A therapist explains the warning signs of rust-out, how it differs from burnout, and what managers can do
Not every employee who's checked out is drowning in work. Some may simply be bored out of their minds.
Introducing "rust-out."
The term describes what can happen when employees feel underchallenged, underused or disconnected from their work for long enough. Instead of running on empty, they're barely running at all.
It's a timely problem for HR to consider. According to Gallup's latest employee engagement survey, just 31% of U.S. employees were actively engaged at work in the first half of 2026. The figure has barely moved since 2025 and remains well below the 36% high recorded in 2020.
Alexis Verbin, a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and founder of Wellcore Healing in Denver, Colorado, described what rust-out is in an interview with HRD America.
"There's no official clinical diagnosis or clinical language around rust-out. It more so characterizes a type of workplace experience," Verbin said. "Burnout, for example, has a definition from the World Health Organization (WHO). With rust-out, employees start feeling a loss of motivation. There's a decline over time."
What rust-out really looks like
So, how do you tell if your employees are suffering from rust-out?
Verbin described the early signs as changes in everyday behavior.
"Maybe they're appearing bored, experiencing chronic boredom, not feeling stimulated intellectually," Verbin said. "They're not taking as much initiative, not volunteering for projects or asking for more tasks. They're just kind of checked out, feeling disconnected from purpose. You can see it. They're going through the motions."
That overlap with burnout is what makes rust-out hard to catch, since fatigue and low job satisfaction show up in both. The warning signs HR teams are trained to recognize in burnout often point to the opposite problem, too much being asked of someone rather than too little.
Burnout, Verbin said, comes from chronic workplace stress that isn't being managed well, driven by excessive demands and insufficient resources.
"It's this constant pressure of go, go, go, with no time to rest or rejuvenate," she said. "It's almost ironic. They share similar symptoms, but they're opposite. One is being underutilized, and the other is being overutilized without enough resources."
AI's role in the problem
Verbin pointed to artificial intelligence as one factor accelerating rust-out, particularly for some employees whose most engaging responsibilities might now be handled by a machine.
"If a computer is taking over your high-level thinking, your strategy, the important conversations you might be having with your colleagues, then what are you left with?" Verbin said. "You're left with the mundane tasks, or just putting work on autopilot and asking AI to do something for you. I could see that causing a lot of rust-out if people aren't being intellectually stimulated as much anymore."
Her concern lines up with growing worry that AI is eroding critical thinking skills across the workforce, and with how some employees may be grieving the meaningful parts of their job lost to AI. Organizations deciding how much AI to bring into a role should think about that tradeoff, since the same tool that frees up an employee's time can also take away the parts of the job that kept them engaged.
Left unaddressed, Verbin said, rust-out could show up at the team level too.
"There's probably reduced initiative, reduced collaboration. You're going to see disengagement between different team members," Verbin said. "People aren't raising their hands for opportunities, or trying to help each other as a team, if they're feeling rusted out."
High performers can be the hardest cases to spot, she added, because they keep delivering even as their motivation fades.
"They may continue to do the work long after they're feeling rusted out, because that's what they value," Verbin said. "So it might not be caught by the organization."
What managers can do about it
Verbin's advice starts with a shift in framing. She stressed that rust-out should be treated as information that something may need attention rather than a motivation or performance problem.
"Giving an employee more work without understanding the why behind their disengagement may not address the underlying issue," Verbin said.
The usual manager script, checking whether someone has too much on their plate, only addresses one side of the problem. Instead, Verbin suggested managers ask different questions, like: "Do you feel like you're using your strengths in this role?" "What parts of your work feel most engaging right now?" and "Where would you like more challenge or responsibility?"
She also described how valuable check-ins can be when you're asking the right questions.
"It's important to sit down and have an open and honest conversation," Verbin said. "You want to know if your employee is happy right now. Do they feel like they're being challenged? Do they have the autonomy they're looking for?"
The conversation shouldn't end there, either. Verbin said managers should follow up regularly, particularly when an employee has expressed interest in taking on more responsibility. Without that follow-through, even a good conversation can start to feel like an empty promise. The goal isn't simply to keep employees busy. It's to make sure they have work that gives them a reason to stay engaged.
