The 3 degrees to burnout – and how to avoid them

24-09-2026

Burnout is defined as a state of physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. While it’s not classified as a medical or mental health condition, the World Health Organisation actually recognises burnout as an “occupational phenomenon”.

People often talk about burnout in quite black and white terms: you are either burned out, or you’re not. However, work by psychologist and researcher Nick Petrie – a specialist on the subject of burnout, in particular its links to high performers – has identified the following three ‘degrees’ of burnout that people experience:

1st degree burn – a heavy period of stress and feelings of overwhelm, but continuing to work effectively

2nd degree burn – chronic stress and feelings of fatigue, along with decreasing motivation and effectiveness. The body is moving into ‘survival’ mode

3rd degree burn – the full experience of burnout. Mind and body start to shut down, simple tasks become unmanageable, and emotions become unpredictable and hard to control.

He suggests that periods of high stress don’t inevitably lead to full burnout – but that ignoring the early signs and hoping that things ‘will just get better’ is not always a good solution.

It’s a theory that the LionHeart support team agree with, working with multiple surveyors every year who are experiencing varying degrees of stress and burnout, with work often the catalyst. In fact, in the last year (2025/26) an astonishing 1 in 5 calls to the LionHeart helpline were prompted by mental health struggles.

Support officer Jonas Rodin said: “Many of the people we support who really have crashed and burned find that, with the benefit of hindsight, there were earlier warning signs there that they were struggling. For those people that are especially career minded or juggling multiple responsibilities, the tendency can be to just try and push through, but actually making some changes sooner may well have led to a better outcome – or less serious burns, if you want to stick to the analogy.”

Petrie’s research also identifies eight things that he says people with low burnout risk have in common:

When they are at work, they work very hard
They’ve reflected on the best/worst ways to work (and live)
They’ve made peace with not getting everything done
All have a ritual to switch from work to personal mode
They have clear boundaries between work and home
They grew into multi-faceted people
They have a ‘phone strategy’
They keep work in perspective

So he concludes that even career-driven high performers can protect themselves from burning out by having good clear boundaries between work and home – in particular, that they were (or developed themselves) into being “multi-faceted people”, with his research showing that most of them had an opposite world: that is, they had a hobby or interest that was the opposite of what they did for work.

The key is that this activity was something that allows them to switch off, change their focus from whatever it is that occupies hours of their working day, and really recharge their batteries.

This might look different for everyone, but could include physical activity like a team sport or running, some kind of art or DIY, being out in nature or with animals, or even volunteering.

Building regular time in to do one or more of these activities is a good way to stay healthy or at the very least, not progress beyond ‘1^st degree’ burnout.

For those who think they might be nearer the 2^nd or 3^rd degrees of burnout, the LionHeart support team can help.

Jonas Rodin adds: “To recover from the more serious stages of burnout, bigger changes are likely to be needed. We can support people with mindset or behaviour changes, considering putting boundaries in place – or even learning to say no sometimes! Some of the people we work with make even more significant changes in their lives, and benefit from having external support as they work through that.

“As always, we would encourage any RICS professional who is struggling , no matter what age or stage of their career they are at, to get in touch to talk things through, so we can help prevent what starts out as a challenge from turning into a crisis.”

Find out more:

To access confidential one-to-one support contact the LionHeart helpline on 0800 009 2960 or email info@lionheart.org.uk

You might also be interested in the following resources:

With the multiple demands of modern life, a recent survey found 1 in 5 workers feel stressed more days than they don't - and half are close to burning out altogether. This one-hour webinar looks at the signs and triggers of burnout and what you can do to avoid it.

The 3 degrees to burnout – and how to avoid them

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