Ever feel like you're running full speed toward a cliff but can't seem to slow down? If you're a high-achieving woman who keeps telling herself "I'll rest after this project" or "I just need to get through this busy period," this one might hit close to home.
Here's the thing about burnout – it's sneaky. It doesn't announce itself with a big dramatic moment. Instead, it quietly dismantles your mind, body, and soul while you're busy convincing yourself you're fine.
Maybe you've noticed you're forgetting things more often, or that headaches have become your daily companion. Perhaps you're feeling emotionally numb about things you used to care about, or wondering who you even are outside of your work. And if you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, those lovely hormonal changes can make everything feel ten times more intense.
The scary part? Most of us don't realise we're burning out until we're already deep in it. Your body has been trying to tell you something for months, maybe years, but we've gotten really good at ignoring those signals and just pushing through.
Ready to learn the warning signs you might be missing and discover why "just power through" isn't actually working? Let's talk about what burnout really does to your system and why catching it early could save you months of recovery time.
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Updated August 2025 with latest research on rest and productivity
Read Time - 6 Minutes
Let me ask you something: when was the last time you took a proper break without feeling guilty about it? And I'm not talking about scrolling through your phone while eating lunch at your desk – I mean actually stepping away from work completely.
If you're like most high-achieving women I work with, you probably can't remember. You've been conditioned to believe that taking breaks is lazy, unproductive, or somehow a sign that you're not as dedicated as you should be.
But here's the truth that might surprise you: taking breaks isn't lazy – it's absolutely necessary for your success, your health, and your sanity.
The "Always On" Culture That's Burning Us Out
We live in a culture that glorifies being busy. We wear exhaustion like a badge of honor and compete over who got the least sleep. Somewhere along the way, we started believing that our worth is directly tied to our productivity.
This is especially true for women in corporate environments who feel like they have to work twice as hard to prove themselves. You might think that taking breaks will make you look less committed, less capable, or less deserving of that promotion.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) now recognises burnout as an occupational phenomenon, yet we continue to push ourselves beyond our limits. As researcher Dr. Christina Maslach notes, "Burnout is not a problem of the people themselves but of the social environment in which they work."
But what if I told you that the opposite is actually true? What if taking strategic breaks could actually accelerate your career success?
What the Research Really Shows
Here's something that might shock you, Microsoft found that employees who took regular breaks were significantly more productive than those who worked non-stop. This isn't just feel-good advice – it's hard data backed by neuroscience.
Your brain isn't designed to run at full capacity all day without rest. The prefrontal cortex – the part responsible for decision-making, problem-solving, and creative thinking – becomes fatigued after sustained use, just like any other muscle.
Dr. Matthew Lieberman from UCLA explains: "When we're not actively focused on the outside world and the mind is allowed to wander internally, the default network takes over. This is when we make connections between disparate ideas and have our biggest insights."
But here's what most people don't realise: there's a specific way to take breaks that actually enhances your performance, and most people are doing it completely wrong.
The Hidden Neuroscience of Rest
When you take a proper break, several fascinating things happen in your brain:
Your default mode network activates – this is when your brain processes information, consolidates memories, and makes creative connections. It's literally when your best ideas happen.
Stress hormones like cortisol decrease - chronic elevation of these hormones impairs memory, decision-making, and immune function.
Your attention networks reset, allowing you to return to tasks with renewed focus and clarity.
Research from the University of Illinois found that brief diversions from a task can dramatically improve one's ability to focus on that task for prolonged periods.
The Perimenopause Factor: Why Rest Becomes Even More Critical
If you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, there's another crucial layer to consider. Perimenopause fundamentally changes how your body and brain respond to stress and fatigue.
During this transition, several things happen that make breaks even more essential:
Estrogen decline affects stress resilience – estrogen helps regulate cortisol, so when it drops, you become more sensitive to stress and need more recovery time.
Sleep quality often deteriorates – hot flashes, night sweats, and hormonal fluctuations can disrupt restorative sleep, making daytime rest crucial for cognitive function.
Brain fog becomes common – many women report difficulty concentrating and memory issues during perimenopause. Strategic breaks can help clear mental fatigue.
Energy levels fluctuate unpredictably – what worked in your 30s might leave you completely drained now.
As Dr. Lisa Mosconi, neuroscientist and author of "The Menopause Brain," explains: "The perimenopausal brain is working harder to maintain the same level of cognitive performance. This increased effort requires more energy and more recovery time."
Yet most workplace cultures completely ignore these biological realities, expecting women to maintain the same pace regardless of their life stage.
