In the last few decades, the concept of “burnout” has become ubiquitous in modern discourse around work and academia. However, there is a common misunderstanding about what burnout actually is. To many people, burnout is synonymous with being overworked and stressed.

But cognitive scientist and Yale professor Laurie Santos wants you to know that that’s not the case. Rather, burnout is a clinical syndrome with specific symptoms of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization or cynicism, and a sense of personal ineffectiveness. It can be caused by a heavy workload, but it is often due to a mismatch in values, unfairness, or a lack of intrinsic reward.

Properly understanding burnout — and knowing how to identify it — is crucial for employing practical steps to proactively avoid the syndrome. To do so, Santos suggests four simple, actionable steps that can help you not only spot burnout, but stop it in its tracks.

0:00 3 symptoms of clinical burnout
1:51 3 causes of burnout
3:39 Questions for assessing your burnout
4:59 How to treat burnout

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About Laurie Santos:
Dr. Laurie Santos is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Yale University. Her research provides an interface between evolutionary biology, developmental psychology, and cognitive neuroscience, exploring the evolutionary origins of the human mind by comparing the cognitive abilities of human and non-human primates. Her experiments focus on non-human primates (in captivity and in the field), incorporating methodologies from cognitive development, animal learning psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.

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