Burnout isn't just a great Green Day song, it's increasingly a real problem in the professional world. While American workers' productivity climbs, so does the prevalence of burnout. More than just being tired, burnout is a condition of feeling emptied, exhausted beyond function. It of course affects our professional lives, but also bleeds into our personal lives. Energy and motivation vanish, and everything feels worse than it should. The easiest way to handle burnout is to prevent it from happening in the first place.