2026 Burnout Report. Why it's breaking your team and how you can save them

In recent years we've been talking about burnout like it's the flu. We act like it's temporary: if someone is burned out, eventually it'll pass.

Judging by how many people seem to suffer from it, it's starting to sound more like a pandemic than the flu. There isn't an organization I've worked with in recent years where at least a third of people weren't complaining about symptoms (anxiety, constant fatigue, irritability, nihilism). Often it was the executive who hired me.

I decided to look at the data to better understand the phenomenon.

I was right.

Burnout is growing at an alarming rate, and the damage it causes companies has a surprising number of zeros. In the coming year, it appears to be one of the main threats to organizational productivity.

I wrote this report to summarize what the data told me, my hypotheses on how we got here, and strategies I've seen work with clients and colleagues who've solved problems in this field.