The Hidden Cost of "Powering Through"
When you skip breaks and push through fatigue, you're not just tired – you're actually:
- Making more mistakes (which take longer to fix later)
- Missing creative solutions that come during rest periods
- Building up chronic stress that affects your sleep, relationships, and health
- Setting yourself up for eventual burnout – which can take months or years to recover from
The Harvard Business Review published research showing that employees who take regular breaks report higher job satisfaction, better work-life balance, and are less likely to leave their positions.
But here's the kicker, if you're in perimenopause, the effects of not taking breaks are amplified. Your stress tolerance is lower, your recovery time is longer, and the physical symptoms can be more intense.
The Permission Problem: Why Smart Women Can't Rest
The real issue isn't that you don't know breaks are important – it's that you can't give yourself permission to take them.
Sound familiar? That voice in your head saying:
- "Everyone else seems to manage without breaks"
- "I don't have time – there's too much to do"
- "People will think I'm not committed"
- "I should be able to handle this"
This guilt around rest is keeping you stuck in a cycle that's actually making you less effective, not more. It's also rooted in some deep cultural and psychological patterns that many high-achieving women carry.
Perfectionism plays a huge role here. Research by Dr. Brené Brown shows that perfectionism is strongly correlated with anxiety, depression, and burnout. When you believe that your worth is tied to your productivity, rest feels like failure.
The Gender Factor, Why This Hits Women Harder
Women face unique challenges when it comes to taking breaks:
The "second shift" phenomenon, even after a full day of work, women typically handle more household and childcare responsibilities, leaving little time for genuine rest.
Imposter syndrome – research shows women are more likely to feel like they need to prove themselves, making breaks feel risky.
Hormonal fluctuations – monthly cycles, pregnancy, perimenopause, and menopause all affect energy levels and stress tolerance in ways that aren't acknowledged in most workplaces.
Social conditioning – women are often raised to prioritise others' needs over their own, making self-care feel selfish.
What Strategic Rest Actually Looks Like
There's a specific approach to breaks that high-performers use – it's not just about stepping away from work, it's about strategic rest that actually enhances your performance.
The women I work with learn something crucial: not all breaks are created equal. Scrolling social media doesn't provide the same cognitive reset as a walk in nature. Checking emails during lunch doesn't give your stress response system time to recover.
Real rest involves:
- Complete disconnection from work stimuli
- Activities that engage different parts of your brain
- Movement that helps process stress hormones
- Genuine connection with others or nature
- Mindful awareness of the present moment
The Ripple Effect of Strategic Rest
When you start taking proper breaks, something interesting happens. You don't just feel better – your entire approach to work changes:
- Decision-making improves because your prefrontal cortex is well-rested
- Creativity increases because your default mode network has time to make connections
- Stress resilience builds because your nervous system gets regular recovery time
- Relationships improve because you're not constantly operating from a place of depletion
But perhaps most importantly, you start modeling healthy behavior for others around you – your team, your family, your friends.
The Leadership Opportunity
If you're in a management position, you have a unique opportunity to change workplace culture around rest. Research consistently shows that teams with leaders who model healthy boundaries and rest practices have:
- Higher productivity and creativity
- Lower turnover rates
- Better employee satisfaction
- Reduced sick leave and burnout
As leadership expert Arianna Huffington says: "We need to move from a culture where burnout is a badge of honour to one where well-being is a sign of strength."
Your Next Step: Breaking the Cycle
If you're tired of feeling guilty about rest, or if you're stuck in the "always on" cycle and don't know how to break free, you don't have to figure this out alone.
The strategies I use with clients address both the practical side (how to take effective breaks) and the psychological side (why you feel guilty about rest in the first place). We work on rewiring the subconscious patterns that make rest feel "wrong" or "lazy."
This is especially important if you're navigating perimenopause, where your body's needs are changing but your mindset about productivity might still be stuck in your 30s.
The goal isn't just to take more breaks – it's to fundamentally shift your relationship with rest so that it becomes a strategic tool for success rather than something you feel guilty about.
Ready to learn how to rest without guilt and actually boost your productivity? As a clinical hypnotherapist and Transformational Menopause Coach specialising in helping high-achieving women overcome burnout and perfectionism, I help you create sustainable success strategies that honour both your ambitions and your changing needs.
Follow Me for honest insights on perimenopause, burnout recovery, stress management and weight loss and how to keep thriving when life throws you curveballs.
Feeling like stress has basically become your unwelcome work colleague that never goes home? If you're a corporate woman trying to juggle deadlines, meetings, and life while feeling like you're barely keeping your head above water, this one's for you.
You know how most stress management advice sounds great in theory, but completely falls apart the moment you're back in the real world? "Just breathe deeply" doesn't exactly help when you're in back-to-back meetings, and "take a vacation" isn't realistic when you're managing a team and deadlines.
I'm sharing the practical strategies that actually work when you're dealing with genuine corporate pressure – not the fluffy stuff that ignores what you're really going through. We're talking about simple techniques you can use between meetings, ways to connect authentically with colleagues (without awkward team building), and how to work with your brain instead of against it.
