6 Signs Your Workplace Is Burning You Out

Over the years in my practice, I’ve noticed something consistent.

When people say, “I think I’m burned out,” it’s rarely just about long working hours.

There are specific workplace patterns that show up again and again in these conversations. Patterns that quietly drain energy, dull motivation, and make even capable, committed people feel exhausted.

What’s interesting is that this isn’t just anecdotal. Research on workplace burnout consistently points to six core causes, first described in models developed by leading burnout experts based on the work of Christina Maslach. In other words, what I see in therapy aligns closely with what decades of research have been telling us.

So let me walk you through these six reasons. Not to label you, but to help you understand whether your workplace is simply demanding or slowly burning you out.

1. Workload That Stays High Without Recovery

This is the obvious one, but not in the way most people think.

It’s not about having a busy week. It’s about sustained overload. When your workload consistently exceeds your capacity and there is no real recovery built in, your system adapts by staying switched on.

At first, you cope. You push. You optimize.

Over time, you feel tired in a way sleep doesn’t fix. That’s not laziness. That’s chronic overextension.

2. Lack of Control Over How You Work

I often hear this in subtle ways.

“I have no say.”

“I’m responsible, but I don’t get to decide.”

“I just have to follow instructions.”

Autonomy is not just a “nice to have.” It’s foundational to psychological wellbeing. When you have no control over your workflow, timelines, or methods, your system stays in a protective mode.

It’s like your nervous system is holding a small alert sign all day long.

3. Effort Without Meaningful Reward

Reward is not just salary.

It’s appreciation. Growth. Feedback. Being acknowledged for the emotional and cognitive effort you invest.

When effort and recognition don’t match, something inside starts to shut down. Motivation becomes harder to access. You may still perform well, but it feels heavier.

Human beings need to feel seen. It releases safety cues into the nervous system.

4. Strained or Unsafe Work Relationships

Work is not just tasks. It is relationships.

If the environment feels tense, political, isolating, or subtly hostile, your nervous system stays alert. You monitor your words. You second guess your tone. You conserve yourself.

That constant vigilance drains energy quietly but steadily.

On the other hand, even one safe, supportive connection at work can buffer stress significantly.

5. When the Game Feels Rigged

This one builds slowly.

When promotions feel biased, decisions lack transparency, or your contributions are overlooked while others advance, your system registers it as instability.

You start scanning for hidden rules. You calculate more. You trust less.

That mental load accumulates and contributes to exhaustion.

6. A Mismatch Between Your Values and the Work

This is often the most difficult to articulate.

You might be good at what you do. You might even be praised for it. But internally, something feels off.

Maybe the organization’s priorities do not align with your ethics. Maybe the work lacks meaning for you. Maybe you are succeeding at something that no longer reflects who you are.

When your daily effort conflicts with your deeper values, motivation erodes at its foundation.

This is something I’ve observed in my practice

Alongside the six larger patterns, there are three day-to-day dynamics that quietly accelerate burnout. They may look small on the surface, but over time they create significant strain.

1. Poor Communication

You know that moment when you think, “Wait… was I even supposed to do this?”

Or when everyone says, “Let’s touch base,” but no one actually knows what’s happening?

Poor communication creates cognitive fog. You are constantly guessing, filling in gaps, double-checking assumptions, and bracing for something you might have missed.

That ongoing guesswork consumes mental energy. And when your brain has to stay in problem-solving mode all day just to decode expectations, exhaustion follows.

Clarity reduces stress. Ambiguity multiplies it.

2. Unclear Roles

In many workplaces, roles look defined on paper but feel blurry in practice.

Are you the planner? The executor? The crisis manager? The team therapist?

When roles are unclear, people often over function. They pick up what isn’t explicitly theirs. They stretch to prevent things from falling apart. Over time, they end up wearing multiple hats and wondering why they feel chronically stretched.

Clarity is not a luxury. It is regulating.

When you know what is yours and what is not, your nervous system can settle. Boundaries become possible. Energy becomes more sustainable.

3. Constant Time Pressure

When everything feels urgent, your brain shifts into survival mode.

You stop prioritizing and start reacting. Lunch feels rushed. Breaks feel indulgent. Even small delays feel threatening.

In this state, you may still perform, but your thinking narrows. Creativity drops. Patience shortens. Your body stays braced.

Time pressure is not just stressful. It is unsustainable when it becomes the norm.

If you find yourself reheating your coffee multiple times a day and feeling like time is chasing you, that is not just poor time management. It is a system that has normalized urgency.

Before you close this tab, I want to leave you with this:

A lot of high-functioning, responsible, capable people assume the problem is their tolerance level. They try to optimize harder. Be more efficient. Be less sensitive. Need less.

But when exhaustion keeps returning, it’s usually not asking you to become tougher. It’s asking you to look at the system you’re operating in.

Burnout is rarely dramatic at first. It’s cumulative. It builds in small compromises, repeated over time. The unclear expectation you absorb. The extra task you take on. The value you swallow. The boundary you postpone.

Individually, they seem manageable. Collectively, they drain your energy.

The purpose of understanding these six causes is not to create blame toward your workplace or panic about your career. It’s to give you language. And language creates power.

When you can say, “This is a workload issue,” or “This is a values mismatch,” or “This is chronic lack of control,” your exhaustion stops feeling vague and personal. It becomes contextual and actionable. And that shift matters.

Because you cannot change what you cannot name. You start responding instead of just enduring.