Being the office overachiever is backfiring—workers are burning out so hard they’re calling it a ‘competence hangover’

If you’re always the first to volunteer and the last to leave, you might be heading for a “competence hangover.” That’s at least according to Peter Duris, CEO and co-founder of career platform Kickresume, who is sounding the alarm on the burnout that hits when you’re so good at your job that everyone relies on you for everything.

“Wanting to make sure everything gets done to a high standard is great, but it can also take a toll over time, leading to unnecessary stress,” Duris warns. “If you frequently go above and beyond at work, it could result in a competence hangover—the type of burnout you can get when you feel inherently responsible for keeping things afloat.”

In other words, the better you are at your job, the harder it becomes to stop doing it.

Duris would know: his platform has helped more than 8 million people get hired at companies including Google, Apple, and Microsoft, giving him a front-row seat to the habits and hang-ups of high performers worldwide. And the data he’s seeing paints a troubling picture.  

Kickresume’s own research found that 48% of Americans are experiencing imposter syndrome and overworking as a result. A third feels guilty taking time off. Nearly one in five feel pressured to keep working even when sick. 

The pressure isn’t just coming from inside your own head, either. In a tougher job market where promotions are stalling and AI is quietly threatening whole categories of white-collar work, many high performers feel they have no choice but to over-deliver just to stay safe.

“If this sounds like you, it’s worth stepping back and reducing your mental load,” Duris adds.

Why going above and beyond is backfiring

The trap is deceptively easy to fall into. You volunteer to cover a colleague’s project, stay late to fix a problem nobody else could solve, or say yes to one more task because you know you’re the only one who’ll do it properly. You take on a little extra, then a little more, and before long you’ve quietly taken on far more than your fair share.

Kickresume calls this “over-functioning”—and says it’s initially driven by a fear that your work isn’t good enough. 

But eventually, that fear hardens into a habit. High performers who consistently go above and beyond start to feel as though all the responsibility rests on their shoulders alone. At that point, stepping back doesn’t just feel uncomfortable; it starts to feel genuinely impossible.

“Being the person everyone relies on can be very draining and lead to burnout,” Duris cautions. “Remember that it’s okay to say no when your workload gets too heavy.”

The irony is that what looks like dedication on the surface can quietly erode performance—and the fallout is hitting both employees and employers hard. Separate research has shown that half of workers are at breaking point right now. And widespread burnout and disengagement are draining an estimated $438 billion in lost productivity each year. 

How to break the cycle and avoid burnout

The first step, Duris says, is tackling the perfectionism that likely got you here in the first place. 

“It’s important to understand that you don’t have to be perfect at work or in life,” he says. “And that going above and beyond is a bonus, not a requirement 100% of the time.” 

Giving yourself permission to do enough, rather than everything, is harder than it sounds for chronic overachievers. But if you can’t do that, nothing else will stick.

Next comes the harder habit to break: saying yes by default. “Helping others out is great, but it can also increase your workload if you take on too much,” Duris says. “Instead of taking on tasks without question, you could try saying that you may be able to help out after finishing a priority task. This then won’t commit you to taking on more work.” It’s a small linguistic shift—but it buys you the breathing room to actually assess what you can handle before you’ve already agreed to it.

And if exhaustion, creeping resentment, and a sense that you simply cannot switch off has already set in, Duris is blunt about what needs to happen next. “If you’re feeling the symptoms of burnout and a competence hangover, it could be time for a step back,” he warns. 

“You can try reducing any overtime you may be doing to help improve your work-life balance and focus on your main priorities instead.” Cutting back on extra hours isn’t a sign of slacking—it’s the only realistic path back to a workload that’s actually sustainable.

Being the best person in the office and being the most burned out one don’t have to go hand in hand. Sometimes the smartest move is simply knowing when to stop.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com