Should I Quit My Job Because of Burnout?
Should I Quit My Job Because of Burnout?
You wake up on Sunday morning and already feel anxious about Monday. Even though you promised yourself you would not check your emails, you find yourself looking at them anyway. Later that evening, you lie awake thinking about everything you need to do and wondering how you will get through another week.
At some point, the thought appears: “Maybe I should just quit.”
For many women experiencing workplace burnout, leaving begins to feel like the only way to make the pressure stop. This thought is often followed by another wave of uncertainty. You may worry that you will regret leaving, struggle to find another job or discover that the next workplace is exactly the same. You might also question whether you are overreacting, failing to cope or walking away from a career you worked hard to build.
These are difficult questions to answer when you are already exhausted, anxious and struggling to think clearly. There is no single answer to whether you should quit your job because of burnout. For some people, leaving an unhealthy workplace is the right decision. For others, it may be the role, manager, workload or working conditions that need to change rather than the entire career.
Before making such a significant decision, it can help to understand what is making work feel so unbearable and whether anything could realistically change.
When Quitting Feels Like the Only Option
Burnout often develops gradually. You may start by staying back occasionally to finish your work, checking emails in the evening or using part of the weekend to catch up. Over time, work begins taking up far more space than the hours you are actually paid to be there.
Many women continue functioning throughout this process. They meet deadlines, attend meetings, respond to messages and support their colleagues. From the outside, they still appear organised, capable and successful. Privately, however, they may feel as though they are barely holding everything together.
By this point, leaving can feel less like a considered career decision and more like an escape route. When you have spent months feeling tense, exhausted and unable to switch off, it makes sense that your mind would start searching for the fastest way to end the pressure.
What Does Workplace Burnout Feel Like?
The World Health Organization describes burnout as an occupational phenomenon resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is associated with exhaustion, increasing detachment or cynicism towards work and a reduced sense of professional effectiveness.
Burnout is more than having a difficult week. Most people experience periods of pressure, frustration or increased workload. Usually, those feelings improve when the deadline passes, the project finishes or there is an opportunity to rest.
With burnout, the exhaustion tends to persist. You may take a weekend off, have an early night or go on holiday, but notice that the dread returns almost as soon as work begins again. Tasks that once felt manageable start to feel overwhelming, minor problems become increasingly difficult to tolerate and work you once cared about may begin to feel meaningless.
Many women respond by telling themselves that they need to become more organised, more efficient or more resilient. The reality is often that they are already putting in an enormous amount of effort simply to keep functioning.
Is It the Job, the Workplace or the Career?
When every working day feels difficult, it can seem as though the entire career is wrong. Sometimes it is. In other situations, the problem lies primarily with the current role or organisation.
Understanding this distinction can help you avoid making one large decision before identifying what you are actually trying to change.
Is It the Role?
You may still value your profession but find that your current responsibilities are no longer sustainable. Perhaps your workload has gradually increased, you spend most of your day responding to interruptions or you have taken on additional responsibilities without adequate time, recognition or support.
The role may also no longer suit your strengths, interests or current stage of life. Work that was manageable before having children, taking on caring responsibilities or experiencing changes in your health may no longer be realistic under your current circumstances.
In these situations, another position within the same profession could provide a very different experience. You may not need to abandon the career itself, but you may need a role with different expectations, hours or responsibilities.
Is It the Workplace?
Sometimes the work remains meaningful, but the environment in which you are doing it has become difficult or unsustainable. Poor communication, unclear expectations, inadequate staffing, workplace conflict and unsupportive management can gradually erode your wellbeing.
You may have little control over how you complete your work, receive conflicting instructions or be expected to remain available outside working hours. In some workplaces, overwork is treated as evidence of commitment and anyone who establishes limits is seen as not being sufficiently dedicated.
Safe Work Australia recognises excessive job demands, low job control, poor support, unclear roles, bullying, harassment and poor organisational justice as psychosocial hazards. These are workplace risks rather than evidence that an individual is not resilient enough.
