Combating Employee Burnout on Security Teams

The threats facing today’s organizations are not just external. In recent years, another threat has been quietly traversing critical security functions: employee burnout.

Security professionals often are the last line of defense in an increasingly high-stakes environment. Incident response teams and security analysts exist to mitigate exploits that are unaddressed by adequate control design and implementation. They operate without a safety net, which can have severe negative effects on individual well-being. The constant pressure, unrelenting pace, and emotional toll of their roles are contributing to a growing crisis that too many organizations overlook. By taking proactive steps, organizations can address employee burnout by elevating the work environment through open communication, empathy, and a purpose-built culture.

Employee burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by prolonged or excessive stress. It is an occupational phenomenon recognized by the World Health Organization that can result in emotional exhaustion, detachment, and reduced effectiveness at work. Burnout is not a new concept, nor is it limited to a single industry. Workers across professions experience burnout and fatigue, especially those in high-stakes roles that perform tasks critical to running a business on a day-to-day basis. Burnout can lead to cynicism, reduced productivity, and diminished confidence and sense of accomplishment.

Employee burnout is a cycle that compounds. On a security team, it can lead to missed alerts, slower response times, and errors in judgment. These mistakes increase the workload for teammates, who now must continue to exhaust resources to mitigate these mistakes. Eventually, the proverbial tank runs out of gas, and a common result is turnover of key personnel.

A recent survey of more than 2,000 cybersecurity professionals explored the issue of burnout. Of the survey respondents, 30% stated that a lack of work-life balance was a top issue; 27% noted that they spent more time solving day-to-day problems than on strategic issues; and 52% expressed concern about staying abreast of new frameworks and models such as zero trust.

Another industry survey shows that:

• Around 27% of cybersecurity professional turnover was attributed to stress
• About 33% of security leaders would recommend a career in IT, while another 33% would discourage others from pursuing one

Employee burnout does not trip an alarm like a high-profile denial-of-service attack. Rather, it dwells and expands quietly like unsensed malware, slowly undermining the effectiveness and resilience of an entire security program. Security specialists are trained to monitor signs of unauthorized access, privilege escalations, and lateral movement, but there’s no security information and event management rule or automated alert for exhaustion, emotional fatigue, or disengagement. These human vulnerabilities develop slowly, invisibly, and often in silence.

Unaddressed burnout can erode performance from within. Analysts might start missing subtle indicators of compromise, and response teams, fatigued and underrecognized, might become reactive rather than proactive. Even more, valued professionals leave, taking with them hard-won institutional knowledge and weakening the cohesion of the team left behind.

But security team burnout is much more than a human resources challenge. It’s a security risk. A resilient cyber program is not built simply on mature processes and controls, but demonstrably more on the well-being and long-term dedication of its people. Burnout affects detection and response as well as innovation, loyalty, and trust. It chips away at the foundations of readiness and reliability.

Cybersecurity is a high-stakes function. Several factors can increase the likelihood of burnout on security teams, including:

• Alert overload. As threats are always evolving, it is important to cast a wide net when performing intake. In the security field, analysts must account for well-known vulnerabilities while also looking for something new. Hundreds of alerts come in each day, most of them false positives, which can lead to mental fatigue and monotony.
• Always-on culture. The average elephant sleeps for two hours a day. Security professionals might not be so lucky. The nature of a security operations center demands 24/7 availability, which often inhibits deep rest and adequate recovery.
• Emotional toll of failure. When incidents occur, security teams often take the blame, whether fair or not.
• Lack of recognition. Many security functions operate in the background and are only noticed when something goes wrong. They’re akin to defensive midfielders in soccer who break up attacks, rarely make flashy plays or score, and don't draw too much attention. Yet, like defensive midfielders, security professionals are critical to an organization's overall success.
• Limited growth paths. A lack of recognition can lead to diminished opportunities. Without opportunities for development or promotion, job dissatisfaction increases.

Building an employee burnout-resistant security culture

While firefighters do not strive to free the world of fire, neither can security professionals rid the world of cyberthreats. So how can organizations address burnout? Security leaders typically go right to an obvious, but increasingly unlikely, solution of hiring more staff. But combating employee burnout requires intuition and a multitiered approach. By focusing on sustainable practices, thoughtful leadership, and practical interventions, organizations can proactively address the factors that cause employee burnout.

Following are six specific strategies organizations can implement.

Automate routine tasks
To combat alert fatigue, organizations can implement automation tools such as security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) or extended detection and response (XDR) platforms to handle low-value, repetitive tasks like alert triage and event correlation. These tools can reduce noise by up to 70% and free up analysts to focus on higher-impact work. Regular alert tuning and the development of automation playbooks can significantly lower cognitive stress and improve focus across security teams.

Design recovery-oriented schedules
Security teams need structured schedules that prioritize rest and recovery. Using rotating shifts and enforcing quiet periods helps prevent fatigue and sustain performance. Models such as four-on, three-off rotations or quarterly recharge weeks reduce mental exhaustion and mirror practices from high-stakes industries like aviation and healthcare, where recovery is essential to performance and safety.

Enable career growth
Professional development can help reduce employee burnout by keeping security talent engaged and helping them learn new skills. Investing in analysts by allocating 20% of work time for learning through certifications, sandbox projects, or mentorship can help them feel valued and critical to the organization’s mission. Development plans, internal workshops, and recognition of learning achievements can support retention and performance.

Create psychological safety
Creating a culture of psychological safety allows team members to speak openly about stress, admit mistakes, and give feedback without fear of blame. When combined with fair workload distribution and consistent leadership support, this environment fosters trust, reduces anxiety, and increases engagement. Routine wellness check-ins and anonymous feedback tools can reinforce this culture over time.

Recognize contributions 
Security teams thrive when their efforts are recognized, not just when incidents are successfully handled. Formal recognition programs and informal shout-outs can enhance morale and reinforce positive behaviors like collaboration, innovation, and risk prevention. Highlighting these contributions in executive updates or team meetings builds visibility and strengthens purpose on the team.

Support the whole person 
Providing access to mental health resources, flexible work options, and emotional resilience training can yield many benefits, especially when organizations and leadership normalize using such benefits across all levels of staff. Emphasizing daily exercise, meditation, and time outdoors also can contribute greatly to employee well-being.

A strategic imperative for leadership

Leadership support is a significant factor for whether a team thrives or struggles. Security leaders should strive to model healthy behaviors, set reasonable expectations, and openly discuss well-being with their teams. Best practices include sharing personal strategies for managing stress, conducting regular wellness check-ins, rewarding process improvements (not just successful emergency responses), and advocating for team needs to upper management.

The resilience of a cybersecurity program depends on the resilience of its people, which makes addressing burnout a critical business issue. As threats continue to evolve, so must the approach to supporting those who defend against them. By building a culture of trust, balance, and recognition, organizations can retain top security talent and strengthen their overall security posture.