- Human Skills Edition
- Posts
- Burnout Is Contagious
Burnout Is Contagious
How to spot hidden burnout—and protect your energy before it spreads.
Girvin
April 21, 2025
In partnership with
FIRST THINGS FIRST:
The Decision Accelerator is now live!
Thank you for your interest and feedback—this 5-day challenge was built with you in mind. Learn to make and influence smarter decisions—faster.
Most people think burnout is about long hours and endless to-do lists.
But…
Burnout isn’t always about doing too much.
Sometimes, it’s about being around the wrong energy for too long.
Whether you’re leading a team or building your own thing, there’s a level of background noise in today’s work environment that drains more than most people realize.
Let me paint you a picture:
It’s Monday. You start the day clear-headed and focused.
By noon, you’re tense, distracted, and questioning your motivation.
What changed?
The work didn’t.
But…The energy around you did.
You’re not just tired from your workload.
You’re tired from absorbing everyone else’s urgency, stress, and disorganization.
We have to care for ourselves in the ways that the systems we work in do not.
This is more than just a bad mood.
It’s a phenomenon psychologists call emotional contagion—the unconscious mirroring of other people’s emotional states.
Every tense meeting.
Every rushed message.
Every conversation soaked in panic or pessimism?
It sticks.
Basically, spend enough time around people who are disorganized, easily upset, or negative, and you might start to behave, think, and lead in the same way they do.