Over the past few years, mental health in the workplace has received increasing attention from both researchers and practitioners. Deloitte’s annual Gen Z and Millennial Survey (2023), which collected responses from over 22,000 participants across 44 countries, found that mental health concerns among younger workers are at an all-time high. Specifically, 46% of Generation Z and 39% of Millennials reported feeling stressed or anxious all or most of the time, with poor work–life balance cited as a major contributing factor. Work pressures are also driving high levels of burnout, with approximately 52% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials reporting that they feel burned out.
In the UK, research conducted by productivity and performance coaching provider Avilio highlights that younger employees are disproportionately affected by workplace stress and burnout. The study found that employees aged 18 to 34 were more likely than older cohorts to experience work-related stress and to take time off due to mental health concerns.
Signs of stress were also more prominent among younger managers, with many reporting regular work beyond contracted hours. These findings underscore the heightened vulnerability of early-career professionals to workplace pressures and emphasise the need for organisational interventions that address systemic and structural factors contributing to stress and burnout.
The Modern Burnout Landscape
Burnout is a multidimensional construct characterised by emotional exhaustion, depersonalisation, and reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). Younger professionals are particularly vulnerable to burnout due to early career pressures, job insecurity, and high performance demands.
Recent research indicates that workplace digitalisation can contribute to burnout by increasing role overload and work-related stress. Empirical evidence also highlights that the demands of using digital technologies at work can negatively affect employee well-being and mental health. Collectively, these findings underscore the importance of organisational support, workload management, and strategies to mitigate the impact of technology on employee well-being.
Resilience: Helpful or Harmful?
In response to rising burnout rates, many organisations have implemented “resilience training” programs to enhance employees’ coping mechanisms. In psychology, resilience is defined as the ability to bounce back or recover from stress. Higher resilience has been shown to buffer individuals against the negative effects of stress, including emotional exhaustion and psychological strain.
However, organisational psychologist Briner (2023) cautions that an exclusive focus on individual resilience can risk shifting responsibility for burnout from organisational systems to employees. He argues that “resilience” can become a corporate shield, deflecting attention from unhealthy organisational cultures and the lack of systemic support. Such an approach may obscure structural contributors to burnout, including excessive workloads, poor management, and job insecurity, which require systemic interventions rather than reliance on individual coping strategies.
The Power of Psychological Safety
A more effective approach involves creating environments where employees feel safe to speak up, ask for help, and share struggles.
Harvard researcher Amy Edmondson (1999) defines psychological safety as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking.”
In psychologically safe teams, people can admit mistakes or raise concerns without fear of embarrassment or punishment.
Recent studies show that psychological safety is linked to lower burnout and higher engagement. It shifts the focus from fixing individuals to fixing the environment, reducing blame, encouraging openness, and fostering trust. For young workers, who often feel the least empowered, this can make the difference between growth and exhaustion.
Breaking the Cycle
Burnout is not inevitable; it’s a signal that something in the system needs repair. Organisations that prioritise autonomy, fair workloads, and supportive leadership see lower burnout and higher retention. Psychological safety can be cultivated through transparent communication, empathy, and valuing effort over constant perfection. Governments and institutions also play a role, through policies supporting flexible work, fair pay, and access to mental health care.
The implications for organisations are clear: interventions should extend beyond promoting individual resilience to addressing systemic factors that influence employee well-being. Creating mentally healthy workplaces necessitates transferring responsibility from employees to organisational structures, including the design of work, workload management, and supportive management practices. For younger employees, who are particularly vulnerable to burnout, such systemic interventions have the potential to interrupt cycles of stress and exhaustion, fostering a more sustainable, equitable, and psychologically safe work environment.
Dr Cakil Agnew, Associate Professor of Psychology at Heriot-Watt University Dubai
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Further Reading:
- Heriot-Watt University Expands its Presence at Dubai Knowledge Park
- Heriot-Watt University Dubai Marks 20 Years of Building the Future Workforce in the UAE