Co-written with Clark Maxon.

Burnout is a state of physical or mental exhaustion that results from prolonged or excessive stress. Job burnout can be affected by staffing shortages and long work hours, which can cause a person to feel overwhelmed, emotionally drained, and unable to keep up with demands.

The World Health Organization has defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon, but it can happen in other contexts, such as caring for ailing family members, as well. Caregiver burnout involves the physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion that takes place while you’re taking care of someone else and can include anxiety and depression.

Burnout affects people in a wide range of careers. Some of the highest rates of burnout are seen among doctors, nurses, teachers, mental health workers, retail workers, construction workers, and certified public accountants. But burnout can occur in any career. Women are more likely to feel burned out than men, which may be due to the fact that women are overrepresented in occupations such as education and health care.

According to Gallup, burnout........

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