In this episode, I dive into the newest burnout buzzword making its way across the workplace: quiet cracking. Unlike quiet quitting, which is a conscious decision to pull back, quiet cracking describes the inner unraveling behind a professional mask. You may look fine, you may even be excelling, but inside you’re falling apart.
I share what this term reveals—and what it misses—about the lived reality of burnout, depression, anxiety, compassion fatigue, moral injury, and clinical grief. I talk about my own experiences of quietly cracking during the pandemic, why interoception is key to recognizing early signs, and how we keep pushing until the cracks explode.
We’ll also look at why women burn out more, what Gen Z is teaching us about burnout, and why business solutions that stop at wellness apps or “new tasks” are missing the point. Real talk: when you’re depressed, the last thing you need is more to do.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- What “quiet cracking” means and why it resonates right now
- The difference between quiet quitting and quiet cracking
- Why therapists and helpers often still “show up” while quietly falling apart
- How interoception—the ability to sense what your body is telling you—can signal cracks before collapse
- How burnout overlaps with depression and anxiety, and why that granularity matters for care
- The unique layers of therapist burnout: compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, moral injury, and clinical grief
- Why women experience higher rates of burnout, and how structural inequities add to the load
- Why Gen Z may be the “burnout canary in the coal mine” and what older generations can learn
- Why corporate fixes like wellness apps and new assignments won’t address the root of burnout
- What systemic and clinical solutions could actually make a difference
Episode Highlights
- Quiet cracking defined: The silent unraveling masked by productivity and professionalism.
- Still showing up: Therapists (and many helpers) keep going until they literally cannot get out of the car.
- The soda can metaphor: Repressing stress until it bursts, often in dramatic and uncontrollable ways.
- Women and burnout: Research shows women experience higher rates of burnout than men, especially in caregiving roles.
- Coco Gauff at the US Open: A moment of visible emotion in elite sports and what it teaches us about pressure, performance, and mental health.
- Brain injury work parallel: Patients told “it’s just anxiety” when trauma was driving their symptoms—mirroring how burnout gets flattened and misdiagnosed.
- My pandemic experience: I thought I was burned out, but I was also deeply depressed, having panic attacks, and living with anxiety. Even as a licensed psychologist, I missed it at first.
- Granularity matters: Burnout can look like depression, and depression can look like burnout. Compassion fatigue, moral injury, and trauma complicate the picture.
- Gen Z and screen time: Rates of depression and anxiety have skyrocketed since smartphones became central to adolescence. Gen Z is speaking the truth older generations have hidden.
- The cost of quiet cracking: A recent Fortune article reported it’s costing companies $438 billion in lost productivity. On paper, the job market looks stable, but 60–80 percent of workers are burned out.
- Business solutions fall short: Assigning new tasks to someone who is depressed or burned out isn’t just ineffective—it’s cruel. A culture fix without systemic and clinical backbone is a band-aid on a crack in a dam.
Real Talk Segment
When you’re depressed, the last thing you need is more tasks. Business keeps trying to treat burnout like a morale problem instead of a health problem. We need lighter workloads, peer support, real mental health care access, and fair pay for providers. Without that, no wellness app or gratitude journal will make burnout better.
Resources Mentioned
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