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Episode 740: Burnout

The company SpotHero built a Zen Den to help employees avoid burnout.
Stacey Vanek Smith/NPR
The company SpotHero built a Zen Den to help employees avoid burnout.

Exhaustion. Anxiety. Stress. Depression. Forgetfulness. Irritability. Screaming at large bodies of water. These are some symptoms of burnout.

Hospitals, tech companies, schools and law firms all struggle with burnout. Companies try to fix it. But burnout is really tough to solve. Even the psychologist who coined the term "burnout" had trouble preventing it. After working around the clock, he ended up burnt out.

Today on the show, why burnout is such a menace, and how a 26-year-old call center manager tried to beat it.

Music: "Mulitply" and "Evergreen High." Find us: Twitter / Facebook .

Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.