so awful lately, and I know it's been taking its toll. I recently found out my Nan is terminally ill, and I just...don't really feel anything. I know I'm blocking off all my feelings. Think I need some time off."
18. "I'm currently burned out, and I have been for a while. I wasn't doing well working from home in 2020. I had some conflicts at work, and it affected me. The pandemic made it worse. Then my boss warned me that I needed to get it together or my annual review would suffer."
"I guess I had to pretend the pandemic wasn't real or that I didn't put my cat to sleep a week after lockdown started. I put all my energy into improving my work, and things got better, but at the cost of my personal energy.
I have hated my job for two years, and it has been very difficult to find a new one in my industry. I am stagnating in my career, and I hate the projects I am given. I hate Sunday nights. I have struggled with insomnia, and lack of sleep causes migraines. I have been low-key depressed for months. Nothing inspires me anymore. I count the hours until I can close my work computer at the end of the day."
19. "When I worked with kids, the biggest signs were being so exhausted I didn't feel energized enough to do anything on the weekends until around 5 p.m. on Saturdays and then waking up Sunday morning feeling anxious about going back to work on Monday. So glad I left that job!"
20. "I had to walk over a canal every day to and from the subway station, and every day I'd think about jumping off that bridge. I was 100% certain that I didn't REALLY want to do it, but I couldn't stop thinking about it, and that in and of itself is exhausting."
"I 'bathed' everyday with pre-moistened body wipes because I couldn't muster the energy to shower, and thus managed to maintain a facade for a long time. (Friends have since confirmed that I didn't stink, at worst it was like I'd gone to the gym for a light workout earlier that day.)
And I got to the point where I started using paper plates and bowls because I had no energy to wash dishes, and the only chores I could manage were basic cat care (feeding, water bowl filling, changing litter) and taking out the trash. Just the absolute necessities for my pets' health (not mine), and preventing vermin and odors so I didn't lose my apartment.
I did try to get support and better conditions from my employers, but their attitude was mostly lip service with a touch of 'if you don't like it, you can leave.' But because I could not afford to not have an income, and I knew I did not have the energy to look for a new job, I kept plugging away until they eventually fired me with unemployment benefits.
Only then could I finally muster the energy to seek help, but by then, my severe burnout had morphed into a very deep depression. So the moral of the story is, whatever it takes, try try try to seek help sooner than I did."
21. "I knew I had burnout at a previous job when my spending on alcohol was close to my rent. My boss stressed me out so much for the smallest inconvenience even when I had no power over it and expected me to take the brunt for the sales team not closing deals (I wasn't even on the sales team). I quit one day when I got a call about something I couldn't control in another continent. It felt great."
22. "My brain would shut down midway through the day, like my body was so stressed that it went into survival mode. I'd hit a wall around 2 or 3 p.m. where I stopped being able to form even basic sentences. I developed a negative attitude about everything with no ability to see the positive in any situation.
23. "I took a retail job one week before my unemployment ended, thinking it would tide me over until I found a more permanent job. Before I realized it, they were thanking me for 10 years of service. The next two years were a blur, but I was so burnt out I prayed to god that I would get in an accident on my way to work. I was incredibly jealous of the coworkers who left or even got fired. I talked about leaving all the time, but the devil you know vs. the devil you don't."
"After 12 years, they eliminated my position, and I wasn't hired for anything else. They did me a freaking favor. Three months later, I took a pay cut for a new job. Two years later, I love my job; it's so stress free. I'm already making more than I did after 12 years at the other place, and I don't get berated or written up if I use a sick day that I earned."
24. "I’m a teacher, and I know I’m burned out because I no longer enjoy the work I do. I drive to work feeling numb, hoping a tire pops, and when I get to work, my only goal is to get through the day. I hate doing anything after work because I’m exhausted and just want to be in bed. However, once I’m in bed, it’s impossible for me to sleep since I don’t want the morning to come. I used to like my job, and feeling this way sucks."
25. "I am approaching burnout now, and I know it. It’s this feeling of being not able to stop because if I do, someone else has to pick up my slack."
26. "This happened to me at the beginning of the school year. I was so stressed, in a bad mood 24/7, and had zero desire to do anything or see anyone. I felt completely off and had no idea why, but then I went on vacation and had a mini breakdown, and suddenly I felt better! I think I just needed a break."
Note: Submissions have been edited for length and clarity.