And if you're a woman in your 40s or 50s, we're definitely talking about how perimenopause can make every stressor feel ten times worse – because nobody else seems to mention that little detail.
Ready to stop letting workplace stress run the show and start thriving in your career without sacrificing your sanity? Let's dive into what actually works in the real world.
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Updated September 2025 with latest workplace wellness insights
Read Time - 6 Minutes
Ever notice one of your usually energetic team members suddenly looking like they're running on empty? Or maybe you've caught yourself wondering if that star performer who used to light up meetings is now just going through the motions?
If you're a manager or team leader, here's something that might keep you up at night: burnout doesn't announce itself with a dramatic resignation letter. It creeps in quietly, slowly draining your best people until they're shadows of their former selves.
And here's the kicker – by the time most managers notice burnout, it's often too late to prevent the real damage.
What Burnout Actually Looks Like (Hint: It's Not Just Being Tired)
Burnout isn't just someone having a bad day or feeling a bit overwhelmed. It's emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by extended periods of stress and overwork. Think of it as your team member's internal battery slowly dying, and no amount of weekend rest seems to recharge it.
The tricky part? Burnout shows up differently for everyone. Some people become irritable and snappy, others withdraw and become quiet. Some work even harder (trying to prove they're still capable), while others start making mistakes they'd never normally make.
The Warning Signs You Might Be Missing
Here's what to watch for in your team members:
The Behavioral Changes
- Difficulty concentrating during meetings they used to dominate
- Mood swings that seem out of character
- Increased isolation – skipping team lunches or after-work events
- Cynicism about projects they used to be excited about
- Questioning their role or value to the team
The Physical Red Flags
- Changes in sleep patterns – yawning more, looking tired despite claiming they slept well
- Appetite changes – eating more or less, different food choices
- Increased caffeine consumption (watch for that third or fourth coffee)
- More frequent headaches or digestive issues
- Getting sick more often than usual
The Performance Indicators
- Loss of enthusiasm for work they used to love
- Decreased quality in work output
- Missing deadlines that would have been easy before
- Avoiding new challenges or responsibilities
- General apathy about outcomes
Here's what I want you to understand: these aren't character flaws or signs of laziness. They're symptoms of a nervous system that's been pushed beyond its capacity for too long.
Why Smart Managers Miss the Signs
Even well-intentioned leaders often miss burnout because:
- High performers hide it well – they've learned to push through and maintain appearances
- It develops gradually – there's no single moment when someone goes from fine to burned out
- We normalize overwork – in many cultures, exhaustion is seen as dedication
- Remote work makes it harder to spot – you're not seeing the daily physical cues
Plus, if you're dealing with your own stress and overwhelm, you might not have the bandwidth to notice subtle changes in your team members.
The Hidden Cost of Ignoring Team Burnout
When you don't address burnout early, here's what happens:
- Productivity actually decreases (despite people working longer hours)
- Mistakes increase and quality suffers
- Team morale drops as burnout spreads like a contagion
- Your best people leave – often without much warning
- Recruitment and training costs skyrocket
- Remaining team members pick up extra work and risk burning out themselves
Research shows that replacing a burned-out employee can cost anywhere from 50-200% of their annual salary. Prevention is always cheaper than replacement.
The Special Challenge for Women in Leadership
If you're managing women in their 40s and 50s, there's an additional layer to consider. Many of your high-performing female team members might be dealing with perimenopause symptoms that amplify work stress:
- Brain fog that makes them doubt their competence
- Sleep disruption from hot flashes affecting daytime performance
- Mood fluctuations that feel out of control
- Energy crashes that don't match their usual patterns
These women often feel like they're failing when really they're dealing with a biological transition that no one talks about in the workplace.
Prevention Strategies That Actually Work
Here's the thing about burnout prevention: it's not about adding more wellness programs that nobody uses. It's about creating an environment where people can sustain their performance without depleting themselves.
Create Psychological Safety
- Make it okay to not be okay – normalize conversations about stress and overwhelm
- Check in regularly with one-on-ones that go beyond project updates
- Model vulnerability by sharing your own challenges and how you handle them
Build in Recovery Time
- Encourage actual breaks – not just working lunches
- Respect time off – don't contact people during vacation
- Create buffer time in project schedules for unexpected challenges
Provide Clear Direction and Support
- Give specific feedback rather than vague criticism
- Recognize effort, not just results – acknowledge when someone is trying hard even if outcomes aren't perfect
- Ensure workloads are realistic and adjust when they're not
Foster Connection Over Competition
- Celebrate team wins rather than just individual achievements
- Encourage collaboration and knowledge sharing
- Address toxic team dynamics quickly before they spread
What to Do When You Spot the Signs
If you notice burnout symptoms in a team member:
- Have a private conversation – don't wait for your next scheduled one-on-one
- Ask open-ended questions about their workload, stress levels, and what support they need
- Listen without trying to immediately fix – sometimes people just need to be heard
- Work together on solutions – they know best what would help them
- Follow up regularly – burnout recovery takes time
Remember: your role isn't to be their therapist, but you can be a supportive manager who creates conditions for recovery.
