05th March 2025
5 Subtle Signs a Remote Employee Is Burning Out – And What Managers Can Do About It
Burnout is widespread yet often hard to detect, especially among remote workers. Employees may not recognize their own burnout or fear admitting it. Managers must proactively monitor behavioral and communication cues such as disengagement, declining performance, fatigue, and reduced communication. Regular one-on-one check-ins and empathetic leadership are key to prevention and support.
This article was written by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic and published in HBR.
Although organizations and managers have a strong incentive to combat burnout, it is often difficult to detect. Employees often aren’t aware that they experience it, mistaking it for normal work stress or interpreting it as a natural adaptation to work pressures. Even when they are aware, employees are often ashamed to show or report it, fearing it is their own fault, or worrying that they may be seen as weak rather than tough or resilient. And modern working conditions, particularly hybrid work, working from home, or work-from-anywhere policies, reduce opportunities for managers to detect burnout in their teams, which limits their ability to help and support them.
Fortunately, there are effective ways managers can improve their ability to identify burnout signs in their teams, even when they lack frequent physical proximity to their team members. Indeed, by learning to pay more attention to both behavioral and communication cues, managers can significantly improve their ability to assess burnout in their remote employees.
5 Things Managers Should Be Doing to Identify Burnout in Remote Employees
Here are five suggestions to consider:
1. Observe changes in engagement levels
However burnout manifests, it will typically change an employee’s usual behavioral patterns. Employees who were once active may become more passive or withdrawn.
Look for decreases in employees’ engagement levels, as meta-analytic studies have shown that disengagement often precedes burnout, especially when it is still coupled with long working hours and extrinsic pressures that lack intrinsic meaning or purpose.
Pay attention to how actively employees participate in virtual meetings. A sudden drop in enthusiasm, fewer contributions to discussions, avoiding eye contact, or turning off cameras frequently (especially if they usually don’t) can be signs of burnout.
2. Monitor work performance and deadlines
Look for patterns of declining performance, missed deadlines, or an increased number of errors in their work. If an employee who typically performs well begins to struggle with meeting expectations, it might signal burnout, especially when combined with other signs.
Note that one of the key features of burnout is people’s experience that they feel they lack the necessary resources, freedom, or time to perform their job. Therefore, simply checking whether people feel supported — whether they feel that they have the conditions to thrive and succeed — can help you detect signs of burnout.
3. Look for signs of fatigue or exhaustion
Employees who are burned out may appear tired or distracted during virtual meetings. They might yawn frequently, exhibit low energy, or seem mentally distant. Excessive use of phrases like “I’m so busy” or “I’m just exhausted” could be hints of underlying burnout, especially when employees prefer not to explicitly state that they are burned out.
4. Track communication patterns
Changes in communication, such as reduced responsiveness to emails or chats, or shorter and less thoughtful responses, can indicate burnout. Employees who stop contributing ideas, seem to isolate themselves from team discussions, or miss meetings may be disengaged due to burnout. As Erica Dhawan notes in her recent book Digital Body Language, even subtle behavioral and communicational changes can signal important psychological messages in virtual environments, so it’s important to be sensitive to what people say, how they say it, and how they look, especially compared to their normal baseline.
5. Conduct regular one-on-one check-ins
Regular one-on-one check-ins with employees are critical for detecting burnout, and managers should approach them with empathy. In virtual settings, asking open-ended questions, such as “How are you feeling about your workload?” or “Is there anything overwhelming you?” can help managers gauge employees’ emotional and mental well-being.
To be sure, managers’ ability to detect burnout signs in their employees will be directly proportional to their own emotional intelligence (EQ). High-EQ managers will be naturally good at tuning into their direct reports’ feelings, and more sensitive to granular changes in other people’s behaviors. This is backed up by meta-analytic research showing that EQ scores are consistently and positively correlated with accurate emotion recognition in others.
What to Do If You Notice Signs of Burnout in a Remote Employee
No matter how good managers are at picking up valid signals of burnout in their employees, that is merely half of the job. Indeed, the other half is helping employees deal with their burnout issues. Admittedly, most managers will not be equipped to manage this by themselves, so directing their employees to the right resources, support, and experts — such as clinical psychologists, wellness coaches, and medical support — is generally a safer option than to have managers act as experts themselves.
To continue reading this article in full click here: 5 Signs a Remote Worker Is Burning Out
