Recog­nised in the ICD-11 (code QD85 – Burnout), burnout is ​“con­cep­tu­alised as result­ing from chron­ic work­place stress that has not been suc­cess­ful­ly man­aged. It is char­ac­terised by three dimen­sions: 1) feel­ings of ener­gy deple­tion or exhaus­tion; 2) increased men­tal dis­tance from one’s job, or feel­ings of neg­a­tivism or cyn­i­cism relat­ed to one’s job; and 3) a sense of inef­fec­tive­ness and lack of accom­plish­ment. Burn-out refers specif­i­cal­ly to phe­nom­e­na in the occu­pa­tion­al con­text and should not be applied to describe expe­ri­ences in oth­er areas of life”.¹

Any­one can expe­ri­ence burnout. Emerg­ing research sug­gests that cer­tain indi­vid­ual fac­tors may increase someone’s sus­cep­ti­bil­i­ty to burnout. How­ev­er, organ­i­sa­tion­al risk fac­tors are the pri­ma­ry con­trib­u­tors to the devel­op­ment of burnout.

By notic­ing these fac­tors ahead of time, you can take some pre­ven­ta­tive steps. How­ev­er, work­place changes should be para­mount, as burnout impacts both employ­ees and organisations. 

Some of the signs and symp­toms of burnout to be watch­ful for are: 

Phys­i­cal symptoms 

• Exhaustion/​fatigue
• Gas­troin­testi­nal issues 
• Headaches and body pain 
• Sleep dis­tur­bance
• Appetite changes
• Fre­quent illness 

Behav­iour­al symptoms 

• Social with­draw­al
• Irritable/​angry outbursts 
• Pro­cras­ti­na­tion
• Dif­fi­cul­ty concentrating 
• Tak­ing longer to com­plete tasks, reduced output/​productivity
• Using food or sub­stances to aid coping 
• Increased absen­teeism

Emo­tion­al symptoms 

• Hope­less­ness and helplessness 
• Neg­a­tiv­i­ty or cynicism 
• Low moti­va­tion
• Feel­ing like a fail­ure or doubt­ing oneself 
• Feel­ing trapped

Pre­ven­tion is always desir­able over recov­ery. An organ­i­sa­tion should have prac­tices in place to ensure staff are not exposed to the risks of burnout. There are also sev­er­al ways to buffer the risk indi­vid­u­al­ly. How­ev­er, this is not always man­age­able in resource-poor envi­ron­ments, and health work­ers may feel guilty pri­ori­tis­ing their needs over patients or colleagues. 

Let’s first explore indi­vid­ual fac­tors and actions that can buffer the impacts that lead to burnout and strate­gies to man­age the risk: 

• Bound­aries. Always say­ing ​‘yes’, blurred bound­aries with work hours (includ­ing accept­ing calls and reply­ing to emails out­side of sched­uled hours), not fol­low­ing fatigue man­age­ment poli­cies, work­ing out­side your scope of prac­tice and extra respon­si­bil­i­ties can sig­nif­i­cant­ly impact the road to burnout. Estab­lish­ing bound­aries by learn­ing to say ​‘no’ and fol­low­ing pro­ce­dures and pro­to­cols can help pro­tect you and reduce risk. Seek­ing advice from pro­fes­sion­al bod­ies can help nav­i­gate chal­leng­ing envi­ron­ments when work­places do not sup­port bound­ary setting. 
• Work-life bal­ance. All work and no play lim­its the oppor­tu­ni­ty for a life out­side of work. Reflect on work as a pri­or­i­ty in your life right now, and then the impor­tance of oth­er aspects of your life (fam­i­ly, social engage­ment, hob­bies and inter­ests, com­mu­ni­ty, reli­gion or spir­i­tu­al­i­ty, etc). Is there a bal­ance between your work and per­son­al life? 
• Self-care. If work drains you too much, you may not have much left to ensure your health and well­be­ing are in tip-top con­di­tion. Ade­quate sleep, exer­cise, med­ical care, good nutri­tion, and social con­nec­tion all help restore wellbeing. 
• Con­nec­tions. When work is over­whelm­ing, demand­ing and stress­ful, we can with­draw and iso­late our­selves. Invest­ing in mean­ing­ful rela­tion­ships at work and in your per­son­al life can be a pow­er­ful sup­port. In small teams, this may mean focus­ing on per­son­al rela­tion­ships or main­tain­ing longdis­tance connections. 
• Recon­nect with the pas­sion. Reflect­ing on why you entered health care can recon­nect you with pas­sion and pur­pose, shift­ing focus to what mat­ters most and help­ing you make informed deci­sions about your role and workplace.

