Burnout: the early signals almost everyone misses

# Burnout: the early signals almost everyone misses

One clarification before we start, because this topic deserves it: this article is evidence-based education, not a diagnostic tool. If something you read resonates strongly and persistently, talking with a mental health professional is a good decision — not a last resort.

That said: burnout has a built-in injustice. By the time the word shows up — when someone dares to say "I think I'm burned out" — the process has usually been running for months. And those months left signals. The problem is that the early signals of burnout don't look like burnout: they look like virtues, they look like busy stretches, they look like "that's just this job". This article exists so you can spot them earlier — in yourself or someone on your team — while they're still cheap to reverse.