Surveys Reveal Burnout is an International Crisis

Written by Annalisa Fang (W’26); Edited by Ria Saraswat (W’25)

Burnout has recently become an international crisis, according to Forbes. Microsoft polled 20,000 people from 11 countries around the world, and the research revealed that nearly 50% of employees and 53% of managers said they were burned out at work. 

Burnout entails an emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion brought on by a prolonged high level of stress. It can result in people having a reduced sense of accomplishment or feeling a certain loss of identity as well as reduced productivity and efficiency. The idea of burnout has been around for decades, as The Washington Post traced it back to the 1970s.

A study from McKinsey & Partners found that nearly one in three employees in Asia was experiencing symptoms of burnout, with frontline workers and female employees reporting the highest levels of burnout and symptoms of depression. This region has been hit harder than the European countries included in the poll. 

Nearly 50% of a large part of the corporate community in the U.S. — small business owners — also reported that they experienced burnout in the past month, according to a recent survey conducted by Capital One. These results were similar to those from the same survey conducted in 2021, revealing that burnout levels have not improved since then. 

Widespread burnout has led to something called “quiet quitting,” an idea that has become recently popularized among young professionals — workers do not actually quit their jobs, but they quit the idea of going above and beyond in their careers. This idea of disowning hustle culture rapidly spread through social media platforms such as Tiktok, with users jumping on board while others explained how they already made the shift long ago, just without giving it a name.

Gallup has found that at least 50% of the U.S. workforce is made up of “quiet quitters”. “Quiet quitting” enabled employees to focus more on having lives outside of their work, refusing to put in extra hours without receiving extra pay. Workers across generations have made this effort to try to protect their mental health and prevent burnout. 

There are many conflicting opinions about the idea, as some believe that the actual cure for burnout is not self-care. Instead, it entails employers making changes to the work environment and structure to accommodate their employees through prioritizing their mental health. 

It has been projected that burnout and poor mental health could cost the world economy approximately $16 trillion (USD) by 2030. If mental health in the workplace is not more carefully managed in the coming years with employers making it a priority, it could come at a high cost both on a personal level and on a global scale.