The state of worker burnout: 2024

Burnout remains a pervasive threat to employers. But what’s driving it? Eagle Hill’s latest research delves into the heart of the issue, uncovering who bears the brunt of burnout, its underlying drivers, and the vital insights workers share on alleviating its toll. We help clients tackle the challenge of employee burnout through our expertise in workforce planning, employee experience, culture, and talent management consulting.

Employee Burnout Survey Methodology

Since the early days of the pandemic, Eagle Hill has been surveying fulltime U.S. employees to gain deeper understanding of worker burnout. These findings are from the ongoing Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Surveys conducted by Ipsos, most recently in February 2024. Each survey includes more than 1,000 respondents from a random sample of employees across the U.S.

Worker Burnout Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is worker burnout?

Worker burnout, also referred to as job burnout or occupational burnout, is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged exposure to job stress. It often results from chronic work-related stress and is characterized by feelings of emotional exhaustion, decreased job performance, and feelings of detachment from work. Burnout can also significantly affect an individual’s mental health and well-being.

How can you quickly address burnout in your organization?

To help employees recover from occupational burnout, it’s crucial to foster a supportive work environment. Key strategies include:

Creating a culture that supports flexibility: Giving employees autonomy and ownership over how and when they complete their work can help reduce work-related stress. Communicate options and encourage employees to take advantage of flexibility allowances that are available to them.
Managing excessive workloads: Periodic check-ins can help better distribute workloads by allowing managers and employees to discuss reprioritizing tasks, collaborating with others on a team to get work done, or delegating responsibilities to ensure more manageable workloads.
Frequently checking in: Identify the root causes of emotional exhaustion and occupational burnout by regularly pulsing employees on their engagement and enabling managers to sit down with their team members every week or two and talk about how things are going.
Helping people focus on high value work: Job stress can arise when employs feel that are spending too much time on low-value activities. Take a critical look at underlying work processes and explore opportunities to automate manual tasks and eliminate time-consuming workarounds.
Modeling from the top down: Leaders should set the example for wellbeing by sharing how they maintain work-life balance, encouraging social connections and team building, and promoting access to mental health and wellbeing resources.

How can you identify burnout in your team?

Common indicators that employees may be experiencing burnout include:

Persistent emotional exhaustion and mental fatigue.
Detachment or disengagement from work responsibilities.
Loss of motivation and decreased job satisfaction.
Struggling to manage excessive workloads, leading to declining productivity.
Difficulty maintaining work-life balance due to overwhelming job stress.

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