Protecting employees from burnout
By Dr. Natasha Hirst on 23 January 2026
Burnout affects performance, physical health, mental wellbeing, and relationships in and outside of work. Dealing with associated loss of performance, increased sickness absence or recruiting to replace staff carries significant business costs too. Active prevention and early intervention are crucial for keeping staff safe and well in work.
The Mental Health UK Burnout Report 2026 found that 91% of UK adults report high or extreme levels of pressure or stress in the past year, with one in five taking time off as a result. The impact on young workers is especially concerning with isolation at work, fears around job security, high workloads and taking on additional paid work cited as key contributors towards stress and burnout. This year’s survey also identified perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms as significant drivers of burnout.
The report defines burnout as “a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion caused by prolonged stress and constant pressure”. The high prevalence demonstrates an urgent need for employers to improve support for mental health.
Dr Miriam Fine, burnout specialist, coach and co-founder of the Department of Honest Ideas challenges the common misconception of burnout as someone “not coping” or “not managing stress well enough”. She said, “the person who burns out is often a lightning conductor for what’s wrong in the wider system.”
Through her coaching and career in the NHS, Fine has seen a clear pattern of burnout resulting from moral and emotional injury. “People go into this work because they want to make the world a better place and that feels very connected to their identity. But they find themselves unable to do their job in a way that aligns with their values. Burnout isn’t just exhaustion. It’s an erosion of values, dignity, spirit and of the human soul.”
Resilience mentor and media safety expert, Hannah Storm, agrees, “it tends to be the people who are really committed and passionate about their work who are at higher risk of experiencing burnout.”
Organisations that fail to take burnout seriously end up losing precisely the people they most want to retain. Storm adds, “it has real life impacts on people’s ability to do their work. It leads to more sick days and people moving away from professions and careers they are committed to.”
Burnout is a systemic issue
Mo Razzaq, Reward Manager at McLaren Automotive, emphasises that burnout is a systemic organisational failure. Post-Covid financial constraints leading to restructuring and ‘leaner’ teams inevitably means employees are expected to “do more with less, but there are only so many hours in a day.” Rising workloads, often without changes to systems, processes or expectations, raises the risk of burnout.
While flexible working has clear benefits, Razzaq notes that remote and hybrid models can intensify burnout when boundaries disappear. Presenteeism has shifted from being “seen at your desk” to being constantly available online.
Razzaq also notes the gap between what organisations say they value and how they actually operate. “When processes don’t support your values, it drives behaviours that lead to burnout. If you want to be agile and responsive, then your processes should support that. If it’s going to take 7 or 8 approvals to get a contract through, that’s flying in the wind of what you say you want to be. Employees can only do that for so long until the point where everything is counterproductive.”
This exhausts the discretionary effort or good will that employees put into their work. The Burnout Report 2026 found that one third of respondents said that regularly working unpaid overtime beyond contracted hours was a cause of stress.
When effort is not recognised or reciprocated, good will becomes depleted. What some employers label as “quiet quitting” is often people protecting themselves by working to contract.
Razzaq is clear that poor management is a major driver of burnout and emphasises the importance of good training to recognise burnout, have supportive conversations, and model healthy boundaries. He concluded, “if the culture is right in the organisation, and it reflects its values and behaviours and what it aspires to be, then it’s easier to spot and address potential burnout.”
Psychological safety is central to prevention
Storm explains that “it’s in employers’ best interests to do the work to create an environment where people feel psychologically safe to express that they’re being impacted by their work, or that the cumulative nature of professional work and personal challenges is impacting them.”
Burnout risk is not evenly distributed. Storm highlights the need for organisations to be aware of how life outside of work adds to stress levels, especially for minoritised groups. She said, “people who are often already dealing with a lot are potentially more at risk. If you’re already carrying all of that discomfort and trauma and difficulty, your tolerance is probably already low on any given day.”
So what can employers do to prevent burnout, or spot the signs before too much harm is done?
Storm observes that, “managers are worried about asking somebody how they are and actually holding that space and really listening to the answer, because they think that they’re going to make things worse. So, people don’t take those few seconds, to say, how are you, really?”
Fine adds that, “relatively simple changes can make a big difference, but it needs to be a combination of feeling heard and feeling that meaningful action is being taken. If people feel like they’re not being listened to and their concerns are being ignored, then it just becomes a vicious cycle, and they lose faith in management.”
Everyday behaviours communicate culture more effectively than formal statements. Trained managers play a crucial role in building trust and healthy workplace norms by helping to set and maintain boundaries, encouraging clear communication and holding regular check-ins. Colour coding mood and energy levels at check ins can help to identify patterns of stress and indicate when downtime is needed.
Legal responsibilities
Employers have a duty to protect the mental health of their staff and to respond with appropriate support and reasonable adjustments if staff experience burnout and need time to recover.
Jane Hyde-Walsh, Director of Aim Higher Training and Development, cautions employers to prepare themselves for upcoming legislative changes as the Employment Rights Act 2025 comes into force. From October 2026 the time limit for making an Employment Tribunal claim will increase to 6 months.
Hyde-Walsh highlights poor return-to-work practices as a major risk factor. “I think the Employment Rights Bill will make employers sit up, because people will have more time and more strength to hold them to account. Often, in three months people are still too ill to act. Six months gives them time to reflect and say, ‘What I went through wasn’t right.’” However, if an employee experiencing burnout has needed time away from work, damage has already been done.
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