During Mental Health Awareness Week, experts are urging employers to recognise the signs of burnout, a condition that can devastate both employees and organisations if left unaddressed. Unlike stress, which is often openly discussed, burnout remains misunderstood, leading to serious emotional, physical, and mental depletion. Nathan Shearman, director of therapy and training at Red Umbrella, a mental health training provider, explains that burnout extends beyond feeling overworked, highlighting its distinct and debilitating nature.

Understanding the early warning signs equips employers to support their teams effectively, preventing long-term harm. Shearman identifies five critical indicators of burnout, offering insights into their impact and how businesses can respond.

Signs of employee burnout

• Exhaustion. This is often the first sign, but it differs from ordinary tiredness. Burnout often manifests as exhaustion, but not simply in the sense of being tired or worn out. One of the key characteristics of burnout is that it doesn’t tend to matter how much sleep you get, you still feel exhausted when you wake up in the morning. Normal tiredness can be eased with rest, but burnout persists. This persistent fatigue can disrupt daily functioning and productivity.
• Difficulty in concentrating. Burnout impairs cognitive abilities, making routine tasks feel overwhelming. When your normal, straightforward day-to-day tasks, like responding to an email or just holding a conversation, require all your focus and energy, this can be a sign of burnout. This is especially true if the tasks you’re struggling with are things you would normally consider simple or easy. Such struggles often lead to mistakes, fostering frustration and guilt among employees.
• Cynicism and negative thinking: Burnout can alter thought patterns, fostering negativity and detachment. When we’re feeling burned out it can be hard to pay attention to the positive things around us. It’s like when you have a physical illness that leaves you under the weather, and it’s blue sky and sunshine outside. While you can recognise that it’s a lovely day, it doesn’t feel lovely because of how you feel inside. This mindset can erode enjoyment and lead to thoughts like “What’s the point?” or “Everything’s rubbish,” alongside scepticism about offered support.
• Physical symptoms. Burnout also manifests physically, often in overlooked ways. Headaches, muscle aches and pains, digestion problems and loss of appetite can all occur with burnout. We can often ignore or diminish these symptoms, or take short-term treatments like paracetamol to mask them. Additionally, burnout weakens the immune system, increasing susceptibility to illnesses and prolonging recovery times.
• Withdrawal and isolation: Social withdrawal is a common consequence of burnout’s toll. Often it starts off subtle, but can grow until we’re almost completely isolating ourselves. When we feel burned out we’re also feeling disconnected from others, as our focus turns to our own internal experience. And, when we feel disconnected from others we often fail to realise the importance of reconnecting. This isolation can exacerbate feelings of disconnection from colleagues.

Businesses can take proactive steps

Shearman emphasises fostering a culture of openness where employees feel safe to discuss struggles without fear of judgement. “In many organisations there is a fear of speaking up about burnout, as it’s often seen as a weakness,” he says. “The truth is that we don’t always know when someone is struggling, so it’s rarely us alone. But even if it was, burnout isn’t weakness or a character flaw.” Early intervention, supported by trained mental health first aiders, can direct employees to appropriate resources.

Employee assistance programmes (EAPs) are valuable tools, but Shearman advocates for their proactive use. “They are often seen as a service you use when you’re at crisis point, but using counselling and therapy as a proactive measure is often a better use of the services,” he says. Regular reminders of available support reinforce a preventative approach. “If we treat mental health support as something preventative, not just something reactive, we give people the tools to stay healthy and resilient in the long run,” Shearman adds. “It’s not just good for people, it’s good for business, too.”