Is Quitting the Cure for Burnout?
Updated Nov 2025
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined burnout as the workplace or institutional stress left unmanaged and made a rare decision to add burnout to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11). The announcement came on the heels of a multi-year joint study by the WHO and the International Labor Organization that found 750 000 people die from overwork annually.
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) defined burnout as the workplace or institutional stress left unmanaged and made a rare decision to add burnout to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD 11). The announcement came on the heels of a multi-year joint study by the WHO and the International Labor Organization that found 750 000 people die from overwork annually.
People often ask me if burnout worsened during the pandemic. And my response is always yes, but with a caveat. Burnout was obviously at a boiling point – the pandemic just jacked the burner up to high.
After years of facing a global health crisis while grieving, juggling family demands, and beyond business-as-usual job expectations, the workforce was collectively exhausted. People realized it was time for a change. The Great Resignation would witness 47 million U.S. workers leave their jobs in a single calendar year. Quitting has even become a meme, with #MyResignationAnnouncement trending on Twitter.
As the labor shortage continues to rise and finding talent is harder to come by, companies have responded by wooing recruits with novel perks, incentives, and more pay. A recent Pew Research study found that 60% of workers who switched jobs between April 2021 and March 2022 earned more money in their new roles. Those who stayed saw only half that increase. But new data shows that more pay is not the solution for burnout.
So, what is the answer? Should we stay and try to make it work? Or is quitting the cure for burnout?
Know Before You Go
Before deciding that quitting is the only answer to your workplace woes, analyze what is at the root of your stress. By pinpointing the reason for leaving, you avoid jumping right back into another dysfunctional work relationship.
To diagnose the origin of your stress, let’s review the root causes of burnout:
Workload: Unmanageable workloads, overworking, and/or long hours.
Lack of Agency: Micromanagement, having to take on coworkers’ tasks, a lack of work/life balance, and/or the inability to say “no” to overworking.
Lack of Appropriate Pay and Rewards: Receiving unequal pay for equal work, overworking without commensurate pay, and/or feeling unvalued for your professional contributions.
Lack of Community: Experiencing bullying/feelings of exclusion, loneliness, and/or a lack of psychological safety.
Lack of Fairness/Justice: Facing discriminatory attitudes and behaviors (e.g., pandemic impact on mothers – specifically towards women and women of color.) Lack of transparency from leaders. Arbitrary rules (e.g., in-person vs remote working).
Discrepancy in Values and Roles: Feeling disconnected from an employer’s mission, experiencing compassion/empathy fatigue (common with teachers, healthcare professionals, and non-profit employees). Lack of fit – e.g., you were hired into the wrong role and/or the wrong culture.
At this point, some of you may be saying, “uh, check all?”
You wouldn’t be alone. But take a moment to go through each cause and select the one that best represents your biggest stressor. For example, examine your workload and ask:
Was my workload high pre-pandemic? Does my industry have a legacy of overworking its employees? Are we moving back to more manageable working hours or is this level of overworking my new normal?
Has attrition within my team contributed to my workload? Will it be more manageable as we regain staff or is this a chronic issue?
Do I respond to every request like it’s an emergency? Do I create false urgencies? Do I have the right to disconnect but I choose not to? Or is this a pervasive invisible pressure my boss/peers/clients perpetuate?
Choose what you believe to be your primary root cause of burnout and go through a similar assessment. Then, establish whether your current situation is changeable, or unsustainable. Read the complete article by clicking the link below.
People often ask me if burnout worsened during the pandemic. And my response is always yes, but with a caveat. Burnout was obviously at a boiling point – the pandemic just jacked the burner up too high.