Is Stress Running Your Career?
For professionals who know they’re capable, but are worn down by heavy workloads and feel drained, stuck, or less confident than they used to be, at work and at home.
October 2026 · About 6 minutes
Stress is common. Burnout is something more.
Large workplace studies keep finding the same thing: many of us are exhausted. And stress doesn’t only come from work. Caregiving, family, health, and money worries drain the same energy.
employees experience burnout at work at least sometimes, and 28% say they feel burned out very often or always.1
Gallup, Employee Burnout: Causes and Curesof workers name workload as a cause of their burnout, ahead of staff shortages (44%) and time pressure (38%).2
Eagle Hill Consulting, Workforce Burnout Survey 2023You’ve lost the desire to keep doing this job. Sunday evenings bring a sense of Monday dread. Tasks that used to be easy now feel hard, and you get less done than you used to. And the stress follows you home, into your evenings, your weekends, and your sleep.
You’re not weak. You’re dealing with a lot, and you may have been for a very long time.
What it sounds like inside
“I just need to get through this week.” “I can’t drop the ball.” “Maybe I’m not good enough for this.” “Is there a better job out there?” “I can’t do this forever.”
What it costs
Focus, patience, sleep, time with the people you love, and your confidence. A quiet sense that you’re losing the version of you who was confident, curious, and sure.
The World Health Organization describes burnout as chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed: exhaustion, feeling distant or cynical about your job, and feeling less effective.3 This guide is written to address sustained workplace stress, the kind that doesn’t let up for months. It is not meant to diagnose or treat burnout. If you think you may be experiencing it, or stress is affecting your health, please talk with a qualified professional, such as your doctor or a licensed therapist.
Sources are listed at the end of this page. Figures are as reported in each study.
Two versions of you
Think of a time you were at the top of your game: clear, full of ideas, sure of yourself. Now think of a day when the deadlines came back to back, the workload was too heavy, and the stress kept building. Same person. Same skills. Same training. And yet it felt completely different.
Notice what didn’t change: your intelligence, training, and experience. What changed is how much of them you can access and use. Stress narrows what you can see, and when you see less, you have fewer options. That matters most when you’re facing a big decision, like whether to stay in your job.
You’ve been at your best before, which means it’s available to you.
Nobody lives there all the time. The difference between these two versions of you is energy, and energy can be understood and raised.
Ready for my Free CallWhen everything feels like a performance
One of the biggest drains on your energy is the feeling that you are always being watched, measured, and judged. That pressure triggers negative thoughts, and those thoughts affect what you do and how confident you feel. It becomes a domino effect:
How it can look. A design review is coming up (pressure). You think, “If they find a flaw, they’ll see I don’t belong here” (thought). You feel a knot of anxiety (emotion). You recheck the calculations a third time, skip lunch, and stay until 9 p.m. (action). The next day you’re exhausted, go blank when a question comes, and are annoyed at yourself (result). Your mind says, “See? I wasn’t ready.”
Each step affects the next. That’s why working harder rarely fixes it. Change starts earlier, with the thoughts that drive your actions.
Try this the next time stress hits
Knowing what to do isn’t enough
Most training teaches you what to do: how to ask for a promotion, give a presentation, or handle a hard conversation. Those skills matter. But knowing what to do is not the same as doing it. Many of my clients know exactly what they “should” do, yet under pressure they can’t access and use those skills, and their mind goes blank.
Change from the inside out
Lasting change starts with understanding your default stress reaction: how you respond when the pressure is on, and what is causing it, including the thoughts, patterns, and fears behind it. It also helps to look at how you work when you are not under pressure, so you can see your strengths and skills clearly. From there, you can build a plan that draws on your values, skills, and strengths to raise your energy, so you can access and use your full potential, even under stress.4,5
Knowing your patterns is the first step. Changing them is easier with support.
Coaching gives you support to make these changes and make them last. We also look at your options beyond “stay and suffer” or “quit and risk it”: changing what you can, seeing what you can’t change in a new way, or leaving with a plan. You make that choice from your clearest self, not your most depleted one.
What we work on
Energy blockers, drainers, and boosters are concepts from iPEC’s Energy Leadership® framework.4,5
Quotes are from clients’ own written feedback after a full coaching engagement. Individual experiences; results vary, and the shift comes from the work you do.
Ready to talk?
Book a free call. We’ll talk about what’s going on at work, what you would like to change, and whether coaching is the right next step for you.
Book my free callLearn more about energyVersion: October 2026
Sources and credits
Sources
- 1Gallup (2020). Gallup’s Perspective on Employee Burnout: Causes and Cures. gallup.com/workplace/288539/employee-burnout-causes-cures.aspx
- 2Eagle Hill Consulting (2023). Workforce Burnout Survey. Conducted by Ipsos, February 2023, with 1,001 U.S. employees. eaglehillconsulting.com
- 3World Health Organization (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
- 4Schneider, B. D. Energy Leadership. Wiley (2008); Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching.
- 5iPEC’s Energy Leadership® framework.
Credits and permissions
This guide contains my interpretation of the copyrighted work of Bruce D Schneider and the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching (iPEC). Energy Leadership® concepts were created by iPEC and Bruce D Schneider. They are explained here in my own words, with my own examples and scenarios. No iPEC charts, worksheets, or report pages are reproduced. To learn more, read Energy Leadership by Bruce D Schneider.
Trademarks. iPEC® and Energy Leadership® are registered trademarks of the Institute for Professional Excellence in Coaching, used here with attribution. Own the CHAIR™ is independent of iPEC. iPEC has not reviewed, sponsored, or endorsed this guide, and I am not an employee or agent of iPEC. Concepts © 2010–2025 iPEC. All rights reserved.
What is mine. The wording, examples, scenarios, illustrations, and design in this guide, and the Own the CHAIR™ name and brand, are my original work and © 2026 Own the CHAIR™. All rights reserved. No part of this guide may be reproduced, copied, distributed, shared, posted online, sold, adapted, or transmitted in any form or by any means without my prior written consent and approval. It is for your own personal, non-commercial use only. Please don’t present these concepts as your own, and always attribute the Energy Leadership® concepts to iPEC. To request permission, contact ownthechair.com.
Important. This guide is for education and self-reflection only. It isn’t medical, psychological, or mental health advice and isn’t a diagnosis. If stress is affecting your health, please talk with a qualified professional. Statistics are as reported by their sources. Client quotes come from their own written feedback; individual experiences and results vary.