Recruitment can chew you up and spit you out if you’re not careful. The constant rejections, the ghosting, the juggling between work that has to be done and the reactive work that hijacks your day. If you’ve ever stared at your laptop thinking, “I just can’t do another fkn call”– welcome to the world of burnout in recruitment.

Here’s the thing many people get wrong about burnout though. Burnout isn’t about working too hard. You can work hard and never get burnt out. It’s about working hard without knowing why you’re doing it, or doing it solely for someone else’s purpose and not your own. Without purpose, the grind eats you alive. With it? The same workload doesn’t affect you – it might even feel energising.

Let’s break this down.

What is burnout in recruitment (and why recruiters are ripe for it)?

Psychologist Christina Maslach, who’s basically the mother of burnout research, describes burnout as a combo of three things:

• Exhaustion – You’ve got nothing left in the tank (physically & emotionally).
• Cynicism – You stop caring about candidates, clients, and even your own results.
• Ineffectiveness – You’re working harder but producing less.

Sound familiar? Recruitment is basically a breeding ground for all three. Why?

• Long hours with unpredictable outcomes.
• The emotional whiplash of the natural ups and downs of the recruitment life.
• The very unpredictability of working with human beings on both the candidate & client side.
• The KPI pressure cooker that many agencies still have.

It’s not the work itself – it’s the mismatch between your energy and your why.

How to recognise the stages of burnout

Burnout in recruitment doesn’t hit overnight. It creeps. If you know the signs, you can catch it before you’re a walking zombie or worse, spiralling into a serious mental health breakdown.

Stage 1: Enthusiasm
You’re fired up, smashing BD calls, loving the chase. But you’re overcommitting, saying yes to everything.

Stage 2: Stress
You’re starting to feel stretched. Sleep’s a bit off. Your patience with flakiness is razor thin. Your cortisol levels are starting to rise and you start to stop caring for your body and mind the way you used to – you health isn’t prioritised.

Stage 3: Chronic stress
Now the headaches and Sunday dread kick in. You’re clock-watching. Small setbacks feel huge. You might start getting sick more often. Everything feels that bit harder. Rejection becomes more personal and harder to swallow.

Stage 4: Burnout
This is where you’re emotionally checked out. You stop caring if placements fall through. You are struggling just to get out of bed in the morning. You avoid activities you previously had no problem tackling. You might even fantasise about quitting recruitment altogether.

Recognise yourself in one of those? Good. Awareness is step one.

How to get yourself back on track

This isn’t about bubble baths or yoga (though these can certainly feature if you find they help). This is about pulling yourself out of the burnout spiral in a way that sticks long-term. For me? This is always about reconnecting to purpose.

Reconnect with your purpose

Why are you doing this job? If it’s just for commission for commission’s sake, you’ll burnout in recruitment fast. But if your why is making commissions to pay off your mortgage or take the family travelling, helping people change their lives, building businesses, charity or helping friends and family, or proving to yourself what you’re capable of – you’ll find fuel again.

These need to be front and centre of your mind AND connected to your core values – what truly matters to you (which I’ll go through below).

How to Find Your Purpose (By Digging Into Your Core Values)

Most recruiters don’t burn out because they’re weak. They burn out because they’re chasing someone else’s definition of success. More billings, more headcount, more commission – without asking, “Do I even give a sh*t about this?”

Experts like Dr. Brené Brown and the crew at Psych Central are clear: purpose isn’t found by looking outside – it’s built by knowing your core values and living in line with them.

What are core values? They are the things that we truly believe – that are most important to us that guide our behaviour and goals. So how do we work them out? I could only topline this in the recent webinar I did (this could be a whole training session in itself), so here’s a bit of a deeper breakdown.

Step 1: Name Your Top 5
Strip it back. Write down the five things you couldn’t live without in your life or work. Examples: family, friends, authenticity, personal / professional growth, freedom, security, honesty, success, loyalty, creativity, impact, recognition, charity, travel etc.

When I first did this exercise many years ago, I didn’t immediately know mine and if you’re the same, that’s okay. That’s what we’re here to work through. It can be very hard to narrow it down to just 5.

Step 2: Pressure-Test Them
Don’t just list the nice-sounding ones, you need to really get down to the root of it. Ask yourself a few questions like these:

• Why is this important to me?
• What does this look like in my life?
• How does this drive me?
• How would I feel if this wasn’t in my life?

For example – one of my core values is time with my family. I would say a lot of what I do is to allow myself the time, money & space to be able to? be there and provide for my family. So I’d break it down like this:

• Why is this important to me? – My family is my world. What is the point of working hard if I can’t be there for them financially, mentally and physically in the room!
• What does this look like in my life? – Having the freedom to be able to step away from work and travel with them, take them to the beach, take them to music lessons, help with the school band & be a hands on dad.
• How does this drive me? – I am okay working hard when I’m at work as I know that if I make commissions in my role, I will have the financial freedom to do all these things for my family.
• How would I feel if this wasn’t in my life? – Hollow.

Step 3: Align Recruitment With It
Now the hard part; line up your day-to-day recruitment grind with those values.

• If you value growth, set stretch goals and measure learning, not just billings.
• If you value impact, connect each placement back to the lives you’re changing.
• If you value freedom, structure your desk so you get to experience it – figure out how you can bill the same BUT work less.

Step 4: Audit Regularly
Your values shift as you do. Revisit them quarterly. If you’re chasing a target that doesn’t line up anymore, no wonder you feel fried.

When your values and your work are aligned, the hours feel like investment, not sacrifice. That’s the difference between burnout and flow.

Other Steps to Take to Say Goodbye to Burnout in Recruitment

2. Set boundaries like a true consultant
   You’re not here to be your client’s / candidate’s punching bag. Push back on unrealistic timelines. Guide candidates with honesty. It is okay to say no! So say no when you need to. True consultants don’t absorb every ounce of stress – they advise and lead.
3. Prioritise deep work over reactive work
   Stop drowning in emails and LinkedIn messages. Block out time for the stuff that moves the dial – interviews, pitches, BD calls. That’s what creates momentum (and placements) and will help you feel like you aren’t chasing your tail.
4. Shift the self-talk
   When sh*t goes wrong, try reframing: Lost a deal? “Great, I get to interact with a new group of people” No-show interview? “This is an opportunity – I can now tighten up my pre-screening process.”
5. Recharge on purpose
   Don’t wait until you’re broken to take time off. Plan proper resets – long weekends, mental health days, even just a walk without your phone every day for 20 minutes. Your energy & mental health is your biggest asset in this game.

Final thought

Despite all the advances we’re seeing in Ai & Automation, recruitment isn’t necessarily getting easier. There is still very much a human element to recruitment that I don’t believe will disappear in the the near future. But the recruiters who last and actually thrive, are the ones who anchor to purpose.

Burnout isn’t a sign you’re weak. It’s a sign you’ve been grinding without meaning. Find that meaning and suddenly the grind won’t feel quite as hard.

If you missed the webinar I did with the RSCA on this topic + how to goal set in alignment with your core values to make sure you never hit burnout in recruitment again – I do deliver this module to recruitment teams! Click Here to send me an enquiry / get the chat going to see if this is a fit for you or your team.