Burnout isn’t new — 18th-century farm records show workers describing the same exhaustion

George Morland's _The Labourer's Rest_ depicts the daily rhythms of rural labour in 18th-century England. (Artvee)

Nearly 40 per cent of Canadian workers say they feel burnt out often or always, according to a 2025 survey by Mental Health Research Canada and Canada Life. The term has become part of a broader lexicon of modern work, alongside quiet quitting, hustle culture and grindset and “taskmasking.”

But burnout is older than this current moment of concern suggests. The World Health Organization first classified it in 1990, in the International Classification of Diseases, defining it as “a state of vital exhaustion.”