People don't burn out from hard work. They burn out from spending energy on tasks while simultaneously spending equal energy translating themselves into someone the culture will accept. - Silicon Canals

"For a significant number of people, the workday contains a second, invisible job: translating themselves into a version the culture finds palatable. Softening directness. Performing enthusiasm they don't feel. Laughing at things that aren't funny. Shrinking a personality that, outside the office, is perfectly fine. This translation work is constant, and it is exhausting."

"Surface acting means displaying emotions you don't actually feel while suppressing the ones you do. Decades of research have linked it to emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and (unsurprisingly) burnout. The energy cost of pretending is staggering, because the brain treats inauthenticity as a low-grade threat. Your nervous system never fully stands down."

Workplace exhaustion extends beyond workload and meetings to emotional labor—the constant translation of authentic selves into culturally acceptable versions. This "surface acting" involves suppressing genuine emotions while performing expected ones, creating a second invisible job. Psychologists link this emotional suppression to exhaustion, depersonalization, and burnout. The brain treats inauthenticity as a low-grade threat, preventing nervous system relaxation. Workplace cultures establish unspoken atmospheric rules determining which emotions are acceptable, whose enthusiasm is rewarded, and whose directness is tolerated. The concept of "culture fit" in hiring often reinforces conformity pressures, requiring employees to continuously moderate their authentic personalities to match organizational expectations.

Read at Silicon Canals