[reitanqild]

Isn't burnout originally something way worse than exhausted and demotivated? Examples:

I burnt out once, it left me crying everytime I where alone and took me months to get through the first phase. Anything that reminded me about the old job, e.g. a faulty drive-train, could trigger stomach pain etc. It took 5 full years before I was really myself again even though I studied and had normal jobs during those years.

I have seen a couple of friends and colleagues go through the same. One of them was a promising technician who had to leave it.

Whenever I read articles like this I wonder if we are talking about the same kind of burnout? (And yes, English is not my first language.)

[cauterized]

That sounds more like nervous breakdown than burnout.

[arbitrage]

I had a similar experience. I left a very high stress job, and it took me well over a year to stop having anxiety attacks for a job I wasn't even employed at, anymore. I didn't even have a cell phone, and I was getting phantom phone syndrome for at least 18 months. Almost sounds like PTSD.

[InclinedPlane]

Yup, as I mentioned in another example, working is a business relationship analogous to a romantic relationship.

When one party is passionately in love, is hugely engaged in the relationship, and puts a great amount of work into the relationship (not merely hours but also emotional investment, etc.) while the other party is abusive, absent, disengaged, or what-have-you the result is often eventually severe emotional trauma and the dissolution of the relationship. That's true in romantic relationships, but also true in business relationships.

That's what most people don't realize about burnout. It's not merely physical, it's not about overwork, it's about psychological and emotional trauma on the scale of having your heart broken by a dysfunctional romantic relationship.

[DanBC]

There is better awareness of mental health problems, and a recognition that early intervention is important.