# The hidden cost of an economy under pressure: burnout that keeps on rising

High interest rates, heavier taxes and tougher targets are pressing companies and their leaders for results. With sick leave at record levels, the challenge is to demand performance without exhausting the people who deliver it.

- Section: Culture & Management
- Published: November 12, 2026
- Address: https://ceoone.com.br/en/article/the-hidden-cost-of-an-economy-under-pressure-burnout-that-keeps-rising
- Em português: https://ceoone.com.br/artigo/a-conta-oculta-de-uma-economia-sob-pressao-o-burnout-que-nao-para-de-cre.md

![Débora Telles, wearing glasses and a black blazer, smiles with her arms crossed, leaning against a light-colored wall](https://pub-b80e49b2737940b3ab5d3f20d0578192.r2.dev/artigos/a-conta-oculta-de-uma-economia-sob-pressao-o-burnout-que-nao-para-de-cre-foto-horizontal.webp)

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## Key points

- In 2025, Brazil recorded more than 546,000 work absences due to mental disorders, the highest figure of the decade, and sickness benefits for burnout grew 493% between 2021 and 2024.
- Since 2022, ICD-11 has defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon, and since 26 May 2026, NR-1 has required companies to include psychosocial risks in their occupational risk management.
- With the Selic at 13.75% and a heavier tax burden, demanding performance is legitimate, but individual resilience is not enough: targets, priorities and management practices that burn out the best people must be revisited.

*By Débora Telles*

For years, he was the professional everyone relied on: he said yes to every new project, ate lunch in front of his computer and never put off a deliverable. Until, one day, he could no longer do it. Exhausted, irritable and unable to concentrate, he believed he had reached that point because he had failed, and he summed it all up in one sentence: "I guess I'm not as strong as I thought."

That reading is understandable, but it is wrong. Since 2022, the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) has defined burnout as an occupational phenomenon, resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. In Brazil, it has been on the official list of work-related diseases since the Ministry of Health's 2023 update. The root of the problem lies in the work, not in the character of the person who falls ill.

These are not isolated cases. In 2025, the country recorded more than 546,000 work absences due to mental disorders, the highest figure of the decade, according to the Ministry of Social Security. Sickness benefits for burnout alone grew 493% between 2021 and 2024. Part of that increase reflects more diagnosis, but it is hard to keep believing that the problem belongs only to those who could not cope.

The World Health Organization and the International Labour Organization estimate that depression and anxiety cost the global economy nearly US$1 trillion a year in lost productivity. Add to that the absence of key professionals, turnover among the very talent a company most wants to keep, the cost of replacing those people and a labor liability that is likely to grow now that burnout is an occupational disease.

Even so, many organizations respond to exhaustion with initiatives aimed solely at the individual, such as resilience training and meditation apps. When they stand alone, these measures send an implicit message: the problem is you, and the solution is to endure more. Resilience, however, is the ability to recover in the face of adversity, not a synonym for unlimited endurance.

American psychologist Christina Maslach, a global authority on the subject, identified six areas of the work environment that contribute most to burnout: workload, lack of autonomy, insufficient recognition, weakened relationships, perceived unfairness and conflicting values. None of them can be fixed with breathing techniques. Other widely studied models point to the same mechanism: people fall ill when demands stay high for a long time while the resources to meet them, such as leadership support, autonomy and recognition, remain scarce. It is not effort that makes people sick. It is effort without reward and without rest.

There is also a well-known paradox: burnout tends to strike the most committed. To burn out, you have to have cared a great deal. Today, a new element is added to that profile: the fear of being replaced by artificial intelligence. Faced with announcements of automation and restructuring, many professionals feel they must constantly prove they are indispensable. They answer everything, accept any request, avoid vacations and keep working even when they are in no condition to. But no workday is long enough to compete with a system that never sleeps. In trying to become irreplaceable, these people wear themselves out. Leaders who communicate clearly how they intend to use the technology relieve much of that anxiety.

There is, indeed, an individual dimension. Beliefs such as "my worth depends on my performance" or "resting is a waste of time," perfectionism and difficulty delegating come up frequently in coaching, and working on them makes a difference. But developing a person and then sending them back to the same environment that exhausted them is setting up the next leave of absence. It is like teaching someone to breathe better and sending them back into a room full of smoke.

Since May 26, 2026, NR-1 has required companies to include psychosocial risks in their occupational risk management, as they already did with physical risks. The regulation shifts the focus from the individual to the organization. And the warning signs are almost always already in the company's own data: absenteeism, turnover, climate surveys and sick leave concentrated in certain departments or under certain managers. Information is rarely lacking. What is lacking is the willingness to act on it.

The other side must be acknowledged, too. With the Selic rate at 13.75% a year, even after five consecutive cuts, credit is expensive and every point of margin is fought over. The tax burden has also risen: Supplementary Law 224/2025 raised taxation on interest on equity and on presumed profit for some companies, dividends are once again taxed above a certain amount, and the tax reform demands adjustment. In this context, demanding performance and efficiency is not a whim. It is a legitimate need.

High standards and health, however, are not opposites. The problem is responding to pressure by doing more with less, indefinitely, without revisiting priorities. An exhausted professional makes worse decisions, makes more mistakes, innovates less and, ultimately, leaves the company, taking with them knowledge that is hard to replace. Real optimization means cutting what does not create value: unproductive meetings, rework and projects no one has the courage to end.

The regulation forces leaders to ask uncomfortable questions. Are the targets achievable with the resources available? Do people have autonomy over their own work? Is effort recognized? Are decisions perceived as fair? Can managers spot the signs of exhaustion, and do they have room to act? Answering them requires revisiting targets and management practices, not just offering new benefits.

None of this is simple, especially now. With high interest rates, heavier taxes and shareholders focused on the short term, redistributing workloads or investing in leadership may seem like a luxury, and many managers are themselves under the same pressure they are supposed to relieve. That is why the way forward lies less in grand programs and more in hard choices: deciding what will not be done, protecting key people and being transparent about where the company stands. These decisions come at a cost. The cost of not making them is usually higher, and it shows up later, in sick leave, departures and lawsuits.

Asking people to be more resilient in an environment that makes them sick is like asking someone to swim faster against a current that no one is willing to examine. The question a CEO should bring to the next board meeting is not "how do we make our teams more resilient?" but "what in the way we work is burning out our best people?" That, far more than any motivational talk, is where change begins.

*Débora Telles is a psychologist with a master's degree in Psychology from PUC-SP, an HR and Organizational Development consultant and an executive coach. She worked in HR at multinationals such as Novartis, Merck and P&G and is the founder of Débora Telles Human Behavior & Development.*

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