Beyond Blue CEO Georgie Harman warns job insecurity, system friction and loneliness are fuelling burnout, and employers can fix it
More than a third of workers are experiencing workplace burnout, and the employees with the least job security and support are carrying most of the load, according to The State of Workplace Burnout 2026 report from Infinite Potential.
The overall burnout rate sits at 36 per cent, but ranges from 14 per cent among the best-supported employees to 66 per cent among the least supported.
Led by industrial and organisational psychologist Dr John Chan, managing director of Infinite Potential, the study analysed 1,679 completed responses from participants across 12 countries. It applies the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of burnout, counting it only when exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy occur together.
Georgie Harman AO, CEO of Beyond Blue, which contributed to the report, told HRD the findings point squarely at how work is built.
"The findings remind us that burnout is not simply an individual challenge for people to manage on their own. Burnout is often shaped by the conditions surrounding work and how work is designed," she said.
Job insecurity drives the burnout divide
Job security was one of the sharpest dividing lines in the data. The report found a 45-point gap in burnout rates between workers who felt most and least secure in their roles, a wider spread than any demographic factor. Women and people with a disability or chronic condition also reported poorer outcomes.
"When people are worried about whether their job is secure, they're carrying an additional psychological burden before they've even started the day's work," Harman said.
"Uncertainty about employment, finances, rapid workplace change, technological disruption and future prospects can create ongoing stress that affects how people feel, how connected they are to their workplace and ultimately how they perform."
For Australian employers, that is a compliance issue as much as a cultural one. The Commonwealth Code of Practice for managing psychosocial hazards at work lists job insecurity as a common psychosocial hazard, reflecting growing scrutiny of how employers manage psychosocial risks in the workplace.
Friction, not complexity, fuels burnout
The report separates the mental load that comes with a job from the load an organisation creates. Complex cases and difficult decisions showed no significant link to burnout. System friction – broken systems, duplicated work, unclear instructions and unnecessary approvals – was associated with 74 per cent higher odds of burnout, while constant interruptions and task switching carried 53 per cent higher odds.
Seventy-one per cent of respondents said they work around poorly designed systems to do their job, and 74 per cent end a typical workday mentally and emotionally exhausted. Rapid technology change adds to that pressure, as earlier research on how AI adoption both fuels and eases burnout in Australian workplaces has shown.
"By finding ways to tune into people's everyday experience of work and addressing any unnecessary friction (the systems and processes making work feel hard to navigate), competing demands and constant interruptions, employers can help create work environments where people remain healthy, connected and engaged," Harman said.
What does burnout cost employers?
Almost half (48 per cent) of respondents reported feeling lonely at work, and lonely workers were burnt out at more than twice the rate of others – 52 per cent against 25 per cent. Some 45 per cent said their wellbeing was worse than 12 months earlier. The figures build on the Leading Mentally Healthy Workplaces survey showing burnout rising among Australian employees.
Support is not reaching those who need it. Thirty-nine per cent of respondents said they needed professional mental health support and did not get it, while use of employer-provided Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) ranged from 10 to 17 per cent across social groups.
Output suffers too. Workers who were not burnt out were 2.8 times more likely to report higher productivity over the past six months.
"When people are exhausted, overwhelmed or disconnected, it can affect their confidence, relationships, sense of purpose and ability to participate fully at work and in life," Harman said. "That's why workplace mental health should be viewed as both a mental wellbeing issue and a sustainability issue for organisations."
Redesigning work to close the divide
The report sets out five design choices for leaders: regular reviews to strip out duplicated processes and meeting overload, real support on workload and staffing rather than superficial perks, tracking hours worked beyond schedule, treating job security as a psychosocial risk control and building trust and belonging as a route to productivity. It also urges boards to review workforce health alongside productivity targets.
Harman said the outcome is not fixed. "Burnout is not inevitable. By paying attention to what's making work harder than it needs to be, leaders can help create workplaces where people are better able to focus, contribute and thrive."
