Feeling tired after returning to work? Here are some possible reasons why

Dan Ball remembers a time when he was so exhausted from work that he started to question his sense of reality.

In 2018, it wasn't uncommon for Dan to work up to 14 hours a day in the technology industry.

He used to pride himself on being "the first person in the office" in the morning, right up until he experienced an "episode of exhaustion and burnout".

"It was quite confronting when I had that realisation; it's almost like my body turned around to me before my mind could even catch up and said 'No, this is not sustainable Dan'," he says.

According to a study published in 2023 from the University of Melbourne, one in two workers aged between 18 and 54 have reported feeling exhausted at work.

"[That] is very high," says Professor Ian Hickie, who is the co-director of Health and Policy at the University of Sydney's Brain and Mind Centre.

"It does cause us all to stop and go; now hang on a sec. Work is supposed to be the fun part of life, the enjoyable bit, the bit we thrive on. And yet we say we're exhausted by it?"

He describes this as the "great November disease" in Australia.

"[It's] the belief that if I can just get to Christmas and fall over the finishing line, then, in December, it will all come good. And by January, it'll all be fixed," he explains.

But, he says, it's simply not true.

Other stresses in life

Professor Mark Wooden, who is a research fellow at the Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research at the University of Melbourne, has also observed a rise in tiredness across Australian workplaces.

He's the former director of the Household Income and Labour Dynamics project in Australia, also known as the Hilda survey, which looks at the topic of tiredness, among other things.

"It was fairly stable throughout the 2000s when we first started [the survey], but it has been picking up," he tells ABC RN's This Working Life.

"Pretty much this feeling of tiredness got worse for most age groups up to about the age of … about 45."

But people aren't always tired because they've got too much to do, Professor Wooden says.

Nearly two decades ago, 18 per cent of people were working more than 50 hours a week. That's now down to 11 per cent.

Despite fewer people "feeling rushed or pressed for time", Professor Wooden suspects that there are other stresses that people are experiencing.

"For most people, we're all feeling the cost of rising rents, rising mortgage costs, and these sorts of things. So that's imposing stress; therefore, that's affecting sleep quality," he says.

"Therefore, that's affecting you in feeling tired, right? You may be going to bed, but you're not sleeping well. That's one speculative response."

Feeling stressed, anxious, or depressed can also contribute to people feeling tired.

Professor Hickie explains that when people are stressed — just like when their body is fighting an infection or, in ancient times, when they were being chased by a lion — they release hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol.

"It should turn off again. But if it stays on and continues with its excited, aroused fashion in the brain, that burns up energy," he explains.

And if it goes on for more than 24 hours, it disrupts your sleep-wake cycle, he adds, because your brain is busy "reconnecting nerve cells".

GP sees clients 'in desperation' 

Natasha Yates has worked in general practice for more than 20 years in both rural and urban settings. During that time, she's seen many patients come into her practice and request medical certificates because they feel too exhausted to work.

"What I'm hearing from patients is that our [life] expectations are different. And the workplace expectations are different as well," Dr Yates says.

"Almost always, when I dig down, what they are suffering from is emotional or mental fatigue. And their workplaces have become toxic," she says.

They may be finding that they're just not able to perform at work or that they're not getting the support that they need.

But she reiterates that taking time off work is unlikely to fix the real issue.

"If they're in a toxic workplace and they're in a place where they're not given the resources to be able to look after themselves properly, no amount of time off is going to enable them to get back to work fully functioning again," she says.

'Don't just do the same thing'

Professor Hickie has seen people lose interest in activities they once enjoyed doing, but he says that doesn't necessarily mean you need to entirely change your career.

"I see doctors who've been great doctors their whole life, who no longer care about medicine. But medicine is not the problem. I see nurses [who] are not interested in caring about people. And these people cared about people their whole lives," he says.

"I don't think the profession is the problem; I don't think you've lost interest in the thing you are passionately engaged with. I think it might be that you are overwhelmed."

Years ago, an older colleague gave him the advice to change directions within his career at least four times.

And the onus shouldn't be on the individual to recognise when they're burnt out or suffering from extreme exhaustion, he adds.

"I do think there's a management responsibility. I think healthy workplaces and healthy organisations have a management response. They do not rely on individuals just making random choices; individuals make bad choices … People don't always recognise the situation they're in; they don't recognise how tired they are," he says.

Having 'a lot more energy'

Today, Dan Ball is working as a Mental Health First Aid Instructor in Melbourne, and he's studying to become a psychologist.

In this role, he helps people recognise the signs of burnout.

But he's also using some of his former skills from the technology industry to create safer environments in the workplace surrounding mental health.

He helped create an app called By Mind Side, which alerts workplaces when their mental first aid supporters might be at risk of burnout. 

"Supporting the supporter is a huge passion of mine. In the workplace, if an organisation is serious about training staff to be a listening ear to their colleagues, it's fundamental they provide a structure to support them," he says.

Dan's also found solace by being involved in an Australia-wide men's support group called The Men's Table.

"That's definitely something that has helped me immensely," he says.

"The slogan is 'we don't just talk about footy and sh**'," he laughs. Instead, it's also a "place for men to go and open up".

Finally, he's made other positive changes in his life including cutting back on screen time, putting his phone away for "micro breaks", and starting his mornings with meditation or exercise.

"I do actually now have a lot more energy and I think that [is] down to having more control, [and being able] to wake up in the morning and feel like you have control over what you do next," he says.