5 Signs Your Team Is Engaged But Burning Out
Photo by @polarmermaid on Unsplash
Here's the workplace paradox no one saw coming:
Your team can be highly engaged and simultaneously burning out.
According to DHR Global's 2025 Workforce Trends Report, 88% of workers reported feeling very or extremely engaged, but 82% are experiencing burnout.
Read that again. Engaged and burnt out. At the same time.
This isn't a contradiction. It's the new reality.
I have witnessed this pattern repeatedly with the leaders I coach. Their teams are showing up, delivering results, hitting targets, and quietly falling apart inside.
The problem? Traditional engagement metrics tell you people care about their work. They don't tell you if that care is destroying them.
Your practice starts here.
The best time to recognise this pattern was before your top performer resigned. The second best time is today.
Why engagement doesn't equal wellbeing
Engagement measures commitment. Burnout measures cost.
You can be deeply committed to your work and simultaneously exhausted by it. You can care about your team's success and resent the toll it takes. You can be your company's highest performer and your therapist's most concerned patient.
According to isolved's Voice of the Workforce Report,
79% of employees experienced burnout in the last year.
Of those, 53% reported that burnout reduced their engagement, and
36% said it directly impacted their productivity.
But here's what makes this dangerous: the 47% whose engagement hasn't dropped yet. They're still performing. Still delivering. Still engaged.
Until they're not.
The burnout you can't see
Traditional burnout looks obvious: disengagement, absenteeism, declining performance.
But this new pattern? It's invisible until it's catastrophic.
Your engaged-but-burnt-out team members are:
Delivering results whilst quietly job searching (72% are looking to change jobs, per isolved)
Maintaining performance whilst their mental health deteriorates
Showing up committed whilst planning their exit
Hitting targets whilst resenting every minute
They haven't checked out. They're just running on fumes.
5 signs your engaged team is burning out
1. They're working longer hours but enjoying it less
According to DHR Global's research, long hours (58%) are the top driver of burnout, followed by overwhelming workloads (35%) and difficulty balancing work and personal life (34%).
Your team isn't slowing down—that's the problem. They're engaged enough to keep pushing, but not healthy enough to sustain it.
The pattern: They respond to emails at midnight. They work through weekends. They never take their full holiday allowance. And when you praise their dedication, they smile—but the smile doesn't reach their eyes.
2. They're delivering results but losing passion
Burnout doesn't start with dropping performance. It starts with dropping joy.
Your team is still hitting targets. They're just not excited about it anymore.
The pattern: They do excellent work, but they talk about it mechanically. They achieve goals without celebrating. They complete projects without pride. The "why" has disappeared, leaving only the "what."
3. Younger team members are struggling more
The research shows that Millennials and Gen Z are 10% more likely to report burnout compared to Baby Boomers.
If you're managing a younger workforce, the engagement-burnout paradox is even more pronounced.
The pattern: Your younger team members are highly engaged, digitally connected, and constantly available—which means they never truly disconnect. They're burning out faster because the boundaries between work and life have dissolved entirely.
4. They're not asking for help
Engaged employees don't want to admit they're struggling. They've invested so much in being seen as high-performers that asking for support feels like failure.
The pattern: When you ask how they're doing, they say "fine." When you offer to redistribute workload, they decline. When you suggest they take time off, they insist they don't need it. Their engagement masks their exhaustion.
5. Burnout is their main barrier to going above and beyond
According to isolved's research, burnout is the number-one factor preventing employees from going above and beyond in their roles.
Your team is doing their job. They're just not doing more than their job anymore.
The pattern: They used to volunteer for extra projects. They used to mentor junior team members. They used to bring innovative ideas to meetings. Now they do their work well—and nothing else. The discretionary effort has disappeared.
Why this is more dangerous than traditional disengagement
When someone is disengaged, you see it. Performance drops. Attitude shifts. Attendance suffers. You know there's a problem.
But engaged burnout? It looks like success right up until the resignation letter arrives.
According to Quantum Workplace's 2024 Trends Report, even employees with high engagement levels are looking to leave if burnout isn't addressed.
You're losing your best people—the ones who care most—because they're caring themselves into exhaustion.
What leaders need to do differently
Stop measuring engagement alone. Start measuring energy, wellbeing, and sustainable performance.
Ask better questions:
"How sustainable is your current workload?"
"When's the last time you felt genuinely energised by your work?"
"What would need to change for you to still be excited about this role in a year?"
Create boundaries, not just flexibility. Flexibility without boundaries just means people work from home instead of the office—for the same unsustainable hours.
Model rest. If you're sending emails at 11pm, you're teaching your team that's the expectation. Your behaviour sets the culture.
Recognise effort, not just output. Acknowledge when someone is carrying a heavy load, even when they're handling it well. Don't wait until they break to notice they are struggling.
The Hard Truth
High engagement is supposed to be the goal. But if your engaged team is burning out, you're not building sustainable success, you're building a ticking time bomb.
The most successful leaders I coach don't just ask "Are people engaged?" They ask "Can people sustain this?"
Because engagement without wellbeing isn't success. It's just a slower path to the same outcome: losing the people you can't afford to lose.
Your Self-Science
Is your team highly engaged but working unsustainable hours?
Which of your top performers might be quietly burning out?
When's the last time you asked about energy levels, not just engagement scores?
Are you modelling sustainable high performance or glorified burnout?
Don't wait for the resignation to realise your engaged team was exhausted. Address it now.
If these truths resonate and you are curious for more, follow me on LinkedIn, and visit The Self-Science Lab for more info.
Lauren Cartigny, Leadership Trainer, Executive Coach and Mindfulness Practitioner
Following a successful international corporate career in Sales for leading Tech firms, Lauren faced an unexpected burnout, life and health crisis. After re-building her life, transforming her career, and healing her body, heart and mind, Lauren has created transformative coaching and training programs to teach High-Performance from a place of Well-Being to prevent burnout, and employee churn in organisations.