The essentials in five minutes: current figures and research on burnout, leadership and results, each summarised in two or three sentences, with links to the originals. Only large, representative studies and meta-analyses are included. Some articles require a subscription to read in full.

Burnout today: the figures

Gallup, State of the Global Workplace (2026)
Only one in five employees worldwide is engaged at work, and in Europe just one in eight (12%). Low engagement costs the global economy an estimated $10 trillion a year, around 9% of global GDP.

DAK-Gesundheit, health analysis (2026)
Based on data from around 2.2 million insured employees in Germany: in the first half of 2026, mental illness became the most common cause of sick days for the first time.

Mental Health UK, Burnout Report (2026)
In a representative survey of UK workers, one in five took time off in the past year because of stress-related poor mental health. Only about one in four feel their employer genuinely prioritises mental health.

Health Promotion Switzerland, Job-Stress-Index (2022)
Around three in ten employees in Switzerland are emotionally exhausted, and more than a quarter face more stress than resources. Reducing work-related stress could save the Swiss economy several billion francs a year.

What makes the difference

Gallup, Managers and team productivity (2026)
Managers account for 70% of the variance in team engagement. Managers who completed a development programme saw 21–28% lower staff turnover in their teams.

Gallup, Q12 Meta-Analysis (2024)
A study of more than 3.3 million employees in 90 countries: compared with the least engaged teams, the most engaged achieve 23% higher profitability, 78% less absenteeism, 70% better wellbeing and up to 51% lower turnover.

Sawhney & McCord, Harvard Business Review (2026)
A meta-analysis of 515 studies: unclear expectations mainly harm satisfaction and performance, conflicting demands mainly drive burnout and turnover, and overload mainly causes emotional and physical symptoms. Good solutions start with knowing which one dominates.

Bae & Woolley, Harvard Business Review (2026)
Research with more than 4,300 managers and employees: when unexpected extra work keeps landing on the most engaged people, it erodes the very benefits organisations gain from engagement.

Emotional intelligence and burnout

Meta-analytic research on emotional intelligence and burnout
Studies pooled across many professions consistently find that higher emotional intelligence goes hand in hand with lower burnout.

Mattingly & Kraiger, Human Resource Management Review (2019)
A meta-analysis of 58 studies shows that training improves emotional intelligence with a moderate, consistent effect.

My own research

Bauer-Moore, Burnout in International Organisations (2025)
A survey of 259 professionals aged 30 to 65 working for international organisations in Switzerland, including UN agencies and global health organisations. Self-compassion was the strongest protective factor against burnout; supervisory support and psychological safety predicted lower burnout, loneliness higher burnout. Whether people worked remotely, hybrid or in the office made no significant difference, and women reported significantly higher burnout than men.