Why Do Professors Feel So Burned Out and Isolated?

R3ciprocity.com - Prof David Maslach: Innovation; Research Life; Striving Towards Happiness · Sep 15, 2026 · 8m

I have felt strangely happy at the end of the day lately.

That has not been normal for me.

Most days, by the end of work, I feel worn down.

Grumpy.

Flat.

A little miserable.

I am a business professor.

I spend a lot of time working alone.

And that, I think, is the real issue.

Not the work itself.

The isolation.

A lot of academic work is done this way.

You disappear into your office.

You write alone.

You think alone.

You struggle alone.

Then you briefly reappear in a meeting or an email.

And we act like this is normal.

Maybe it is normal.

But that does not mean it is good.

The last few days…