The more I research burnout in organisations, the more amazed I am at our headlong race to deplete a rapidly diminishing talent pool. Here is a true story.

When the police pulled up behind a young, high-flying leader staring vacantly out of his car window on the hard shoulder of the M1, they tried to question him. He didn’t know his name, where he was going or how he had arrived there. He was mumbling, “Must get the figures ready. Manager’s on my back. Need to perform better to get promoted”. He had just completed 15 continuous months of work of between 14 and 16 hours a day with rarely a day off.

Back at his place of work, his manager, when questioned by the police explained: “Corporate send them to me to either make ‘em or break ‘em. Obviously he wasn’t made of the right stuff, so I broke him!”

What a terrible indictment on his manager and the organisation, and what a waste of talent.

A significant number of high-flyers burn out like this during the first 10 years of their career. I believe organisations need to take hold of this wasteful situation by analysing corporate cultures, eradicating the catalysts that create burnout, and supporting those unable to help themselves.

What can we all do about it?

For a start, we need to stop describing everyday stress as burnout. Burnout is not stress: it is a complete inability to get out of bed, an inability to function, tie shoelaces or choose what clothes to wear; an incapability to undertake work of any capacity; an addictive, overwhelming exhaustion; a condition resulting in disillusionment and a dysfunctional attitude towards work, colleagues and family.

All of us experience workplace stress from time to time, but to describe leaders going through a busy time or a temporary rough patch as “burnt out” denigrates the seriousness of the real condition and mitigates the culpability of the organisations who have stood by and watched it happen.

What does the current research say about burnout?

1. Burnout predominantly happens to high performers and is sometimes described as “overachiever syndrome.”

2. The conditions for burnout are created by organisations or circumstances.

3. Burnout predominantly occurs during the first 10 years of a career, following a subtle downward spiral.

4. Burnout predominantly happens among 20 to 30 year olds.

5. Immune systems slowly shut down resulting in repeated illness when leaders are burning out.

6. Lower back or neck pains, increased use of painkillers and caffeine and disrupted sleep patterns are all early signs of burnout.

7. Changes in eating habits and increased alcohol consumption are common.

8. Often the only person who doesn’t recognise the downward spiral in performance is the leader themselves.

What is happening?

In order to better understand what is happening, it can help to visualise the route towards complete burnout as a downward escalator. As the escalator accelerates, some leaders find it difficult to remain at the top. By the time they have travelled a third of the way down, a number of more fortunate leaders are able to learn from this experience, independently step off the escalator and recover. They adapt, adopt and improve their personal resilience and return to the top of the escalator.

Those leaders who are incapable of learning from this initial experience or do not acknowledge their descent until two thirds of the way down, find non-assisted recovery albeit impossible. They need a buddy or personal coach to encourage them to step off by themselves; someone who will help them understand the reality of their future and coach them to formulate and implement a personal recovery strategy.

Of those casualties who reach the bottom of the escalator and completely burn out, only a very small number recover to surpass their original levels of seniority. The majority freeze their careers, accepting the same or lower levels of responsibility and a small number never recover but compromise by changing their life aspirations completely.

How can organisations help?

When leaders completely burn out, organisations are faced with a number of serious issues. So why not take a step back and tackle the issue of burnout before it reaches a crisis point?

There are a number of steps organisations can take to reduce the possibility of leadership burnout.

For a start, is 24/7 contact really necessary? Simple cultural changes such as no e-mails after 7pm or before 7am can really make a difference.

Flexible, annual work patterns based on operational demands, lateral development to combat repetitive work, routine mentor meetings, shorter summer hours and study leave are just some of the other concepts currently being considered to safeguard our diminishing talent pool from burning out.

Promoting healthy eating and exercise can also be highly effective. Some organisations are already seeing a difference by discounting gym membership, providing fresh fruit, insisting on regular breaks and stamping out the “sandwich at your desk” lunch culture.

While these are all positive steps, nothing can replace the need for realism. The most important thing that organisations can do is to look at the workloads handled by their employees and ask honestly, is this a realistic expectation?

Howard Awbery is founder of Awbery Management. He is currently researching and writing a book on corporate burnout alongside Professor Max Blythe. His thinking has been significantly influenced by the work of Schaufeli and Enzan, Freudenberger and especially Tim Casserley and David Megginson’s book Learning from Burnout.