The Systems Behind Employee Burnout

A lot of leaders contact me because they have heard about my one-on-one coaching services and they want me to work with their employees.  What seems to be happening is that a smart, capable employee starts missing deadlines.  Perhaps there is some small display of reactivity.  Where there was once collaboration, there is now tension or defensiveness…or what is the most popular – silence.  So, I am asked, “Can you work with him on his “burn out”? 

Sure.  I do a lot of resilience training. I can help the person manage stress.  I am pretty good at it, and it will help.

Unfortunately.  It will also be an incomplete move. 

In most organizations, what is breaking people is not a lack of coping skills. It is the system they are operating inside.

I recently worked with a leadership team who were genuinely confused by the behavior showing up across their organization. Engagement seemed to be declining and turnover was increasing.   Managers described employees as disengaged, irritable, and resistant to change. Some blamed it on generational gaps and how the world is making people lazy. 

They had worked with another organizational wellness company and offered wellness challenges, EAPs and encouraged work-life balance.  They reminded managers to check in more with their employees.  All good stuff.

But there wasn’t really any shifts.  So, they thought they would add some coaching and called me.

When I started working with them, I found their employees to be thoughtful, intelligent, and well-intentioned.  So, what were the conditions that shaped the behavior?

I have found that humans do not operate independently at work. They operate inside systems. Those systems include workload expectations, decision authority, role clarity, communication norms, power dynamics, incentives, and how pressure is handled when stakes rise. When these elements are misaligned, even the most capable people will struggle to function well.

It is a systems issue.

Most organizations are built on an unspoken assumption that people should adapt to the system, no matter how the system is designed. When strain appears, the instinct is to strengthen the individual rather than examine the structure. More training. More coaching. More reminders to take care of themselves.

This approach overlooks something fundamental about human behavior. People are adaptive by nature. When they enter a system, they read it quickly. They notice what is rewarded, what is ignored, and what is punished. They adjust accordingly. Over time, those adjustments become patterns, and those patterns are labeled as culture.

If a system rewards speed over thoughtfulness, people will move quickly even when nuance is required. If a system values availability over clarity, people will stay responsive even when they are depleted. If a system centralizes decision-making under pressure, people will stop offering ideas and wait for direction. None of this happens because people lack skill or care. It happens because the system teaches them what is necessary to function.  And interestingly, it’s all subconscious. 

This is where many conversations about wellness fall apart. They focus on how individuals feel without addressing what individuals are navigating. They measure stress without examining its source. They ask people to be resilient inside conditions that continuously produce strain.

The result is predictable and over time, skepticism grows because there is a mismatch between language and lived experience.

Organizational behavior is not driven by values statements, engagement campaigns, or wellness programs. It is driven by what repeats under pressure and pressure is where systems reveal themselves. When deadlines compress, resources thin, or uncertainty increases, people do not rise to the level of training or intention. They default to what the system allows, rewards, or tolerates.

From the outside, this can look like disengagement or burnout. From the inside, it often feels like self-protection.  People begin to conserve energy and become selective about where they speak and where they stay silent. These behaviors are often interpreted as a lack of motivation or commitment. In reality, they are rational responses to environments that feel unpredictable or overwhelming.

Wellness initiatives alone cannot correct this because they address the individual without addressing the environment. This is why my organization looks at systems issues in addition to employee wellness.  Teaching someone to regulate stress does not help if the system continuously produces it. Encouraging resilience does not work if the structure rewards overextension and punishes pause. Asking leaders to be empathetic fails if they are operating inside conditions that leave little room for reflection or choice.

This does not mean wellness has no place. It means wellness must be understood as an outcome rather than an intervention. When human systems are aligned, people do not need to be reminded to take care of themselves. They have the capacity to do so naturally.

Consider how many organizations ask employees to collaborate while structuring work in ways that make collaboration costly. Performance metrics focus on individual output and timelines are tight. Under these conditions, collaboration becomes an added burden rather than a shared process.

The same pattern appears in leadership development. Leaders are encouraged to be inclusive, transparent, and supportive. Yet they operate inside systems that reward decisiveness over dialogue and certainty over inquiry. Under pressure, they revert to directive behaviors because the system reinforces those choices. Training alone cannot counteract this.

A systems lens changes this trajectory. It shifts the focus from fixing people to examining patterns. It asks different questions. What behaviors are required to succeed here? What behaviors are discouraged? Where does pressure accumulate? Who absorbs it? How does information flow when stakes rise? 

These are the questions that I ask when I work with people.  It may be scary, but answering these questions are the bravest (and smartest) thing you can do to create the culture that is necessary for your organization to rise to the level of excellence.

At first, honest reflections can feel destabilizing. If the problem is systemic, it cannot be solved through quick fixes or individual interventions. It requires patience, curiosity, and a willingness to tolerate complexity.  Yet once this shift occurs, the bigger shift occurs.

Organizations that attend to human systems create conditions where performance becomes sustainable. Wellness emerges as a natural outcome of work that is designed with human capacity in mind. Engagement increases because the system allows them to contribute meaningfully without self-erasure.

The most beautiful part of it all, is trust grows over time because the system demonstrates it through consistent behavior. This is the difference between treating wellness as an add-on and understanding it as a reflection of how human systems are designed. It is the foundation of organizational health, leadership effectiveness, and long-term success.