Burnout is a relatively new term that exists in a space between medical diagnosis and workplace reality. The World Health Organization (WHO), for example, classifies it as an “occupational phenomenon” and a “syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. According to the WHO, burnout has three characteristics: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job, and reduced professional efficacy. 

The timing of the word’s entry into common usage mattered, according to co-founder of Women’s Agenda, Angela Priestly, who was recently interviewed by Dr Juliet Bourke, Adjunct Professor in the School of Management and Governance at UNSW Business School for The Business Of, a podcast from UNSW Business School

“It was 2021 when the word really kind of came to public knowledge,” said Ms Priestly, who gave the example of junior doctors through the pandemic. They worked extreme hours and experienced such severe burnout that some could not return to work for months or years after leaving their positions. She suggested the healthcare burnout crisis ran deeper than statistics suggested. Research, for example, showed that hospitals where each nurse handled eight patients had staff twice as likely to burn out emotionally compared to facilities with four patients per nurse.

The drivers behind rising burnout rates

The 2025 Women’s Agenda Ambitions Report, supported by AGSM @ UNSW Business School, found that 72% of women reported experiencing burnout in the past 12 months. The report, based on a survey of about 1400 women who were asked about their careers and ambitions, pointed to concerning trends. “It is really interesting, and it is consistent with findings from a similar report and a question that we asked two years ago as well,” said Ms Priestly.

When Women’s Agenda asked respondents about their experience of burnout, the answers revealed a mix of workplace and external factors. Among those who reported burnout, 33% listed a difficult boss as a contributor. Parenting responsibilities accounted for 21% of responses. A quarter noted being paid less, while around one in five attributed their experience to workplace bullying.

The statistic about difficult managers stood out. “When I look at workplaces, I think that the first place they can start is to address those cultural issues that are happening at that individual level,” Ms Priestley said. “Because if it’s making people feel burnt out or exhausted or miserable or depressed or something else, if it’s making people want to leave, it’s costing them huge amounts that they may not ever be able to realise later on.”

A 2025 study published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, for example, found that burnout costs organisations approximately US$4000–$21,000 per employee annually, depending on role, and up to US$5 million each year for a company of 1000 employees. 

Technology’s double edge

UNSW Business School Professor Barney Tan examined how technology contributed to the problem through research, which pointed to what academics called “attention fragmentation”. This phenomenon involves workers who constantly switch between email, meetings, messaging platforms, and project documents.

“This constant toggling between all these different platforms is mentally exhausting,” he told Dr Bourke on the podcast. “It actually diminishes our ability to think deeply, to reflect, and even to make sound decisions.”

Learn more: How mindfulness can help tackle healthcare’s burnout crisis

Some organisations had begun experimenting with solutions. Tech companies introduced focus days and meeting-free periods that gave workers time for deep work. Email curfews and quiet weeks created space for recovery. “But very importantly, these boundaries don’t emerge on their own. They have to be deliberately designed and installed,” said Prof. Tan. When managers openly respected boundaries and avoided emailing at night, he said this set the tone for teams.

The introduction of right-to-disconnect legislation in Australia also appears to have made a difference. Productivity had increased since the laws came into effect for businesses with more than 15 employees. “If people suddenly have this option to disconnect, maybe it goes back to what I was mentioning about the messages coming in and out,” said Prof. Tan, who explained that potentially reduced “attention fragmentation” so workers could better focus during normal work hours.

The business case for action

Mistakes increase when workers experience burnout. The impact of these spreads to colleagues, creating what researchers called a contagion effect. “If you’re seeing that somebody’s not putting in 100% and how that impacts what you’ll do, or perhaps that burnout is affecting you as a manager – all of a sudden, you’re one of those 33% of managers who are affecting the person underneath,” Ms Priestley said.

The concept of the brilliant jerk illustrated how organisations sometimes made poor trade-offs. These were the rainmakers in tech companies and other industries whose behaviour created damage around them, but whom businesses believed they could not function without. “But then we’re forgetting about the toll that they’re taking on everybody else,” Ms Priestley said. Workplace conflict also increased as workers under stress lacked the capacity to communicate with care or take time to be constructive.

Some industries had built overwork into their systems. When there were not enough workers to meet demand, those who remained carried increasing loads. Senior leaders sometimes dismissed concerns by pointing to their own experiences decades earlier. “But they are also talking about getting through it in a very different time as well, when perhaps they had a wife at home, or perhaps they had someone managing the domestic load who wasn’t working themselves,” Ms Priestley observed.

What can organisations do?

Solutions to burnout go beyond offering workers a day off or a holiday. “It’s important to note that it’s hard to think that you can just have these things going on and then take a day off, or get a week’s annual leave or something, and expect it to be different later on,” Ms Priestley said.

Managers need to watch for signals that someone might be suffering burnout. Changes in performance patterns could indicate a problem. “It might be if somebody who’s always met deadlines, who’s always gotten things in on time. Suddenly, things are not happening like they used to, or there might be a few more mistakes occurring,” Ms Priestley said.

The right response to this situation is a conversation to help understand what might be happening. “It could be something to do with work, but it may also be something not to do with work, and it may be something they do or don’t want to disclose at that point,” she explained. In some cases, workers might be overloaded. In others, they might be bored and need stimulation or work that matches their interests.

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At a business level, organisations need to support flexible work in ways that go beyond token gestures. “This is not just part-time jobs, but actually some kind of flexibility that is more meaningful than being able to pick up your kids once a week from school and then logging on after work,” Ms Priestley explained. Workers also need to see leaders model this flexibility, while policies need to recognise that everyone has responsibilities and identities outside work – and not just parents.

“Think about how your policies can support them to be that person and perhaps that caregiver as well, in ways that won’t hinder their career, in ways that will give them those opportunities to still ask for things and to not be put in a bucket of the part-time family person, so that they’re not put aside and that they’re given the same opportunities as everybody else,” Ms Priestley said.

“The upside is healthier, happier team members and a better, more productive team. I mean, I don’t think there’s a better upside than that,” concluded Ms Priestley, who explained that when workers wanted to be at work and did their roles well, organisations gained more than they could measure. The question facing Australian businesses was no longer whether burnout existed or mattered. The question was what they would do about it, and how quickly they would act.

Workplace burnout FAQ

What is workplace burnout? Workplace burnout refers to physical and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged work-related stress and overexposure to digital demands.

How much does burnout cost Australian businesses? Burnout costs Australian businesses an estimated $39 billion each year in lost productivity, absenteeism and turnover. 

Which professions face the highest burnout rates? Healthcare, project management and technology roles currently report the highest burnout rates across Australia.

How does technology contribute to burnout? Constant digital notifications and multitasking create attention fragmentation, reducing focus and increasing stress.

What is the right to disconnect? The right to disconnect gives employees the legal ability to ignore work communications outside office hours, improving recovery and wellbeing.

What can organisations do to reduce burnout? Businesses can address workload, improve manager training, support flexible policies and create deliberate boundaries for digital work.