Burnout happens when one is spending too much effort to accomplish what someone else thinks is important. It is the result of a festering resentment that one’s work is not purposeful or appreciated. I was able to largely avoid this by creating projects that were aligned with the organization’s mission and my sense of purpose. The “want to” work generally mitigated the “have to” work. It did mean that I was working more, but as long as I could do my “want to” work, that was ok.

Relevance and control play an important role in corporate musical chairs, but I’m not sure that they are the key to burnout.