According to a popular saying, you have to work smarter, not harder, because the main "reward" for doing a lot of work is... more work.
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Reddit user Bobcat734 says he knows this all too well. Speaking to the platform's r/AntiWork community, the disillusioned employee claims he eventually ended up responsible for multiple roles' responsibilities.
So, to test how the rest of the company would pick up the slack, he says he stopped going the extra mile. Spoiler alert: it wasn't pretty!
This overworked employee's colleagues were taking it easy since he was carrying the entire team
Image credits: bernardbodo / envato (not the actual photo)
So when he stopped doing it, everyone went into panic mode
Image credits: PerfectAngleImages / envato (not the actual photo)
Image credits: bobcat734
Burnout is usually about your workplace, not the people around you
Image credits: Getty Images / unsplash (not the actual photo)
Numbers across the world might vary, but at least in the United States, about two thirds of employees are carrying a bigger load than they can handle. Recent research from Moodle shows that 66% of Americans are experiencing some sort of burnout in 2025. The data reveals that younger generations are facing significantly higher rates of burnout, with 81% of 18‑ to 24‑year‑olds and 83% of 25‑ to 34‑year‑olds reporting the problem, compared to 49% of those aged 55 and older.
The top reasons for burnout across all age groups include:
- 24% are stressed because they have more work to complete than time to do it;
- 24% say they don’t have enough resources or the right tools to do their job properly;
- 20% cite a poor economy that’s impacting their well-being at work;
- 19% have stress because they’re taking on too much work due to labor shortages in their industry.
Workplace expert and author of The Burnout Epidemic: The Rise of Chronic Stress and How We Can Fix It, Jennifer Moss, says it's not a you problem, but a systemic one, and instead of workers applying personal band‑aids, we should see leaders trying to rectify it further upstream.
To understand it, she suggests picturing a canary in a coal mine. They are healthy birds, singing away as they make their way into the cave. But when they come out full of soot and disease and no longer singing, can you imagine us asking why the canaries made themselves sick? No, because the obvious answer is that the coal mine is making the birds sick.
"Although developing emotional intelligence skills — like optimism, gratitude, and hope — can give people the rocket fuel they need to be successful, if an employee is dealing with burnout, we have to stop and ask ourselves why," Moss explains. "We should never suggest that if they'd just practiced more grit or joined another yoga class or taken a mindfulness course, their burnout would have been avoided."
"I have long been a proponent of empathy and optimism in leadership. I believe in practicing gratitude skills for a happier, higher performing work and life experience. I endorse the idea of building resilience to better handle stress when it arises. But these skills are not the cure for burnout, nor are they the vaccine."
Instead, she believes, leaders need to be asking questions like 'What is making my staff so unhealthy?' 'Why does our work environment lack the conditions for them to flourish?' 'How can I make it safe for them to work here every day?'
And if our Redditor's managers aren't, then maybe it is time for him to leave.
As the story went viral, people were glad the slackers got what was coming to them
Many also shared their own similar stories
However, the quiet quitter was also blamed for allowing this to happen to him
