The lesser known reason behind burnout
Burnout, stress and overwhelm are prolific in the world of work right now. Over three quarters of CEOs say they’re overworked and burned out [1] and depending on the study you’re reading, around half of the general employee population are feeling it too [2,3,4,5].
We often focus on burnout being the result of a crappy balance in the amount of work vs resources available to do said work, but in my experience there’s a lot more to it and an unexpected reason that shows up again and again in the leaders and businesses I work with.
There are three types of burnout that I see, and they’re all a little bit interrelated (as everything is with people - we’re a complicated bunch):
Prolonged periods of having too much work to do with the time and resources available. This impacts the time you have available for other, likely more fulfilling and energising things in your life.
Prolonged periods of work that are physically or mentally stressful. This creates a downwards spiral: the more stress you have, the lower your stress resistance is, the more stress affects you… and so on.
A misalignment of values. And here are a few examples: having to do work or lead in a way that you don’t agree with or believe in, having to ‘pretend’ your way through things, having to be someone or something you are not to get ahead.
A misalignment of values is an often overlooked but destructively impactful cause of burnout, and it’s probably the most common one I see in coaching clients. It’s overlooked because it’s difficult to recognise: it’s not quantifiable like the first two - we can all see the volume of work someone has, or get a barometer on what we might think is physically or mentally stressful, to a certain degree of obviousness. It’s also difficult to recognise because it’s personal - the values of one person won’t be the same as the next, and even if they say they are the same, the way they experience and live them will be by their own definition which, you guessed it, will be different.
Burnout shows up in lots of different ways, but from my experience, burnout down to a misalignment of values tends to have some key characteristics:
a lack of ideas or ability to innovate,
just doing as instructed,
a reluctance to collaborate
not caring about whether something goes well or not
This is the specific side of lethargy born out of the continuously draining impact of being someone you’re not, saying and doing things you don’t believe in.
Let’s take a burnout client I worked with earlier this year. He was part of the C-suite of a thriving business with a purpose and mission he really believed in and felt he could bring a huge amount of value to the business and its performance. But as we all know, business never stays static. After a long and gruelling sale process, the CEO left, new ownership came in and the business was left in limbo without any definitive leadership direction. Now, given two of my client’s values, the things that drove him to do his best work and how he likes to lead his own team, were those of clarity and tangible performance progress, this limbo situation was very quickly a problem. We talked about leadership meetings that just went round in circles, teams being told different things by different leaders and a lack of any robust or agreed goals to go after. He constantly put up opposition to these behaviours, asked questions of the board and tried to rally his team, but the system was moving further and further away from his core values and motivators. He reluctantly disengaged, became accepting of negative behaviours and took every bit of energy he had to just ‘make it through’. The result: burnout characterised by that specific side of lethargy I spoke about earlier. Eventually, when a new CEO was appointed and a clear business direction was set, there was nothing left - no enthusiasm for the renewed vision, no belief and no way back.
So what can we do about it? It’s much better to try and root it out early than wait and see what happens, especially in times of change:
Make sure you understand what your values and motivators are and regularly review them - this makes it easier to recognise when there’s a conflict.
Intentionally take stock when anything changes, be that ownership, strategy, leadership or ways of working - protected time when you can do some active thinking about the change, what it means and how that relates to your values.
If some of this resonates but you’re not sure where you’re at, start listening. Listen to your gut when something doesn’t feel right, voice it out loud to someone you trust to determine whether it’s a one off (I don’t agree with this decision and I’m a bit miffed about it) or a growing sentiment (I’m not aligned with where this is going/how things are working/what we are aiming for)
If you’re still not sure, listen to those closest to you. What questions are your friends and family asking? Are they subtly flagging anything to you? “You don’t seem like yourself, you’re quiet, you seem tired a lot, are you ok?”.
If you can see there’s a problem, understand the extent of it: what impact is it having? How is it affecting you, your work and those around you? Then set some boundaries to minimise the impact and work out who you need to talk to to help lessen the values conflict.
Set a when this/what if plan - you’ll need a light to work towards - if the boundaries don’t work or the improvements in alignment don’t come, you know what you’ll do next.
This step isn’t for everyone, but at the right time, you could have a grown up conversation with your boss. This is clearly only possible if that person isn’t the main cause of your values misalignment! If you’re able, reinforce the things you like about work and what you’re doing, then explain the ‘but’. Genuine and honest wins every time for me, and with most values oriented people, especially at leadership level. You can then work together on your boundaries, better values alignment and when this/what if plans transparently.
Stick or twist? It might reach a point where you’ll need to decide - an extended stay in the unknown is hard. If things have improved, take stock again, stay aware of yourself and your values alignment. If they haven’t, you have some thoughts and potential plans already formed. You can decide what comes next.
I’m conscious I’ve left my client’s story in a state of despair, but that’s not where our coaching ended. We worked through steps six to eight over a number of sessions, focusing largely on how to have a transparent conversation with the new CEO, who ended up being incredibly understanding and supportive. They crafted an extended exit plan (it was twist) that supported both my client - who was able to add value in the ways that were true to him before he left, and the new CEO - who was able to utilise my clients skills and knowledge to make decisions in a way that would land well with the team.
“I wouldn’t have been able to get to the outcome I did without Faye’s support. She spotted the opportunity with my incoming CEO and helped me put a narrative together that was clear and concise - something I couldn’t have seen or done alone.”
Burnout will happen to most, if not all of us at some point in our careers - as mere humans we’re not evolved to function optimally in the crazy, overstimulating world we live in. But on the other hand, we are human! Our intelligence and awareness means we can understand ourselves, our drivers and drainers and if we’re all a bit more gutsy, we can choose ways to live and work in this world that gets the best out of us.
[1] 2025 LHH (Adecco Group) research reported in HR Magazine, 2025
[2] Lattice and YouGov research reported in People Management, 2024
[3] BCG research: Four Keys to Boosting Inclusion and Beating Burnout, 2024
[4] Atlassian research reported in HR Magazine, 2025
