Burnout comes from job demands outrunning resources. Teaching individuals to cope better doesn’t fix a structural imbalance.
By Tareef Jafferi · 18 Jul 2026
The Job Demands-Resources model explains strain as an imbalance: too much demand, not enough control, support or recovery. Resilience training addresses the individual’s response to that imbalance, not the imbalance itself.
Workshops aren’t useless, but they aren’t a substitute for changing the work.
The research: Bakker & Demerouti (2007), Journal of Managerial Psychology — the Job Demands-Resources model.
Adapted from Nudges at Work by Tareef Jafferi, shared in partnership with Happily.ai.
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