The Real Cost of Burnout
As someone who has been burned out more times than she'd like to admit, I'm getting to be a pro at this.
Let’s be honest about the current state of workplace wellness.
Too many organizations treat burnout like a personal failure. If a leader is struggling, the standard response is to suggest they work on their resilience or rededicate themselves to the valuable work they’re contributing to. We offer them a subscription to a meditation app, we put a fruit basket in the breakroom, or we remind them to practice self-care.
Meanwhile, they are staring at a workload that used to belong to three different people.
Organizations are trying to solve a structural problem with a personal band-aid. And it’s not working.
Burnout isn’t a weakness. It’s a math problem.
If you load 5 tons of cargo onto a 2-ton truck, the axle will snap. When that happens, you don’t blame the truck for lacking “grit.” You blame the person who loaded the truck.
The Expensive Truth
In the mission-driven space—whether you are in international development or a domestic non-profit—we are addicted to the idea of the hero. “Do it for the mission” becomes a carrion call, driving teams to encourage the most burnout inducing behavior because it’s helping someone, somewhere. The leader who always says yes, who absorbs every shock, and who keeps the lights on through sheer force of will.
But right now, that hero is facing an impossible equation.
Many organizations have gone through significant staff reductions. Overhead budgets have been slashed, and roles have been consolidated. You are likely operating with a leaner team than you had two years ago, but your strategic mandate hasn’t shrunk. In fact, the pressure to deliver impact is higher than ever.
So the remaining staff are trying to do the same amount of work with fewer hands. This creates a structural deficit. We build our annual plans on the assumption that our people can consistently operate at 120% capacity to make up for the missing headcount. Then, when they pull off a miracle and deliver, we raise the target again.
That isn't cultivating resilience. It’s a strategy dooming everyone.
When your staff burn out, the cost isn’t just their sick leave. The real cost is deeply operational:
The Decision Void: Exhausted brains default to the path of least resistance, not the path of highest impact.
The Cynicism Contagion: Burnout trickles down. If the director is drowning, the team stops trusting the boat.
The Institutional Memory Loss: When that high-performer finally quits to find balance, they take years of relationships and institutional knowledge out the door with them—knowledge you can no longer afford to replace.
Protecting Capacity is a Strategic Necessity
If you are in HR or organizational leadership, it is time to reframe the conversation.
Supporting your staff members isn’t just about being a kind human being in an unkind world. It’s also about asset protection. Your people are the most expensive, volatile, and critical machinery in your organization.
You cannot afford to break them.
We need to stop asking leaders to be more resilient in toxic systems, and start equipping them to build better systems.
This is where the work shifts from wellness to leadership design.
It’s teaching leaders how to ruthlessly prioritize and model good boundaries when everything feels urgent.
It’s defining what is good enough so that perfectionism doesn’t eat up limited hours.
It’s treating rest not as a reward for work done, but as a prerequisite for the work to come.
You cannot out-yoga a bad business model. But you can build a culture where sustainability and psychosocial wellbeing are KPIs.
This is exactly what I work on with my coaching clients. We stop looking for the “right” answer and start looking at your compass.
My coaching practice is a container for that change. We don’t just vent about the stress; we audit the ecosystem.
We Make Space: To name what actually matters to the organization right now—not what mattered five years ago—so you can ruthlessly prioritize.
We Tend the Roots: We identify the “quiet signals” of burnout in your leadership team before they turn into resignations.
We Build Structure: Because sustainable growth requires a trellis, not just sunshine. We design the boundaries and permission structures that keep your best people from drowning.
If you are ready to stop patching up your organization’s leaders and start fortifying them with real support, let’s talk.
I partner with organizations to provide high-impact coaching for leaders who are ready to build sustainable ways of working.