The Leadership Opportunity
Here's what I want every manager to understand: preventing team burnout isn't just about being nice or creating a "soft" workplace. It's about creating sustainable high performance.
Teams that prioritize wellbeing alongside productivity:
- Maintain higher performance over the long term
- Retain top talent longer
- Attract better candidates who want to work in healthy environments
- Handle challenges and changes more effectively
You have more power than you realize to create a workplace where people can thrive without burning out.
Your Next Step as a Leader
If you're recognizing some of these patterns in your team (or yourself), don't wait. The earlier you intervene, the easier it is to course-correct.
Start with one simple question: "How are you really doing?" And then actually listen to the answer.
The strategies I work with help leaders understand not just how to spot burnout, but how to create team cultures that prevent it from happening in the first place. Because the best managers don't just manage performance – they manage the conditions that make sustainable performance possible.
Concerned about burnout in your team or organization? As a clinical hypnotherapist specializing in workplace burnout, I help leaders create healthier, more sustainable work environments. Let's discuss strategies that protect your team's wellbeing while maintaining high performance.
Perfectionists, we all know them. They are the "A" students who take every task to the extreme, sometimes to the point of exhaustion. But while they strive for excellence, they often overlook the consequences that come with that level of dedication—namely burnout. That's right; high performers who are perfectionistic are more susceptible to burnout than those who are content with their work and performance. Let’s take a look at why this is and what managers can do about it.
The Why Behind It All
Perfectionists tend to be incredibly hard on themselves and expect results that are far beyond most people's expectations—even their own. This can lead them down a path of overworking themselves and not allowing for any flexibility when it comes to mistakes or failure.
I remember when my daughter was studying to be a nurse. Like a lot of students, she would leave things to the last minute (I always wondered if this was due to procrastination or a fear of not getting it right - perfectionism?). She’d pull an all-nighter to ensure she had everything just right. Upon submission of her essay or assignment, she would then beat herself up and worry that she wasn’t going to get a good grade. When in reality she always got top marks.
This type of mindset usually leads to people working long hours, taking on too many tasks at once, and having an unrealistic view of what their job entails in terms of time commitments and productivity. As you can imagine, this type of pressure is unsustainable and eventually leads to burnout.
In addition, perfectionists rarely ask for help or delegate tasks because they feel like they should be able to take care of everything by themselves due to their self-imposed standards. This inability to ask for help or delegate tasks also contributes to burnout as well as feelings of loneliness because perfectionists don't feel like anyone else understands their situation or could possibly do a better job than they could do themselves.
What Managers Can Do About It
What you need to know is perfectionism is a learnt skill, we weren’t born like this! Perfectionism is inherited by observing others or having lived with or been around someone with extremely high expectations in our early years. As adults we rarely check if such a trait is of value and benefit to us, or notice that it can hinder us in the workplace. Because we created this, it can be uncreated, you just need to know how to do this.
While it may seem like there is no solution for perfectionist high performers this isn’t actually the case. Employees can seek support to help them modify their expectations and behaviour, therapy such as Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) and hypnotherapy are great ways to bust perfectionism.
There are steps that managers can take in order to prevent burnout from happening in the first place. The most important step is simply being aware that these employees need extra support when it comes to managing their workloads and expectations. Managers should encourage employees who exhibit signs of perfectionism (long hours, micromanaging) by setting realistic expectations and deadlines as well as providing positive reinforcement when goals are achieved—no matter how minor those goals may seem at first glance. Additionally, managers should provide resources such as one-on-one coaching sessions or workshops on effective communication skills so that employees can learn how best to manage their workloads without trying to do it all alone. Doing so will allow them to make use of existing resources rather than continually relying on themselves only which can lead them down a path towards overworking themselves into oblivion (aka burnout).
High performers who are also perfectionists have a tendency towards overworking themselves which can lead them towards burnout quickly if left unchecked. While this seems unavoidable at times, managers should be mindful of these tendencies in order to counteract them with realistic expectations and deadlines as well as providing positive reinforcement when goals are met—no matter how small they seem at first glance! By doing this, businesses will ensure that their high-performing employees remain productive instead of burning out due to excessive pressure put upon them by themselves or others within the organisation.
If you feel like you need extra support in making these changes, don't hesitate to reach out. Book in a time to chat with Hana or follow her on: Facebook Instagram or LinkedIn
