“My brain was stuck. I didn't know how to spell anymore.” The fight against burnout in Romania, the country that rejected the recognition of the phenomenon by law

After years spent in corporations with a toxic work culture, where bosses humiliated their subordinates, a young woman tells, in a text published by Snoop.ro, how she ended up in burnout and severe depression, with panic attacks. The Senate recently rejected the bill on recognizing burnout and protecting employees.

At first it was just fatigue. Inattentiveness, restless nights, the feeling that e-mails no longer have heads and tails. Then nothing. “I remember the exact moment: I woke up one morning, but actually I hadn't even slept. I sat down at the laptop to answer an email, but my brain was blocked. I didn't know how to write anymore. By the time I got to the end of the sentence, I'd forgotten what I had written at the beginning.”

Adela was 31 years old and had a solid career in marketing. In corporate terms, he was leading a “successful” life. But beyond the KPIs and PowerPoint presentations, her body and mind were rapidly eroding.

“Burnout” is a word we hear more and more often in recent years, but it remains, like depression, difficult to understand for people who have not been through it. It's not just fatigue. When it gets worse, burnout can be an invisible collapse that turns your entire existence upside down. Everything you've learned about yourself is shaking.

Her mental health began to suffer as a result of the bullying and threats of a corporate manager who manipulated and humiliated his employees.

Adela began to somatize. He was physically sick, nauseous, had several physiological manifestations that today he recognizes as signs of anxiety, but at the time he did not understand where they came from. Then came the panic attacks.

She could only leave the house accompanied. “There was a very strong fear of an aggressive authority, from which at that moment I didn't know where to run, how to run.”

What is burnout?

Burnout is, according to the World Health Organization, a syndrome resulting from chronic stress at work that has not been successfully managed. It is not considered a medical condition, but an occupational phenomenon.

Even though it is not a disease in itself, burnout syndrome causes a lot of medical conditions including depression and cardiovascular diseases, gastrointestinal disorders, but also depersonalization syndrome and the risk of suicide.

Estimates say that in developed countries, the annual costs of workplace stress and burnout exceed $300 billion. Only a third of Romanians are happy at work, according to a study published this spring by Reveal Marketing Research. The others do not feel professionally fulfilled due to factors such as the level of remuneration, stress or the nature of the activity carried out.

In addition, 66% of Romanians declare that they have noticed colleagues affected by the burnout syndrome at work.

Burnout, unregulated in Romania

On Monday, March 24, 2026, a new law initiated by the Minister of Economy, Irineu Darău (USR), regarding the prevention of professional exhaustion (burnout) was rejected by the Senate. The bill proposed recognition of burnout in legislation and concrete measures for employees, including days off and workplace protection.

Only USR and senator Victoria Stoiciu (PSD) voted for, those from AUR, PACE and non-affiliates voted against. PNL, PSD and UDMR and five PACE and AUR senators abstained.

“I am convinced that there is a need, without delay, for definition and prevention. Any employee who ends up in burnout does not only mean a personal drama, but also a long-term incapacitated person both for the company and for the economy and society”, claimed the Minister of Economy, according to Agerpres.

The project moves on to the Chamber of Deputies, which will give the final vote.

The invisible collapse

For Adela, burnout meant years of psychotherapy, changed jobs, medication, medical leave. At the end of 2020, against the background of overload and an aggressive work environment, he went into a major depressive episode.

“After two weeks, I had lost 10 kg. I was living on a banana and a cup of water a day. It was no longer about career. It was about survival. It was an effort of will to get out of bed”

When he realized that the main factor in his suffering was work, shame was joined by guilt. The fault that he had not had a healthier lifestyle. That he wasn't taking enough breaks. That he always ordered food to save time. That he wasn't moving enough. That he didn't take enough care of her.

“The tendency is to think that a person suffered burnout or depression because he was a weak person, but studies show that the causes are always organizational” – Dragoș Iliescu, psychologist.

For Adela, one of the solutions that worked came from a state center: the Neurosis Sanatorium in Predeal, a recovery center that emphasizes patient involvement in activities, time spent in nature, individual and group therapy. In the weeks he spent here, he gained the clarity he needed to realize that he could no longer continue at the pace he had barely survived until then. He needed to leave the corporation.

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