A dental emergency was Laurie Santos’ wake-up call. It wasn’t even her own: One of Santos’ students at Yale University needed her sign-off before getting some work done. Instead of feeling sympathy for her student, Santos mostly felt annoyed about the extra paperwork she’d need to complete.
That reaction was unusual and concerning for Santos, a psychologist who teaches Yale’s single most popular course, on the science of happiness. She knew that cynicism, irritability, and exhaustion—all of which had been gnawing at her recently—were telltale signs of burnout, a condition that almost 30% of U.S. workers say they experience at least sometimes, according to a 2022 McKinsey Health Institute survey.
Those weren’t the only red flags for Santos. Her plate felt too full. Her fuse was shorter. Two years into the pandemic, she was tired of bending the on-campus college experience to fit a remote world. “I take such pride and compassion in working with students, and to feel like that was getting chipped away” was worrisome, Santos says. To avoid sinking into full-on burnout, she decided to