Let’s explore some key organ­i­sa­tion­al areas that man­agers, team lead­ers and work­places can con­sid­er improv­ing, that sig­nif­i­cant­ly con­tribute to burnout, and strate­gies to help man­age the risk:²,³

• Work­load and sup­port. Address unat­tain­able work­loads and strive for staffing lev­els that align with the time need­ed to deliv­er qual­i­ty care and meet deliv­er­ables. This includes man­age­r­i­al and team sup­port to help staff per­form their work effectively. 
• Role clar­i­ty. Hav­ing uncer­tain­ty about roles, respon­si­bil­i­ties, and expec­ta­tions should be addressed with clear and up-to-date role descrip­tions and per­for­mance targets. 
• Resources. A lack of resources and equip­ment required to ful­fil duties and respon­si­bil­i­ties adds to over­whelm and frus­tra­tion. Staff can per­form more effec­tive­ly when they have the required train­ing and resources and feel empow­ered in their roles. 
• Lack of auton­o­my. Lack­ing con­trol in your work­place can feed frus­tra­tion and pow­er­less­ness. When staff have auton­o­my in their work and are includ­ed in deci­sion­mak­ing, it improves job satisfaction. 
• Val­ues. Risk increas­es if a workplace’s val­ues don’t trans­late into action or if an employee’s val­ues don’t align with the organ­i­sa­tion. Where pos­si­ble, an employee’s work should be mean­ing­ful and aligned with their val­ues. An organisation’s val­ues should be vis­i­ble through­out all lev­els and rep­re­sent­ed in poli­cies and procedures. 
• Transparency/​fairness. When organ­i­sa­tion­al poli­cies and pro­ce­dures aren’t fair or there is a lack of trans­paren­cy, this con­tributes to burnout. Poli­cies must be fair, trans­par­ent, equi­table, and enforced con­sis­tent­ly among all staff. 
• Com­mu­ni­ty. Address­ing poor work­place rela­tion­ships and fos­ter­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties for authen­tic con­nec­tions and team­work cre­ates cohe­sive­ness and trust. 
• Reward. Unno­ticed effort harms indi­vid­u­als and teams. When imple­ment­ed in a way that is not tokenis­tic, reward, recog­ni­tion, and appre­ci­a­tion sys­tems can increase job sat­is­fac­tion and boost team morale.

Recog­nise signs ear­ly and take action. Burnout is not caused by an individual’s fail­ure. It is a result of sys­temic chal­lenges that are often out of an individual’s con­trol. Steps to take if you are feel­ing burnt out, or at risk of devel­op­ing burnout include: 

• Acknowl­edge burnout. This is a big first step in the recov­ery journey. 
• Iden­ti­fy the core peo­ple you can ask for sup­port. We all need sup­port at one time or anoth­er, and we val­ue sup­port­ing oth­ers too. Give the peo­ple who care about you the most, whether fam­i­ly, friends, or col­leagues, the oppor­tu­ni­ty to be there for you. 
• Iden­ti­fy imme­di­ate changes. Any areas at work that are changed, no mat­ter how small, can start to make a dif­fer­ence. If you feel safe to do so, speak with a line man­ag­er, team leader, or the Peo­ple and Cul­ture depart­ment about what you are expe­ri­enc­ing, so your work­place can pro­vide sup­port and devel­op a plan to move forward.
• Seek pro­fes­sion­al sup­port. Speak to your GP and dis­cuss options avail­able, includ­ing a refer­ral to a men­tal health pro­fes­sion­al if appro­pri­ate. You can also call the Bush Sup­port Line 24/7 and speak with one of our expe­ri­enced psy­chol­o­gists for sup­port and guid­ance, or con­tact your EAP if one is available. 
• Con­sid­er a reset. This could involve tak­ing some leave to allow your­self to rest and reeval­u­ate. Sched­ule a break if you don’t have one on the horizon. 
• Reassess your self-care plan. Does it bal­ance work and self-care? Are your phys­i­cal, men­tal, and emo­tion­al needs being met? If you’d like to cre­ate one for your­self, vis­it our self-care plan.
• Prac­tise self-com­pas­sion. You deserve to treat your­self with the same kind­ness and com­pas­sion you’d offer a loved one or client on their recovery. 

Remem­ber, car­ing for your­self isn’t self­ish, and a work­place that val­ues your skills and expe­ri­ence, and where well­be­ing is pri­ori­tised, should be non-nego­tiable. Doing so keeps you sus­tain­able for your­self, your loved ones, and patients and clients in the com­mu­ni­ties you serve for the years to come.

Ref­er­ences.

1. ICD-11 online. https://​icd​.who​.int/​b​r​o​w​s​e​/2025 – 01/mms/en#129180281
2. Maslach C, Leit­er MP. Under­stand­ing the burnout expe­ri­ence: recent research and its impli­ca­tions for psy­chi­a­try. World Psy­chi­a­try. 2016;15(2):103 – 111. doi:10.1002/wps.20311
3. NSW Pub­lic Ser­vice Com­mis­sion 2022. Under­stand­ing Burnout in the NSW pub­lic sec­tor, NSW Gov­ern­ment, Syd­ney. Avail­able at: https://​www​.psc​.nsw​.gov​.au/​a​s​s​e​t​s​/​p​s​c​/​0​.​-​R​e​p​o​r​t​-​U​n​d​e​r​s​t​a​n​d​i​n​g​-​b​u​r​n​o​u​t​-​i​n​-​t​h​e​-​N​S​W​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​s​e​c​t​o​r​-​F​i​n​a​l.pdf