Burn-on: the high-functioning burnout no one sees
- Christina - Spark Back Coaching
- 6 hours ago
- 2 min read
How can I be burning out and still keep going? Someone once described it to me as feeling like a car running on the reserve tank. You’re still moving but you’re ignoring the red light signaling low fuel on your dashboard. I’ve heard versions of this more times than I can count, in #coaching sessions, exit interviews and individual conversations with people who were DOING absolutely fine, and yet, not FEELING fine. So, what is actually going on here?
A 2024 DHR Global survey of 1,500 white-collar workers across three continents found that 82% reported feeling burned out. So far, not surprising. What was surprising is that 88% of the same group described themselves as highly engaged at #work. Not despite the exhaustion but alongside it. 44% even said the burnout made them more engaged, not less. 🤯
How can those two things exist at the same time? The answer, I think, is that we’re looking at two different things and calling them by the same name. The #burnout most people recognize is a collapse. You stop functioning. Something breaks, visibly, and the people around you can finally see it. But, burn-on (or high-functioning burnout) is what happens before that, sometimes for years. You keep going. You deliver. You show up to every meeting, hit every deadline, absorb every extra request. However, underneath all of that functioning, something is slowly wearing away. You can feel it but you can’t name it.
The people I saw dealing with burn-on most often were the ones everyone relied on: no sick days, solid output, never the first to complain. And precisely because they kept performing, nobody, including themselves, thought to ask whether they were okay. That’s what makes burn-on so much harder to spot than burnout: the signals are buried under competence.
So, don’t ignore the red light! If something isn’t feeling right, even if you’re still performing, then you have to pay attention to it. Otherwise, you’ll soon be running on empty.
👉 I’m currently researching burnout for my MSc in Psychology, because I think there are ways that we can prevent it, even if the typical symptoms haven’t shown up yet. If you’d like to contribute to that research, reach out and I’ll share the survey link (it takes about 10 mins).
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