Do you find it harder to spot burnout on your team from remote workers? Are there any subtle (or not subtle) signs you can spot from a distance?

Of course, it is hard to spot burnout of the remote workers on the team. However, there are  various signs which one can spot:
- phyisical signs could be tiredness, sleepiness;
- cognitive decline such as lack of decision-making or lack of focus (forgetfulness), less ideas;
- behavioral signs such as impact on quality of deliverbles, missed deadlines, reduced performance, procrastination;
- emotional signs like irritation, mood swings, withdrawal, overwhelming.

Reducing stress and burnout among remote workers is certainly a big challenge, but there are ways to spot and manage it.

Either onsite or remote it’s easy to spot on when a team member is in a burnout state. First of all, you must observe ( Not look ) of those signs burnout might be present. Meetings have to be with camera on, always.

Signs like face twitching, they get distracted easily, if they used to take a bath and now they don’t, they deviate from being productive to being in a slump without explanations they might in a burnout state.

It is really important for you to spot these signs on 1:1s, let that space to be one where is judgment free and where you foster rapport and personal connections. Where they feel that they can talk to you freely while you apply active listening.

Being supportive, guiding them and be for them will set the path to leave burnout if possible.

Yeah, spotting burnout in remote teams is definitely trickier, but there are some telltale signs if you pay attention. In my experience, a sudden drop in engagement—like someone who used to be active in meetings or chats going quiet—is a red flag. Missed deadlines, slower responses, or a shift in tone (short, disengaged messages) can also hint at trouble. Cameras staying off all the time, avoiding social interactions, or a general drop in energy are other signs. The key is regular check-ins—not just about work, but genuinely asking how they’re doing. Creating a culture where people feel safe to talk about stress before it becomes burnout makes a huge difference.

The way I notice burnout is when people who are normally efficient, tend to get forgetful, forget to reply to emails, or to do certain tasks. With being online, it is easier than ever to just keep working, when you are in the office, you tend to notice that people are leaving and then you shut down. One needs to be really disciplined when working remotely. 

I actually find it easier online. In the office, as social creatures, people can hide burnout behind polished social performance -- forced cheerfulness or exaggerated small talk. It's how we are wired and we are good at hiding internal stress, fatigue or pain. 

Online, I think the human connection runs through a narrower bandwidth, and so the signal-to-noise ratio is higher. Subtle cues stand out. Slower responses to conversation or chat, muted voice and video, fewer impromptu check-ins. The feeling of disconnect is more immediate and more stark.

But we have forgotten, since COVID, that remote work is not new. It was invented by baby-boomers and institutionalised by GenX well before the luxury of tools like Zoom and Teams inter alia. Work-from-home has decades of history of best practice, long before Gen Z arrived. Neither work-from-home or remote field office locations is better or worse compared to in-office, they are just different and require different practice that need not be re-invented.