She kept showing up for others…even while quietly fighting for her own life.

A nurse (let’s call her Rachel) undergoing chemotherapy, hair gone, body weakened, continued to serve in the ER.

Not because she was expected to, but because she believed in the mission.

She gave everything she had. Every shift, every smile, every ounce of energy.

But when she requested time off for reconstructive surgery post-treatment, her manager, juggling staff shortages and peak-season chaos, classified it as “elective.”

The timing wasn’t ideal.

So, the answer was no.

Not out of cruelty. Out of constraint. From a leader doing their best in a system stretched beyond capacity.

Let that land.

This isn’t a story about bad people. It’s about broken defaults.

Rachel didn’t burn out because she lacked resilience.

She burned out because the environment, without realizing it, taught her that showing up for the mission mattered more than showing up for herself.

Michael Leiter and Christina Maslach have shown us the truth:

Burnout isn’t about weakness or not having enough time off.

It’s about chronic mismatch between a person and the six core dimensions of their work:

1. Workload – the never-ending demands
2. Control – decisions made without you
3. Reward – little recognition for large efforts
4. Community – isolation in the middle of a team
5. Fairness – inconsistent policies, inconsistent care
6. Values – what you believe vs. what gets rewarded

Rachel’s experience reflected all six.

And the hardest part? Her leader probably thought they were making the right call.

This is the danger of unconscious leadership:

Most harm isn’t intentional. It’s habitual. It’s inherited. And it’s invisible…until it breaks someone. So, here’s the hard truth:

If you are a leader, there are three urgent questions you need to ask today:

1. Where might our culture reward self-sacrifice over sustainability?
   (And what message is that sending?)
2. What conversations aren’t happening because it feels unsafe to speak the truth?
   (Psychological safety isn’t soft-it’s structural.)
3. If we had to re-earn our team’s trust from scratch, what would we do differently?
   (Trust is built moment-by-moment. And it’s repairable-if we choose to see it.)

At The Leti Company, we believe culture doesn’t fix itself.

It transforms through courageous conversation- rooted in science and anchored in humanity.

Burnout isn’t an individual issue.

It’s a collective one.

Rachel didn’t need to be tougher.

She needed someone to say:

“You’ve carried enough. Now we carry you.”

Who on your team needs that message today?