Burnout concepts, in plain terms

Feeling drained and depleted of emotional and physical resources — the first and most common dimension of burnout to appear.

Maslach & Jackson, 1981

Emotional distancing and cynicism toward the people you care for — often a coping mechanism for overload, not a personality change.

Maslach & Jackson, 1981

A creeping sense of incompetence or reduced effectiveness at work — tied more to a lack of autonomy and support than actual skill.

Maslach & Jackson, 1981

Burnout happens when job demands (workload, emotional labor) outpace the resources (staffing, autonomy, support) available to meet them.

Demerouti et al., 2001

A person's reserve of hope, self-efficacy, resilience, and optimism — higher levels are linked to lower burnout, though it's not a substitute for structural fixes.

Luthans et al., 2007

Real access to information, resources, support, and opportunity within an organization — the conditions that make good work actually possible.

Kanter, 1993

The internal sense that your work has meaning, that you're competent at it, and that you have real say in how it gets done.

Spreitzer, 1995

A leadership style built on intellectual stimulation, individualized consideration, and an inspiring shared vision — linked to lower burnout among those it leads.

Heffernan, 2024

A leadership model that starts from what a person or team already does well, instead of cataloguing deficits to fix.

Gottlieb et al., 2012