Occupational therapist Lu Han explains why rest won’t fix burnout and what plan sponsors should do about it
Each month at BPM, we offer a slate of articles and content pieces that go deep on a particular topic. This month, we're diving into mental health.
Burnout is not a stress problem. It’s a function problem, and plan sponsors who treat it as a mood issue risk spending money on interventions that miss the mark.
That’s the argument from Lu Han, a registered occupational therapist at the Government of Canada and chair of the board of directors for the Ontario Society of Occupational Therapy, who says the distinction between stress and burnout has direct consequences for how employers design benefits and wellness programs.
While the World Health Organization classified burnout as “an occupational phenomenon” in 2019, Han believes most people still confuse it with ordinary stress.
"Burnout is not a feeling. Feeling stressed, that is a feeling. Typically, when you’re feeling stressed or feeling tired, you can take a nap. You can go on a vacation. You can do something that often rejuvenates you, and you come back feeling better,” explained Han, noting that burnout operates differently because it’s clinical, rooted in function, and resistant to rest.
"Burnout is when you are no longer able to engage in the things that you are typically able to do, despite having the opportunity to take a rest or a break," she said, adding if burnout is treated as a mood issue, something a wellness app or a long weekend can solve, employers will keep spending money on interventions that miss the deeper productivity drain costing Canadian workplaces billions.
Yet, Han doesn’t see burnout as either a purely personal failing nor a solely organizational one. She believes it sits on a continuum. According to Han, the first thing people tend to sacrifice under pressure is the activity they enjoy most. When deadlines stack up and competing demands close in, leisure, social plans, and hobbies are the first to go, even though those are the very things that restore a person’s capacity to function.
When employees withdraw, burnout follows
To reinforce her point, she pointed to a 2026 Angus Reid survey commissioned by the Ontario Society of Occupational Therapists, which found that 71 per cent of respondents reported difficulty keeping up with household tasks because of burnout, six out of 10 withdrew from social activities and relationships and four out of 10 stopped participating in hobbies, sports or activities they once enjoyed.
Burnout’s quiet warning sign
That pattern creates a self-reinforcing cycle, she said. The more someone pulls back from what replenishes them, the more they become consumed by obligations that offer little in return. Han flagged one workplace behaviour in particular — presenteeism — as a key warning sign for managers.
“Presenteeism is often very related to burnout. That's where people are showing up, but they're not engaging. They're present, but they're not performing. And that is a big conversation for employers and why it's important for corporations and employers to recognize how burnout affects what they do and what they're trying to achieve,” said Han. “There is a relationship on how the individual’s burnout affects how we perform at work, and it affects how financially that employers are feeling this on their end.”
How plan sponsors can approach burnout
According to Han, recovery from burnout should start with a conversation about a person’s entire day, from how they get breakfast on the table to what their evenings look like. She sees the relationship between life outside work and life inside as bidirectional: healthier people are less likely to get injured on the job, more engaged, and more productive.
She described a framework built around prioritization. Non-negotiable obligations go in first, then come the tasks that need to get done but can be modified to be more manageable. Lastly are the items that can be delegated or dropped altogether. While the day still looks full at the end of that process, Han believes it’s structured in a way that matches a person’s actual capacity.
"When employers are very micro focused on just the burnout piece at work, they’re missing a huge picture that is outside that makes the person a person," she said. "Our identity as individuals is not just work,” Han said, while also noting her one rule she insists on with every client.
“Pick one thing that you love, and I don't care how busy you are. Keep that one thing that makes you happy, that gives you social, and that gives you leisure, because that is going to be the thing that is going to rejuvenate you amid everything else,” Han added.
Why leading with empathy, not metrics, matters
On the leadership side, Han said the conversation around burnout depends on rapport that’s already been built. She acknowledged that frequent check-ins that go beyond KPIs, simply by asking how someone is doing personally and not just professionally help to establish a baseline.
That way, when something shifts, a manager who has that foundation can raise it without it feeling intrusive, she noted.
Additionally, leading with empathy rather than performance metrics makes employees far more likely to open up.
“If we could identify the functional challenges … and we’re able to introduce appropriate recommendations earlier on … then we can help people remain engaged in their work, not just getting them back to work,” she said, adding the goal is to keep employees at work without disruption rather than scrambling to return them after one.
“We want to be there at the beginning, during, and the after, and to support along the way. When we’re able to support people's ability to work, we often are supporting much more than their employment. We're also supporting their quality of life,” Han said.
Prevention over rehabilitation
She also pointed to Employee Assistance Plans (EAPs) and extended healthcare coverage as underused tools, noting that occupational therapists in Ontario are authorized to practice psychotherapy through the College of Occupational Therapists of Ontario, a fact many employees and employers may not be aware of.
To that end, while Han acknowledged that organizations are doing their best, she emphasized that too many organizations focus on the rehabilitation stage, intervening only after someone has already broken down. She wants occupational therapists brought in earlier.
"I would encourage HR leaders and also just leaders in general to think about the implementation and the use of occupational therapy earlier in the employee health journey," she said.
She offered a concrete example from her early career, when she consulted for a major grocery chain in Halifax. Rather than waiting for injury claims, the employer brought her in to design a new office space. She assessed the layout for collaboration, individual needs and ergonomic suitability – including the installation of sit-to-stand desks at a time when that was rare.
"At the time, it probably was a very big cost, but in the long term of people staying at work, people being happy at work, people not using their extended health coverages as much, the reduction of long-term disability is actually a long-term sustainability financial decision for that employer," she said.
