Burned out? You are not alone.

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The incidents of workplace burnout is rising in the U.S. Especially among younger workers.

A recent study reports that stress and burnout are rising among workers. 66% of American workers experience some level of burnout. That’s a huge number. In short, the majority of us are not okay.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the incidents of job burnout rose – mainly among healthcare providers and teachers, understandably. However, the expectation was that once we resolved the pandemic, stress levels would decline and we would see the occurrence of job burnout drop.

The opposite has happened.

What the data says

The common stressors that can lead to burnout still exist, but we have a new layer that is increasing burnout among younger workers. That layer is the economy.

According to the study, 81% of workers aged 18-24 and 83% of workers aged 25-34 are burned out. That’s a massive number, but what is behind that increase? Mainly that the economy is uncertain. Younger workers are struggling to cover rising basic living costs, such as rent, food, and gas. They don’t have years in the workforce that allowed them to save for tough times and many of them finished college with crushing student loans. They need to keep their income, even if their job is costing them their mental and physical well-being.

On the other end of the spectrum are 49% of workers who are over the age of 55. While the percentage of incidents is half their younger counterparts, at almost half of the surveyed respondents that fall into this age group, it’s a number I don’t discount or ignore.

What is driving job burnout?

Despite all the advice pointing to workers as the reason they are stressed, it is the environment they are working in that is leading to job burnout. The inability to deal with chronic, reoccurring stress, often things out of an employee’s control, is a symptom of a workplace problem.

Let’s take a look at survey respondents’ top 4 workplace stressors.

Poor economy makes it hard to leave a job.
- Changing jobs has a cost. There is a gap in paychecks, gap in medical coverage and the time it takes to interview and get a new job before leaving a current one. For many people, this isn’t an easy or viable option when you are competing for the same job with many others in the same situation.

Labor shortages or reductions in staff.
- If you have been watching this news any time this year, layoffs are at the top of it. Cutbacks at the federal government have created a snowball effect for vendors, contractors and other businesses that have lost funding or business and have had to cut back on their own staff.
- Concerns about recession, tariffs and other economic changes have caused cuts from major businesses in the US. In the past week, Microsoft, Amazon and Walmart have announced cuts to their workforce.. This leads to a job market with low opportunity and high competition.

Not enough resources to do their job.
- Along with the economic cutbacks, companies are also looking to reduce unnecessary spending while expecting the same level of productivity from the employees that are left. Either, an employee has to make do with inefficient tools to complete their work, or they are taking on workloads from reduced staff and don’t have the necessary resources to meet the need.
- Even before the uncertainty we are seeing in 2025, employees have said that lack of resources to do their jobs was a common stress point. It’s not in the control of the employee to ensure funding and support are provided to improve efficiency and productivity.

Unmanageable expectations or deadlines.
- This one goes along with not having the resources. If the deadlines are not realistic or the expectations are not clearly defined or inconsistent, employees are left chasing moving targets.

Burnout is a workplace problem

Time and time again, I see articles that focus on the individual as the problem and give advice on how the individual can resolve their burnout. Things like taking time off, or saying no to things when they are at capacity. Eat well. Get more sleep. None of those things talk about the impacts of burnout within a company.

If I told a CEO that their business is struggling because of inefficiencies, waste, errors and failures, they would allocate time and resources to tackle them. And that’s what happens with burnout.

Employees are less efficient.
Employees make more mistakes.
Employees use more sick time.
Employees become disengaged and lose innovation and problem-solving.

There are two things employers can do to reduce job burnout in their workplace.

The first thing they can do is listen.
Employees that are closest to the work know what is inefficient. What is going to miss a deadline? What are reasonable expectations to meet the defined goal? Listening to the issues and seeking input on how to resolve them allows the team to problem-solve and make recommendations.

Second, don’t treat PTO as a marketing term.
60% of workers left unused paid time off on the table. That is the time when workers need to recharge their mental batteries so they can be innovative, face challenges and solve problems. They can’t do it on a depleted battery.

Here’s the thing about younger workers. They know PTO is a sales term. It’s thrown around in recruitment campaigns to get them to apply. They are skeptical that the “unlimited PTO” or “generous PTO” terms are legitimate.

Ever heard of the tech company that offers unlimited PTO and then you hear the workers say no one ever takes it? It’s because the culture is all work and no play kind of environment. In other words, it’s a breeding ground for burnout and unlimited PTO is meaningless.

I used to work for a company that had unlimited PTO. Some employees had years of time off banked up. But if anyone took time off, they were teased or shunned. People who took time off annually would miss out on opportunities, promotions and were often labeled as a problem.

That kind of culture is not what younger workers are looking for and if that’s how your company culture is today, you will struggle to hire younger talent in the years to come.

There are things the individual can bring to the workplace.

We have to talk about the issues that lead to chronic stress.
As individuals, it is important we identify the root cause of our burnout and bring it to the conversation in our workplaces..

For me, I realized that I had tied my value to high productivity. What resulted was a workload where I prioritized the work over everything else so that I could be a reliable employee. It created two problems: 1. I had stepped away from everything that I valued most – my family and my own joy, and 2. It hid a capacity problem so when I did start to pull back, suddenly we had work that couldn’t get done.

I now have open conversations with my supervisor about my workload and we set priorities and deadlines based on what I can comfortably handle without overloading myself. Sometimes, that means projects are delayed, but that’s an important conversation to have upfront.

I also share my experience with burnout through presentations to the department. It has also opened up opportunities for others to share their experiences or seek support when they need it from others who have been in the situation and have found healthy ways to resolve it.

We need to use our benefits, without guilt.
This was so hard for me because of the culture we have in the U.S. I have been working since I was a teenager and the hard work ethic, along with the guilt that occurs when taking time off, is an ingrained mentality I have been working to break.

If you have PTO saved up at your workplace, don’t talk yourself out of using it for little things – not just planned vacations. Feeling overwhelmed? Is there a date coming up that will be emotionally challenging for you? Take it off. Set things down and give yourself space for self-care. Those things will be there tomorrow. The reason you are taking your earned benefit is not for others to judge it’s worthiness. It’s your benefit. Use it.

Workers need to shape better workplaces.

Workplace changes happen when people push for improvements. Together, we need to build a workplace that doesn’t just say they encourage mental wellbeing, but it is part of the culture that it is discussed and supported with actionable follow through.