Infographic
The state of worker burnout: 2023
August 2023
Employees across industries are feeling burnout, but what drives it? And how can employers alleviate it? Read on for Eagle Hill Consulting’s insights and ideas to help reduce and recover from worker burnout.
Eagle Hill Consulting continues to track a key issue that is impacting organizations’ performance: employee burnout. Our latest Workforce Burnout Survey finds that burnout levels among U.S. employees remain troublingly high but continue to trend downward since the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, employees are growing less comfortable discussing the topic with their managers and employers.
Employees across industries say the main drivers of their work burnout are workload and staffing shortages. But, there’s some good news – employees have recommendations for how employers can help extinguish burnout.
The Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
Since the early days of the pandemic, Eagle Hill has been surveying fulltime U.S. employees to gain deeper understanding of worker burnout and provide employers with insights into the drivers, organizational impacts and remedies for alleviating worker burnout.
Worker burnout remains troublingly high across the U.S. workforce
Nearly half of U.S. employees say they feel burnt out at work, with women and younger workers reporting the highest levels of burnout. While worker burnout continues to trend downward, the number remains too high.
Percentage of workers reporting burnout over the last three years
Source: Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
Burnout reported by generation
Burnout reported by gender
Percent of employees reporting burnout at work
Source: Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
When asked about the causes of their burnout, 51 percent of workers say their workload is the biggest driver, up from 48 percent in August 2022. Close behind is staffing shortages, with 45 percent of workers citing it as a leading cause.
Top 5 causes of burnout at work
51%
Workload
45%
Staff shortages
42%
Work-life balance
38%
Lack of communication
and support
34%
Time pressures
Percent of employees who attribute their burnout to the above causes
Source: Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
Discussing causes and solutions is essential to extinguishing burnout, however employees signal they are less open to having those conversations than they were a year ago.
Are you comfortable telling your manager or employer that you feel burned out?
Source: Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
How to recover from burnout
From more flexibility to revisiting benefits, employees have ideas for how employers can help reduce burnout.
Percentage of workers who say their burnout would be reduced by the following:
67%
A four-day workweek
65%
Increase flexibility of working hours or days
65%
Decreased workload
60%
Better health and wellness benefits
56%
Continue working from home or working from home more
53%
Reduce administrative burden
50%
More on-site amenities at your physical workplace
39%
Ability to relocate to a new location or work from multiple locations
Percent of employees who say the ideas above would reduce their burnout
Source: Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Survey
Related services and insights
TalentEmployees weigh in on workplace flexibility amid rollback of remote work policies. What’s at stake?
It’s encouraging to see that worker stress is dipping, but the high burnout levels are a red flag for employers. When employees are exhausted, stressed, or feel like they can’t perform they’ll look elsewhere for employment. Employers should dig in to understand the precise causes of burnout among their workforce to diagnose and address the problem.
— Melissa Jezior, Eagle Hill Consulting President and Chief Executive Officer
Methodology
The findings are from the ongoing Eagle Hill Consulting Workforce Burnout Surveys conducted by Ipsos, most recently in August 2023. Each survey includes more than 1,000 respondents from a random sample of employees across the U.S.
