Who Really Pays the Price for Burnout?
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Burnout is everywhere. You can feel it in the exhausted colleague who can't switch off, the manager running on empty, the worker who dreads Monday before Sunday is even over. But here's a question we rarely ask out loud: who should actually foot the bill?
I recently spoke with Brigid Delaney from ABC News for an article titled "Workers pay the price for burnout. Should employers cover the cost?" — and the conversation struck a nerve. Because for too long, we've treated burnout as a personal problem. Something to fix with a holiday, a meditation app, or a long weekend. But burnout isn't a personal failing. It's a systemic one.
Workers don't burn out in a vacuum. They burn out inside organisations — under unmanageable workloads, poor leadership, and cultures that quietly reward exhaustion. Yet when the cost comes due — in lost income, medical bills, therapy, and time — it's the individual who pays.
That's a conversation worth having. And it's one I've been having for a while.
On my podcast Deep Thinking with Dr Steven Stolz, I've dedicated two full episodes to unpacking burnout:
Episode #1 — My own deep dive into what burnout really is and why we keep misunderstanding it
Episode #6 — A fascinating conversation with leading psychiatrist Prof. Gordon Parker on the science behind burnout
Whether you're someone who's experienced burnout firsthand, or a leader wanting to do better by your people, I think you'll find both episodes genuinely eye-opening.
👉 Read the ABC News article by Brigid Delaney for ABC’s Long Read:
“Workers pay the price of burnout. Should employers cover the cost?”
The conversation around burnout is changing. It's time workplaces caught up.
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