Sometimes it is helpful to stop asking, “Why can’t I cope with this workplace?” and instead consider whether the workplace is expecting something that is unreasonable or unsustainable.
Is It the Career?
For some people, burnout brings a deeper dissatisfaction into focus. Your interests, priorities or values may have changed, or the lifestyle associated with your profession may no longer be compatible with the life you want.
You may also feel trapped by the amount of time, money and effort you have already invested. After working for years to qualify or establish yourself, leaving can feel like wasting everything you have achieved.
However, previous investment does not always mean that continuing is the right decision. Equally, feeling exhausted does not necessarily mean you chose the wrong career. It may mean that you need enough distance from the immediate pressure to determine whether you still want the work under different circumstances.
Why Burnout Makes Career Decisions Harder
Burnout can affect concentration, confidence, motivation and the ability to think flexibly. When you are exhausted, your options may begin to feel very black and white: stay and remain miserable, or leave and risk everything.
This can make it difficult to recognise smaller or more gradual possibilities. You may struggle to research alternatives, compare consequences or imagine a future in which work feels manageable again.
This does not mean you should dismiss the desire to leave as “just burnout.” The feeling may be communicating something important about your workload, environment, boundaries or changing priorities. However, it may help to create enough space to understand what the feeling is telling you before acting on it.
Perhaps you genuinely need to leave. Perhaps you need a different role, a period of leave or reduced hours. You may need to stop compensating for an understaffed team or clarify what is reasonably expected of you. In other situations, you may have reached the point where no realistic workplace change would be enough.
The answer will be different for everyone.
High-Functioning Women and the Pressure to Keep Going
Many of the women I see are highly conscientious. They care about doing a good job, notice what needs to be done and often take responsibility before anyone asks them to.
These qualities can be genuine strengths, but they can also make it difficult to recognise when too much is being asked of you. You may tell yourself it will be easier if you complete the task yourself, that everyone else is busy too or that you just need to get through one more difficult week.
The problem is that there is usually another difficult week.
Over time, being the capable and reliable person can become a role you feel unable to step out of. You continue saying yes, compensate for inadequate systems and work harder to prevent anyone from realising how overwhelmed you feel. You may no longer know whether you are staying because you want to or because asking for help, disappointing people or changing direction feels unacceptable.
From the outside, this may look like resilience. Behind the scenes, it can involve significant anxiety, sleep disruption and emotional exhaustion.
Perfectionism Can Make the Decision Even Harder
Perfectionism does not only affect how people complete their work. It can also affect how they make decisions.
You may believe that there is one correct choice and that you must identify it before taking any action. You research every possibility, mentally rehearse every outcome and try to predict how you will feel months or years into the future. Rather than creating certainty, this process often creates more anxiety.
There may not be a perfect decision. Leaving may bring relief as well as uncertainty. Staying may offer financial security but require meaningful workplace changes. Changing careers may feel exciting while also requiring you to tolerate being less experienced for a period of time.
Each option may involve some discomfort or risk. The goal is not to eliminate uncertainty completely, but to make a thoughtful decision that reflects your health, circumstances, priorities and values.
What Would Need to Change for You to Stay?
Rather than asking only whether you should quit, it may help to ask: “What would need to change for this job to become sustainable?”
Try to make the answer as specific as possible. “Less stress” is difficult to evaluate, whereas a manageable workload, clearer priorities, protected breaks, more predictable hours or no expectation of responding outside work are much easier to identify.
Other changes might include:
More realistic deadlines
Fewer interruptions
Greater flexibility
Appropriate supervision
A different reporting line
Reduced hours
Fewer days in the office
Moving to another role or team
Adjustments that better support neurodivergent needs
Once you have identified what would need to change, consider whether those changes are realistically possible in your workplace. Some organisations respond constructively when concerns are raised. Others promise change but repeatedly return to the same expectations.
If you have clearly communicated what you need and nothing meaningfully changes, that is important information too.
Have You Had an Opportunity to Recover?
A weekend is not always enough to recover from months or years of workplace stress. You may need more than sleep. Genuine recovery also involves time in which you are not checking emails, mentally rehearsing workplace conversations or preparing for the next crisis.
