What is burnout?
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines burnout as follows, ‘Burn-out [or burnout] is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: [1] feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; [2] increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and [3] reduced professional efficacy.’
Depending on your position in the company, you might notice the effects of burnout on your business before you catch the symptoms in your employees. This could be a high staff turnover within a team, an increase in complaints about a manager, employees consistently sending emails outside of their work hours, or a decrease in the quality or quantity of work from a team member.
As well as significant mental health implications, such as increased anxiety and depression, burnout has significant financial implications, with employees regularly citing stress and workload as a reason to move on to new employment opportunities.
Burnout, menopause, or both?
Businesses should also be aware that symptoms of the menopause can often be misattributed to burnout. Whilst both burnout and perimenopause can result in a struggle to concentrate, brain fog and anxiety, perimenopause symptoms also include hot flushes, muscle aches and skin changes.
However, according to the Burnout Report 2026, ‘Perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms emerge as a significant driver of burnout.’ You can find out more about how to support perimenopausal and menopausal employees here.
What can businesses do about burnout?
To answer this question, we need to return to the WHOs definition of burnout, as, ‘chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed’. For businesses to tackle burnout effectively, they need to consider how stress has become chronic, and the reasons why it isn’t being successfully managed.
How has stress become chronic?
Workplace stress is common across industries and organisations; every business has times where they are particularly busy, or last minute panics. This begins to impact employees when requests to work later or longer become the norm, rather than the exception. Sometimes businesses need all hands on deck to fight fires, but firefighting shouldn’t be a regular occurrence.
If you know when your busy periods are, you can be proactive about tackling burnout by ensuring that you have enough staff on your team to manage the workload. This might include hiring additional interim employees to help support your existing teams during your busy periods. If staff are consistently overworked, it's time to expand your team permanently.
How can stress be successfully managed?
Organisations can also ensure that there is a consistent channel of communication between employees, supervisors, managers and directors. Regular communication between these groups, particularly during busy periods, means that any concerns about team members' wellbeing can be escalated and responded to quickly, before staff begin to burnout.
Management should also be leading by example, and setting their company culture around breaks, holidays and contracted hours. Ensure that management stop working for lunch, use their holiday allowance, and work and send emails only during work hours, and that they’re actively encouraging their teams to do the same.
Directors should also ensure that supervisors and managers know how to manage their own stress appropriately, and aren’t placing unnecessary pressure on their teams. The Red Cross offers Stress Management and Team Resilience training for organisations who need a little extra help in avoiding burnout.
