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1Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsLeadership cultures that prize constant availability, long hours and endurance can reward visible overwork while making sustainable performance harder. Survey findings show higher self-reported burnout among women leaders and substantial strain among surveyed founders; research on surgeons also links repeated challenges to women’s authority with rising burnout and lower intentions to persist. These findings describe particular groups and do not prove that one leadership standard causes burnout everywhere—but together they show why the problem cannot be solved by asking individuals to become more resilient.
What does a leadership standard that rewards burnout look like?
It is a workplace or startup norm in which commitment is measured by availability, hours, speed of response or willingness to absorb ever-expanding work. People may be praised for pushing through, while workload, priorities and the conditions that make work sustainable receive less attention. The evidence here does not measure one universal “leadership standard”; it documents related pressures in specific employee, founder and professional samples.
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That distinction matters. Burnout is not simply a personal weakness or a synonym for having a busy week. The studies below use different populations and measures, so their percentages should not be treated as a single comparable rate. They do, however, identify recurring pressures: heavy workloads, unclear or excessive demands, fundraising stress, care responsibilities and treatment that undermines professional authority.
Why are women leaders more burned out?
In Gallup’s analysis of 2022–2025 survey results, an average of 29% of women in leadership roles reported burnout, compared with 19% of men in leadership roles. Among managers specifically, the averages were 34% for women and 27% for men. These are separate comparisons, and the figures describe survey respondents—not every woman or man in leadership. Gallup’s 2026 analysis notes that women can report stronger engagement on some measures while also reporting more burnout.
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Caregiving status does not explain the entire difference. Among full-time workers with children, 33% of women and 25% of men said they “always” or “very often” experienced burnout; among full-time workers without children, the figures were 31% and 23%. These are again survey responses, not evidence that parenthood alone causes burnout.
Workplace interactions can add strain
A five-month, multisite longitudinal study of surgeons found that women were more likely than men to have their professional role challenged or their authority or ability questioned. The frequency and severity of such experiences predicted increased burnout and lower intentions to persist over time, whether or not participants attributed the treatment to gender. The study offers evidence about a high-status, male-dominated profession; it should not be generalized as a direct estimate for every industry. The study was published in PNAS in 2025.
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- Author: Bungay Stanier, Michael.
- Publisher: Page Two
- Pages: 244
- Publication Date: 2016-02-29
- Edition: 1
The broader workplace context also matters. In the American Psychological Association’s 2023 Work in America survey, 52% of respondents who reported a toxic workplace also said work had harmed their mental health, compared with 15% of those who did not report a toxic workplace. Women were more likely than men to report a toxic workplace (23% versus 15%). These are associations in survey reports, not a clinical burnout rate or proof that toxicity caused the reported harm.
Why do founders work such long hours?
Founders face pressures that are not identical to those of employees: raising money, generating revenue, keeping a company operating and making decisions with limited resources. A norm that equates commitment with constant work can make those pressures feel like an individual test of endurance rather than a question of workload, financing conditions or support.
Fundraising, revenue and workload pressures
In Forged in Fire: Survey Insights from 180 Female Founders Building in 2025, the Female Founders Alliance reported that nearly 75% of respondents had experienced burnout at least once. Forty-three percent said they worked more than 60 hours a week, while 30% worked 50–60 hours. More than half named fundraising pressure as the primary cause of burnout; revenue pressure followed at 26% and workload at 15%. The report also found that 32% said they had compromised their health, a similar share cited deteriorating relationships, and 22% identified lack of sleep as a key tradeoff. These results describe 180 female-founder respondents, not all founders. Read the 2025 report.
Long hours are an ecosystem expectation, not just a founder habit
Balderton Capital’s 2024 survey of 128 entrepreneurs found that 70% agreed stress-related burnout remained a significant startup ecosystem problem, and 78% felt entrepreneurs were expected to prioritize work over wellbeing. Sixty-nine percent said stress moderately or significantly harmed work performance. These are respondents’ perceptions, not independently measured causal effects. Balderton’s 2024 report also found that 84% considered strong support networks essential to founder performance. Thirty-three percent often turned to investors for support, compared with 42% who often turned to a spouse or partner.
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Balderton’s survey page separately reports that 90% of respondents to its inaugural survey agreed founder pressure drove very long hours, 83% believed that adding hours has diminishing returns beyond a point, and 81% felt venture capital firms could help build a culture in which entrepreneurs look after their wellbeing. The page does not clearly state the inaugural survey’s sample size or report year, so these figures should be read as the views of that survey’s respondents, not population estimates. See Balderton’s founder survey page.
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Entrepreneurship is often described as flexible, but control over one’s schedule does not remove care responsibilities or make a business’s demands predictable. King’s College London’s 16 April 2026 announcement of research by its Global Institute for Women’s Leadership describes an “entrepreneurial care penalty”: childcare access, funding norms, exclusionary stereotypes and long-hours expectations can combine to place added strain on women entrepreneurs and constrain business potential. King’s College London summarizes the findings and recommendations.
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The report frames wellbeing as relational and systemic, rather than a matter of individual resilience alone. Its recommendations include affordable childcare, more flexible accelerator programs, bias-aware funding, broader definitions of entrepreneurship and including wellbeing in entrepreneurship education. Those proposals address conditions around founders; they are not a guarantee that any single change will prevent burnout.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What can organizations and startup ecosystems change?
Useful responses depend on who has control over the pressure. Personal practices may help someone manage demands, but they cannot substitute for decisions about staffing, priorities, authority, funding or childcare. Gallup recommends attention to work design, priority clarity and development support; the other findings point to changes in treatment and the founder ecosystem as well.
| Response | Who can act | Pressure it addresses |
|---|---|---|
| Align workload with clear priorities and provide development support | Managers and organizations | Excessive or competing demands; Gallup’s recommended focus areas |
| Address challenges to professional role and authority | Leaders, teams and professional institutions | Interactions associated with rising burnout and reduced intentions to persist in the surgeon study |
| Make funding and business support more bias-aware | Investors, funders and support organizations | Funding norms and stereotypes identified in King’s research |
| Offer affordable childcare and more flexible accelerator programs | Policymakers and entrepreneurship programs | Care access and program structures that can conflict with caring responsibilities |
| Strengthen founder support networks, including investor support | Investors and founder communities | Isolation and the gap between founders’ reported need for support and how often they turn to investors |
| Set boundaries and make time for reflection or support | Individuals, where circumstances allow | Personal ways of responding to pressure; not a replacement for structural changes |
These responses work at different levels. An individual can set limits or seek support, but an employer controls staffing and priorities, while investors and public institutions influence funding expectations and care infrastructure. Treating burnout only as a resilience problem shifts responsibility toward the people with the least power to change those conditions.
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