Having a Compassionate Conversation with a Burned-Out Colleague

If you’ve read these pages in the past three years, you’ve seen me write a lot about burnout and its impact on faculty well-being and institutional culture. The World Health Organization (2019) defines burnout as “a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” It has three defining characteristics: chronic exhaustion, increased mental distance or cynicism toward the job, and reduced job efficacy (or the perception of such).