At the same time, taking leave does not necessarily resolve burnout if you return to exactly the same conditions. Many people feel noticeably better while they are away and then experience the same anxiety, sleep difficulties and exhaustion as soon as work approaches.
This does not mean the leave was ineffective. It may indicate that the workplace itself is an important part of the problem.
It is also useful to notice whether your mood, energy and interest improve when you are away from work. If exhaustion, low mood or loss of enjoyment remain across every part of your life, something broader than occupational burnout may be occurring. Anxiety, depression, sleep problems and physical health conditions can overlap with burnout, which is why speaking with a GP or psychologist may be helpful.
When Leaving May Be the Right Decision
There are situations in which leaving a role or workplace may be the most appropriate option. You may have tried to address the difficulties and found that nothing changes. The environment may be unsafe, hostile or fundamentally inconsistent with your values, or your health may continue to deteriorate despite your attempts to manage the situation.
You may also reach the considered conclusion that you no longer want this type of work. Leaving is not always a sign that you have failed or given up. Sometimes it means recognising that continuing in a particular environment is costing more than you are willing or able to keep giving.
However, leaving also involves practical considerations. Before resigning, it may be helpful to consider your finances, available leave, notice requirements, support network and whether you require employment, financial or legal advice.
Psychological therapy can support the emotional and decision-making process, but it does not replace advice from an appropriately qualified employment, financial or legal professional.
You Do Not Need to Decide Everything Today
One distinction I often encourage people to make is the difference between the immediate problem and the final decision.
The immediate problem may be that you are exhausted and cannot continue functioning in the same way. The final decision is whether you want to leave the role, workplace or profession altogether.
These questions are connected, but they do not always need to be answered at the same time.
The first step may be speaking with your GP, taking leave or setting one clear boundary. It may involve documenting what has been happening, asking for a specific workplace change or beginning to explore other roles without committing to anything yet.
Creating some distance from the immediate pressure can make it easier to think about what you want, rather than focusing only on escaping the next working day.
How Can a Psychologist Help?
A psychologist should not tell you whether to quit your job. The decision remains yours.
Therapy can provide a space to understand how you reached this point, identify what is contributing to burnout and consider your options more clearly. This may involve looking at whether the main difficulty lies with the role, workplace or career, as well as how exhaustion, anxiety, perfectionism or over-responsibility may be affecting your decision-making.
You may also explore what would need to change for you to stay, what leaving would make possible and how each option fits with your values, health and current priorities.
The purpose is not to persuade you to remain in an unhealthy situation or encourage you to leave before you are ready. It is to help you understand yourself and your circumstances well enough to make a considered decision.
Key Takeaways
Wanting to quit your job can be important information. It may indicate that your workload has become unsustainable, your workplace does not feel safe, your boundaries have been exceeded or your priorities have changed.
It does not automatically mean you need to resign immediately. It also does not mean you should continue forcing yourself to cope indefinitely.
Try to understand whether the problem lies primarily with the role, the workplace or the career itself. Consider what would need to change for you to stay and whether those changes are genuinely possible.
Most importantly, remember that being capable does not mean you should be expected to tolerate unlimited pressure.
Next Steps
If workplace stress is affecting your sleep, emotional wellbeing or ability to think clearly about your career, it may help to have a space to work through what has been happening.
Axis Within Psychology supports high-achieving women experiencing workplace burnout, work-related anxiety, perfectionism and career uncertainty.
Appointments are available in person at New Farm Wellness Centre, Brisbane, and via Telehealth Australia-wide.
You can learn more about working with a burnout psychologist in Brisbane.
Disclaimer: This article is intended for educational purposes only. It does not provide individual psychological, medical, employment or legal advice and should not be used as a substitute for assessment or advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
References
Fair Work Ombudsman. Flexible working arrangements. Australian Government.
Healthdirect Australia. Work-related stress. Australian Government.
Safe Work Australia. Psychosocial hazards. Australian Government.
World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases.