For years, burnout has been framed as something an individual is responsible for protecting themselves from. Management and organisations often tell staff to manage their time better, suggest or provide resilience training, or encourage extra individual self-care. However, it has long been argued that burnout is primarily a response to chronic mismatches between people and their work environments, not a deficiency in the individual.¹ Team burnout is a collective experience, and includes chronic exhaustion, cynicism, reduced motivation, engagement and effectiveness across a team, but not every team member has to experience it for the team to show signs of burnout. Within rural and remote settings, the root causes of team burnout can often run deeper than metro or regional counterparts. Below is a list of nine root causes of team burnout,² along with practical and mindful ways to notice and interrupt their effects on the workplace, team, and the individual.
Unclear boundaries. When roles aren’t clearly defined, people will absorb whatever falls through the cracks. This is common within rural and remote teams but comes at a high cost. A mindful approach here starts with naming the issue. Have regular team conversations about who holds which responsibilities and create shared clarity that prevents invisible overload.
Lack of support. Professional isolation is one of the most frequently cited stressors among those working in rural and remote healthcare. Without peer supervision, mentoring or accessible management, the strain of this isolation often goes unnoticed and unaddressed. Build deliberate practices of checking in with one another, whether in team meetings or regular one-on-one meetings.
Poor work design. This occurs when workflows, systems, or rostering are poorly structured, or when a person feels they have to work harder but sees no tangible benefits. Research using the effort-recovery model³ has consistently shown that sustained effort without recovery creates an environment in which stress and exhaustion accumulate rather than resolve. Pausing to notice “Is how we’re working actually working?” is a necessary mindful act in itself.
No time to recover. Recovery is a physiological necessity. For rural and remote teams managing on-call rosters, community boundaries that blur, and the multiple impacts of leave that rarely gets backfilled, genuine rest is often the first thing to go. Mindful recovery means intentionally protecting your time, whether it’s a few minutes of quiet time between demanding tasks or conscious transition rituals at the end of a shift. After high-pressure or long shifts or call-outs, ensure that fatigue recovery time is sufficient. DO NOT call the person when they are trying to sleep and recover. Take the phone off them and have someone else look after it for a while. Also encourage and support team members to take regular breaks away from work through their leave and professional development entitlements.
Recognition gaps. When effort goes unacknowledged, people begin to question whether it matters. Leaders can specifically build mindful recognition into everyday practices through noticing and naming contributions (such as in team meetings or emails), rather than waiting for formal review cycles.
Low psychological safety. When people don’t feel safe raising concerns, speaking honestly or making mistakes, they constantly self-monitor, which is both exhausting and isolating. Leaders can respond to difficult conversations with curiosity rather than defensiveness, modelling the openness they want to see.
Leadership disconnect. Whether leaders are geographically or relationally distant, teams can lose access, direction, advocacy, and the sense that someone is paying attention. Management is often based remotely, and staff can feel that management are completely removed from what is actually happening on the ground. Mindful leadership practices, such as deliberately slowing down interactions rather than rushing through check-ins, can help bridge the distance, even when proximity isn’t possible.
Unrealistic expectations. Expecting a small, under-resourced team to deliver what larger clinics or services might is a recipe for ongoing inadequacy and guilt. When expectations consistently exceed capacity, teams internalise the gap as personal failure. Self-compassion practices⁴ help teams recognise that this tension is systemic, not individual.
Micromanagement. Being closely monitored, second-guessed or denied autonomy erodes both trust and motivation, which is particularly damaging for skilled health professionals. Leaders can mindfully check whether this urge to micromanage arises from their own anxiety rather than necessity. When noticing that urge, pause before acting on it.
No single intervention will resolve burnout at the team level; however, awareness of some of the root causes and a willingness to safeguard staff wellbeing and change practices are where meaningful change begins. This means addressing structural conditions that create chronic strain, whilst also promoting mindful practices that support individuals and teams to notice, pause, and respond before exhaustion becomes a reality. We are all in this together.
Be kind,
Dr Nicole Jeffery-Dawes (she/her)
Senior Psychologist, Mental Health and Wellbeing
- Maslach, C. & Leiter, M.P. (2016). World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103-111. Accessed 15 June 2026 at https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4911781/
- Kinsey, R. (2025). 9 Roots of Team Burnout You Can’t Ignore. How Great Leaders Fix Them. LinkedIn. Accessed 15 June 2026 at https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ronniekinseymba_9-roots-of-team-burnout-you-cant-ignore-activity-7342162721066414080-lMmQ/
- van Hooff, M.L.M, Geurts, S.A.E., Kompier, M.A.J. & Taris, T.W (2007). Workdays, in-between workdays and the weekend: a diary study on effort and recovery. International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health, 80, 599-613. Accessed 15 June 2026 at https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00420-007-0172-5
- Neff, K.D. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101. Accessed 16 June 2026 at https://self-compassion.org/wp-content/uploads/publications/SCtheoryarticle.pdf
