Jo Hooper spent her 20s trying to climb the career ladder, quickly rising through the ranks with promotions and pay rises. "I loved being good at it," said Jo, a former communications professional. But just after she landed her dream role at 30, Jo struggled with burnout and had to take time off work.
Burnout, external is recognised by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. Recent statistics show 22 million working days, external were lost in Britain because of work-related stress in 2024-25. Jo, now 39 and based in Penarth in the Vale of Glamorgan, said: "I wanted to be a head of communications by the time I was 30, which I did by doing all things you'd expect, working long hours, saying yes to everything including mad things like taking my boss's kids to school." "I genuinely thought these were all good opportunities, and I was going to grab them with both hands," said Jo.
"I remember being in the bathroom crying, hyperventilating, but I never thought 'this isn't sustainable', never thought 'I can't do this any more'. "I just thought I needed to change job and I'd be fine. I thought the fix was being in a different organisation but the way I behaved, what I thought was expected of me, was the same everywhere." Jo hit burnout a year into her management role, and it led to two breakdowns within a year.
"I definitely think it was a case of being forced to stop by my body and mind," she said. "I found it really difficult to make decisions, like my brain was working slower. I remember feeling like someone had flipped a switch and my brain had just broken." The charity Mental Health UK reports that two in five, external young workers aged 18 to 24 took time off due to poor mental health caused by stress in 2025.
However, there have been concerns raised about how people are signed off work. Earlier this year, hundreds of GPs told the BBC they had never refused to sign a patient off work for mental health issues. Olympic athlete Laviai Nielsen recently told the BBC she realised she had burnout too late, after the 2024 Paris Olympics, while Green Party MP Carla Denyer announced in May she would be taking a leave of absence due to burnout.
Dr Jill Williams, a psychologist and business coach in north Wales, specialises in working with people affected by burnout. She said: "It's actually perfectionists or those who go the extra mile who are more likely to experience this. "The same traits that get you promoted will be the same ones that burn you out, unfortunately." Public Health Wales' Amy Davies said the phrase burnout could be used interchangeably for stress, but said the two were different things.
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