Top 10 causes of HR burnout in 2025

They’re the first call when something goes wrong—the quiet force behind every new hire, policy shift, and employee crisis. HR professionals are expected to be peacekeepers, strategists, counselors, and culture champions—often all before lunch.

But while they’re busy supporting everyone else, who’s supporting them?

The emotional toll of this imbalance is adding up–and it shows in the data. In a 2024 study, 84% of HR leaders reported frequent stress, 81% felt burnt out, and 95% said the job is simply “too much work and stress.” Burnout has been on a steady rise since the pandemic, and it’s now become a full-blown crisis, for both HR professionals and the teams they serve.

Here’s a closer look at the top 10 causes of HR burnout in 2025—plus data-driven insights and real solutions employers can use today to prevent burnout from escalating further.

1. Change fatigue

Endless organizational shifts, unexpected leadership changes, and shifting business priorities are a top concern for HR professionals, with 71% in a recent study citing change fatigue as their biggest challenge. Who wouldn’t be exhausted?

Constant change forces HR teams into constant adaptation mode, draining their resilience, focus, and valuable energy that should be spent supporting their people. This perpetual cycle of organizational whiplash and reactionary work fuels chronic stress and exhaustion, weakening their performance and ability to lead.

Solutions:

• Collaborate with HR early, create clear timelines and transparent change management plans.
• Offer HR-specific resilience and adaptation training.
• Provide clear communication channels for feedback.

2. Emotional overload

HR leaders often absorb their team’s stress, grief, and conflict while managing delicate situations like layoffs and disputes, which lead to emotional fatigue and exhaustion. In fact, SHRM reports that 75% of HR professionals find their roles emotionally draining, highlighting the heavy toll of supporting others without pause.

Solutions:

• Implement mental health days and enforce effective work-life balance boundaries.
• Offer “no meeting” days to ensure HR teams have time to recharge and focus.
• Provide easy access to therapy that’s tailored to HR's needs.
• Create confidential peer-support programs
• Adopt an empathetic leadership style for deeper trust and better communication.

3. Compassion fatigue

Long-term exposure to employees’ personal trauma can erode HR leaders’ ability to empathize, with 62% reporting a significant toll on their mental health from supporting others through crises.

Solutions:

• Facilitate regular peer sessions for HR teams to share and process challenging cases.
• Rotate emotionally taxing responsibilities like conflict resolution to avoid burnout for individual team members.
• Provide mental health resources like therapy or reimbursement.

4. Lack of emotional support for HR

HR’s ability to support employees is a core strength—but can also be a source of vulnerability. Many leaders act as emotional “shock absorbers” for their organizations, managing layoffs, performance issues, and conflict while quietly absorbing the emotional fallout.

Yet 81% say they have no outlet for their own stress, and according to a CIPD study, HR professionals face significantly more pressure than the general workforce.

Solutions:

• Establish internal or external HR peer networks where they can safely voice their struggles.
• Encourage empathetic leadership by educating managers on mental health awareness for their HR teams.
• Train people managers in active listening, empathy, and conflict resolution to help HR reduce their burden of emotional labor.

5. Always-on culture

A recent SHRM study found that 62% of HR pros feel pressure to be available for support 24/7—ruining work-life balance and magnifying burnout. The study also shows that 52% say they wouldn’t recommend an HR role to someone struggling with their mental health, underscoring just how heavy the pressure of round-the-clock availability is.

Solutions:

• Set after-hours boundaries with tools that delay emails after work hours and establish off-limit times for communication.
• Promote a culture that respects work-life balance—starting with leaders who model it.
• Offer flexible work schedules for HR to structure their hours as needed to maintain work-life balance.

6. Excessive workload

HR roles often involve balancing strategic initiatives alongside time-consuming admin tasks. Outdated tools and fragmented processes only exacerbate these challenges. CultureMonkey reports that 97% of HR pros experience emotional fatigue, with excessive workloads being a major factor.

Solutions:

• Invest in automation with tools like HRIS platforms to streamline repetitive tasks, such as payroll, benefits administration, and compliance.
• Reassess workloads and responsibilities to focus on meaningful, transformational work instead of low-value, manual tasks.

7. Invisible labor and lack of recognition

HR’s behind-the-scenes efforts—from tackling business challenges to supporting teams—are vital to keeping organizations moving forward. Yet, many feel their work is invisible, with 58% reporting they feel undervalued, according to LinkedIn’s 2025 Workplace Report. When hard work goes unnoticed, it creates resentment and disengagement, exacerbating burnout levels.

Solutions:

• Recognize and celebrate HR achievements publicly through leadership shoutouts and recognition programs.
• Boost visibility with internal communication channels to highlight HR’s positive impact on the organization. For example, here at Nava, we have a Slack channel dedicated to giving kudos to our peers!
• Advocate for performance metrics that reflect emotional labor.

8. New tech pressure without support

HR teams face growing stress with the expectations of rapidly adopting new tech and AI tools without proper training or resources. According to Fortune, 56% of HR professionals feel unprepared to take on new tech—highlighting that the real challenge isn’t adoption, but knowing how to properly use it.

Solutions:

• Provide comprehensive training and specialized onboarding for new tools to ensure HR teams can use them with confidence.
• Create tech-support hubs with IT support for resolving HR issues and answering questions.
• Implement pilot programs for testing before launching enterprise software that’s unfamiliar.

9. Role ambiguity and leadership misalignment

HR teams are expected to manage everything from compliance to culture, but often lack authority, resources, and leadership alignment to do so effectively. They often have high accountability, but low authority over compliance and legal demands, creating quite the disconnect between responsibility and power.

Solutions:

• Clarify role scopes by defining HR responsibilities and ensuring teams have the tools to succeed.
• Secure executive sponsorship to align on priorities and advocate for additional resources.
• Advocate for proper budgets and decision-making authority.

10. The pressure to be everything at once

HR professionals often toggle between roles like mediator, culture champion, policy enforcer, and therapist simultaneously. This relentless role-switching creates deep psychological strain, with 47% of HR pros saying their work has a negative impact on their mental health.

Solutions:

• Segment responsibilities by designating specific team members for specialized roles
• Offer skill-specific training for HR staff with targeted development opportunities to deepen expertise in focused areas rather than spreading them too thin.

HR deserve more support—now more than ever

The mental and emotional toll on HR teams is becoming harder to ignore—and constant change isn’t making things any easier. When the people responsible for holding up morale are running on empty, everyone feels it. The good news? With a better understanding of the challenges HR faces and a real commitment to change, companies can start building workplaces that support everyone—including the people who support us all.

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