Workplace Burnout and the Science of Stress: Why We Can’t Turn Off—and How to Fix It

We’ve all been there—a quick Slack check at 10 p.m., a glance at our inbox before our feet hit the floor in the morning (guilty!), our minds drifting to work in the middle of family dinner. Over time, those tiny moments stitch themselves into a workday that never really ends and add up to a pervasive sense that no matter how hard we work, we’re still falling behind.

Being perpetually connected has become so normalized that many of us don’t question it anymore, even as it quietly drains our focus, creativity, and well-being. We’re living in a world of systems and expectations that keep our brains on high alert, training us to treat every ping like an emergency. The result is a nervous system stuck in overdrive, and a workforce running on fumes.

The good news is, it doesn’t have to stay this way. In this post, we’ll unpack the neuroscience of how our brains trick us into thinking everything is urgent, how “always on” work rewires our stress response, and what forward-thinking organizations are doing to help people—and performance—recover.

The Science of Stress: Why Everything Feels Urgent

It’s important to state upfront that our sense of constant urgency is a biological response, not a character flaw! When we’re under chronic stress, our brain’s amygdala—aka our threat detection center—stays switched on, constantly scanning for danger and flooding our body with stress hormones.

This might be helpful if we were, say, fleeing from a saber-toothed tiger, it’s far less useful when we’re racing to reply to an email from our boss. Over time, this repeated stress activation reshapes our neural pathways, training our brain to prioritize vigilance over creativity, deeper strategic thinking, or just plain rest.

Does this red bubble bring anxiety?

Unfortunately, modern life tends to keep feeding this loop. External stressors, like economic uncertainty, global conflict, and rising workloads, activate the same brain circuitry as physical threats. Then digital communication layers on another strain. Each Slack notification registers as a micro-threat, nudging the nervous system into another spike of alertness. Eventually, our body stops distinguishing between an actual, life-threatening emergency and an email notification, responding to both with similar physiological intensity.

This is why so many of us feel chronically drained, distracted, and perpetually behind. Our brain is simply doing what it was wired to do—just in an environment it was never built for. 

The Ripple Effect of Burnout

Burnout begins at the individual level, showing up as exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix, cognitive fog that makes even simple tasks feel heavy, and emotional strain that can slip into irritability, anger, or even depression. 

But burnout rarely stays contained to the individual. When one person is overwhelmed or disengaged, the ripple is felt across the team (and let’s be honest, probably at home, too). Managers play an outsized role here, whether they mean to or not. Their pace, their after-hours habits, and their reactions to urgency set the emotional tone for everyone else. A late-night email or a rushed Slack might not be intended as a signal, but it is read as one.  (Read my article about how to help your team break the burnout cycle here.)

At the same time, employees have agency to seek clarity. Something as simple as, “I saw you responded to my email last night at 6:00. Do you expect evening responses, or is next-day OK?” can reset expectations before assumptions calcify. 

Zoom out further, and the organizational impact becomes impossible to ignore.

Chronic workplace stress is a major driver of turnover, absenteeism, disengagement, and declining performance—costing companies millions each year and eroding the potential of their people.

This is why we have to start talking about burnout as a structural outcome, not a personal failing.

Modern work keeps our nervous systems in near-constant alert. Technology tethers us to our jobs 24/7, blurring “flexibility” into “always available.” Cultural narratives glorify hustle and productivity, teaching us to equate rest with laziness and worth with output. And organizational norms that reward busyness over balance only reinforce the cycle.

In other words, burnout isn’t a sign that people are incapable. It’s a sign that the system they’re working within is unsustainable.

Building Organizational Shock Absorbers

If burnout is baked into the way work is designed, the solution can’t be more grit or another self-care checklist. It has to be structural, too. The real question then becomes: How do we redesign work so it supports resilience instead of eroding it?

When the architecture of work supports human rhythms, teams don’t just avoid burnout, they build long-term capacity for clarity, creativity, and meaningful performance.

These “organizational shock absorbers” aren’t perks; they’re intentional practices that change how work feels and functions.

Here are a few ways organizations can start:

• Ritualized recovery. Predictable pause points—meeting-free Fridays, reflection blocks, digital quiet hours, etc.—give the nervous system space to reset. These aren’t interruptions to work; they’re essential to doing good work. I’m a firm believer that to go farther and faster, you often have to slow down first - to recover and to refocus.

✅ Action item: Choose one recovery ritual and pilot it for 30 days with a single team to build proof-of-concept and momentum.

• Redefining urgency. Not every ping is a fire. Training teams to tell the difference between true emergencies and everyday noise, and setting “response windows,” helps restore focus and reduces reactive pressure. A simple discussion on communication norms may bring great relief to those managing to unrealistic, self-imposed expectations.

✅ Action item:  Create a simple urgency matrix (urgent vs. important) as a team and align on what truly requires same-day response. 

• Manager enablement. Leaders set the emotional tone. Supporting managers to model boundaries, spot early stress signals, and have real capacity conversations creates a buffer that protects the whole team. Sometimes the manager even needs to model behavior and state the obvious: “I’m leaving at 5:00 today to hit the gym, which is important to my health.”

✅ Action item:  Train managers on early burnout signals and boundary-setting practices. Here is a great primer if you want to dig deeper on the signals. 

• Systems thinking. Auditing workflows, communication norms, and policies for hidden stress triggers helps address burnout at the root, not just the symptoms.

✅ Action item: Track workloads, meeting hours, and signs of cognitive overload with the same seriousness as productivity metrics. What gets measured gets protected. Invite the team to be a part of this - I guarantee they know where the inefficiencies lie!

• Psychological safety. People need to be able to say “this is too much” without fear. Honest conversations about capacity are foundational to any resilient culture.

✅ Action item:  Introduce a monthly “capacity check-in” where team members share workload pressure levels using a simple 1–5 scale. Make this a seamless part of your 1:1 meetings.

Ultimately, resilience isn’t built through endurance; it’s built through recovery. When organizations embrace that truth, they stop running their people like machines and start supporting them like humans.

The Bottom Line

When we are aware of workplace burnout and the science of stress, we shift from reactive urgency to proactive resilience, and work starts to feel different—steadier, clearer, and more human. The neuroscience doesn’t lie: our brains thrive when they’re supported, not stretched to their limits. Sustainable work isn’t a luxury or a soft benefit; it’s the foundation of high performance.

If our brains can’t turn off, maybe it’s time our workplaces learn how to let them.