When Work Feels Bad: Heaviness, Burnout & What You Can Do About It

I was working with a client recently who told me she used to manage her workday without much struggle. When she first got her job she felt valued, supported, challenged and excited about the future. It felt complete. She moved through meetings, emails and planning with focus and energy. But, over time, something started to shift. She found herself staring at tasks she'd done countless times before, feeling inexplicably drained. Nothing about her role had changed “on paper”, but everything felt heavier.

She thought something was wrong with her - that she was losing her edge or failing somehow. It was hard to show enthusiasm in meetings, and instead of waking up feeling inspired by the juggling of a busy schedule and workload, her mood was flat and cynicism had begun to creep in. Her perception of colleagues, management and her team began to change too.

What she didn't realise was that her experience was a completely normal response to prolonged stress, unclear boundaries, and the accumulation of invisible demands that had built up over time. As her sympathetic nervous system was triggered by stress, it impacted her entire wellbeing.

When work starts to feel heavy, it is only natural that the appeal of work will head south. It's uncomfortable. And because we can't simply walk away, because it's complicated, and there are bills to pay, and there's identity wrapped up in it - we can start to feel trapped. We feel stuck. That sense of being blocked into a tight, uncomfortable space activates our nervous system's threat response. Your body knows something's wrong, even if your mind hasn't caught up yet. Low energy, flat mood, anxiety, ruminating, distraction … these are all common experiences in this situation. If work has started to feel meaningless or unbearably heavy, here's what's likely happening beneath the surface.

Workload Has Increased in Ways You Don't See

I’ll get this point out of the way because we’ve talked about the implications of Covid-19 in the workforce ad-nauseum - but it remains relevant. When we talk about workload, people usually think of tasks: the number of meetings, the length of the to-do list, the hours worked. That’s definitely part of it, but the real load is often invisible. Although it’s been nearly 6 years, the pandemic changed how we work far beyond working from home. The roles had to pivot, and the way work was done was re-invented. Many, many roles are now a hybrid of what they once were, involving much more work that is often diverse, on top of which we manage the complexities of organising life around a daily commute most days. Employers now expect employees to hold more roles than one job description covers, because customers, or the public being served, now require delivery in a changed way too. So, you're troubleshooting, filling gaps, managing upward, training others, adapting to constant change and the boundaries of what your job "is" have expanded, often without additional support. Usually, there is a tight budget attached to these decisions, which compounds the stress all around.

Email, Slack, Teams, and "always-on" culture create constant micro-demands. Every notification is a small interruption. Every message expects a response. The cumulative effect is that your attention is fragmented across dozens of tiny tasks that individually seem minor but collectively are exhausting. Take for example the Teams message - where colleagues or management can see that you are online - and when the message pops up it’s expected you will stop what you are doing and reply. In a not-so-subtle way, it compromises your autonomy and processes.

When you are at work, you are absorbing unspoken responsibilities: emotional labor, solving interpersonal issues, managing relationships. Maybe you're the one who smooths over conflict. Or checks in on struggling colleagues. Or translates between teams. Or is the point of contact for customers or colleagues from other divisions. This work is hugely significant, it takes energy, and it's rarely detailed in your job description.

So my point is - that heaviness you feel isn't because you're weak or inefficient. It's because the actual load you're carrying is far greater than what's visible on your calendar or task list. And when the load exceeds your capacity for long enough, everything starts to feel harder. The good news is there are ways of working that maintain your wellbeing and will also helping you excel at work regardless of the situation.

Burnout Changes How Your Brain and Body Function

Here's something most people don't realise: burnout doesn't just make you tired. It changes how your nervous system operates. When you're burned out, your cognitive capacity drops. Decision-making becomes harder. Concentration wavers. Tasks that used to be straightforward now require more effort because your brain is operating under chronic stress.

Your nervous system also becomes more reactive. Small frustrations feel bigger. Interruptions that you used to handle easily now spike your stress response. Your system is genuinely more sensitive because it's been running on high alert for too long. Others may perceive your responses as an overreaction, and this leads down a path of unnecessary tension and wasted energy.

Fatigue often accumulates in ways that make familiar work feel unfamiliar or overwhelming. You've done this task a hundred times, but today it feels insurmountable. That's not you losing competence or someone else demonstrating more professionalism than you hold. That's your depleted system struggling to muster the resources it once had in abundance. Burnout creates a sense of heaviness because your internal capacity has dropped below the level of external demand. The gap between what's being asked of you and what you have to give keeps widening, and that gap is where the heaviness lives.

Misalignment Shows Up as Burnout, but Burnout is an Opportunity

Sometimes burnout isn't just about stress or workload. Sometimes it's a signal that the work no longer fits the person you're becoming. It is part of the human experience for our priorities and interests to change through life. Maybe you used to care deeply about climbing the ladder, but now you care more about balance and presence with your family. Maybe the mission that excited you five years ago no longer resonates. Maybe you dreamed of the leadership role you’ve landed, but after a few years and a deeper understanding of what it’s all about, there’s an internal pull towards an alternative. The work hasn't changed, but you have.

It is important to know that it is possible to have all the things that are important to you, that hold value and meaning on a deep level. The key is to really know what those things are, and to make choices that move you toward them.

It is also the case that people slowly outgrow roles without realising it. You've developed new skills, new perspectives, new priorities. The role that once challenged and engaged you now feels too small, too repetitive, or misaligned with who you are now. You might crave more responsibility, or want to use the expertise you’ve gained in a different way that moves beyond the limits of your current role. Heaviness is sometimes the first sign of that outgrowing - a low-grade inner knowing that something needs to give, even if you can't articulate what it is.

Misalignment in your job role also affects identity. If the role no longer reflects the person you're becoming, or worse, requires you to suppress parts of yourself to fit, it will feel effortful in ways that rest can't fix. You're not just doing a job; you're editing who you are in exchange for approval. That performance is exhausting, and you deserve better.

What to Do When Work Feels Heavy

If you are experiencing heaviness, burnout, overwhelm or anxiety around your work, the first step is to acknowledge what's actually happening and become open to the idea of creating change. Put aside the notions of failing, or weakness, or personal flaws, because that’s just an overwhelmed mind trying to make sense of what is happening. What you are experiencing is a normal human response to conditions that have become unsustainable, misaligned, or both.

Your priority needs to be healing your nervous system. There are many small practices and simple daily habits that will make a huge difference to how you feel, how you think and the choices you make. From there, your decision-making about your next best steps toward a better situation - whatever that looks like for you - will open up and a plan can be established.

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If you are interested in practices that can support your wellbeing at work, I offer a 12-week career counselling program that will take you from where you are now to a new way forward that feels aligned, meaningful and exciting, whether that’s in your current role, or a new one. Visit my home page to learn more and check out my FAQs.

You can also email me to schedule a chat or simply start with a single 75-minute session to start creating your next chapter of fulfilled work.