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How Career Burnout Makes You Lose Your Sense of Agency
Description
In episode 91 of The Burnout Podcast, Lucas and Luna explore how career burnout strips away your sense of agency — the feeling that you can influence your own life. They anchor the discussion in the concept of 'learned helplessness,' originally studied by psychologist Martin Seligman in 1967. Lucas explains how a 2022 meta-analysis in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that burnout and low perceived control correlate at r = 0.52, a strong effect. The hosts dissect a real scenario: a marketing manager who stopped pitching ideas after her boss rejected six in a row. They discuss how small wins, micro-choices, and redefining what 'control' means can rebuild agency. Luna shares a personal anecdote about reclaiming her lunch break as a deliberate act. The episode closes with a forward-looking question about whether agency is a skill we can practice.