When we hear the word burnout, most of us picture someone in a corporate job, stuck in traffic every morning, glued to a screen all day, drowning in emails, meetings and work desk from 9 to 5. Sounds familiar, right?
But here’s the thing. Burnout doesn’t care whether you’re in a fancy office or out in the field. In fact, people who don’t work in traditional office settings often face a different kind of pressure such as physical strain, unpredictable hours, emotional labour, or unstable income, and that can burn you out just as fast, if not faster.
So let’s talk about other fields of work burnout, the kind that hits NGO field workers, delivery riders, retail staff, event crews, and freelancers. Because their stories relatable too.
1. NGO Field Officer
Lina has been working with a local humanitarian NGO for the past three years. Her role mainly involves community outreach in rural and underserved areas, Orang Asli villages, flood-affected zones, and low-income flats around Klang Valley. Most weeks, she’s out in the field, taking the bus, carpooling with colleagues, and sometimes even going off-road just to reach remote sites.
She genuinely loves what she does, connecting with people, supporting communities, and being part of something meaningful. But over time, the pace has become harder to manage. There’s always another programme to organise, a stakeholder to brief, or a donor report waiting to be submitted. Even after hours, her phone doesn’t stop buzzing with team WhatsApp chats, updates from HQ or last minute changes to logistics.
Weekends are no longer true days off. Lina knows that working on weekends just comes with the territory, whether it’s fieldwork, coordinating volunteers, or catching up on paperwork. She keeps telling herself that this is just part of NGO life, and most of the time, she doesn’t mind.
But lately, it’s been harder to bounce back after each project. The weariness stays, the fatigue has not subsided. Then one morning, as she zip up her bag for another relief trip, Lina finds herself tearing up unexpectedly. Nothing major had gone wrong. She just suddenly felt completely drained.
It wasn’t a meltdown. Just a quiet moment of realisation. She’s been giving her all for almost three years without much pause. That slow, creeping kind of burnout that comes not from a single crisis, but from carrying too much, for too long.
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2. Delivery Rider
Syafiq has been a food delivery rider for over two years now, cruising through the streets of KL and PJ on his motorcycle from morning till late night. On a typical day, he works 10 to 12 hours, sometimes even more if there’s a peak hour bonus. His income depends on how many orders he completes, so breaks feel like wasted time. Rain or shine, he’s out there hustling.
At first, it felt okay. Flexible time, decent pay. But slowly, it started wearing him down. His back constantly aches from sitting too long. He eats fast food more than proper meals in between jobs. And mentally, it’s draining too. Always checking the app, chasing incentives, worrying about ratings.
Then there’s the customer drama. Some are nice, sure. But others? Rude messages, grunting over late orders even when it’s the restaurant’s fault, or making him wait 10 minutes at the gate without sorry. Once, a COD customer refused to pay him even though he just delivered exactly what was packed.
One evening, after almost dozing off at a traffic light, Syafiq realised he hadn’t taken a full day off in over a month. He was tired, yes but more than that, he felt emotionally flat. Like his brain was in low battery mode. That’s when it hit him, he wasn’t just exhausted. He was burnt out.
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3. Retail Worker – Amira
Amira works at a well known clothing store in a busy shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur. She’s been there for over a year now, clocking in 6 days a week, sometimes double shifts during sales season. Her routine is always the same. Punch in, tidy the shelves, fold clothes, restock items, smile at customers, repeat. The same music playlist loops all day, and by noon, her feet already feel sore from standing for hours.
Some customers are friendly, but others can be... challenging. Some leave clothes in a messy pile at the fitting room. Sometimes they complain about things Amira cannot control, like asking why their size isn’t available, as if she’s hiding stock in the back. Once, a customer got frustrated with the long queue at the counter. Amira understood. It was a busy weekend. But it still stung to be on the receiving end of someone’s impatience.
During peak seasons like Raya or year-end sales, everything ramps up. There’s barely time to sit, let alone eat properly, and the pressure from management increases too. A reminder that hitting targets matters just as much as keeping customers happy.
At first, Amira just powered through. But after months of the same routine, day in and day out, she starts feeling numb. Even friendly customers start to annoy her, and she finds herself sneaking into the storeroom more often, not to work, just to breathe. That’s when she realises, this isn’t laziness or bad mood. It’s burnout, emotional exhaustion from constantly pretending to be okay when she’s not.
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4. Event Crew – Jason
Jason works freelance in the local event scene. He sets up stages, sound systems, lights, LED screens, you name it. He’s been doing it for almost 4 years. On the surface, it’s a cool job. He’s been part of big concerts, corporate launches, fashion shows, and music festivals. He has met celebs backstage and even managed to snap some selfies with some of them. Sometimes, he even gets free merchandise.
But behind the glam, the job is chaotic.
In peak seasons like year-end, his calendar is packed solid. One week he’s doing a product launch in Pavilion, the next day a wedding in Putrajaya, then straight into rehearsal day for a weekend concert in Shah Alam. Most shifts run into the early morning. Meals are often rushed, sleep patterns are inconsistent, and last-minute job requests are a regular part of the routine.
Being on standby for urgent setups late at night has become the norm. There’s no real off-day. Even when there's a break, he's thinking about the next gig, chasing payment from the last client, or fixing damaged equipment.
At some point, Jason feels like a walking zombie. By the time he wrapped up a massive 3-day festival in Langkawi, he wasn’t just physically tired. He was emotionally flat. His back ached, and his mind was foggy. Music, the very thing that made him fall in love with events in the first place, now gives him a headache.
At first, he thought he just need one good sleep. But even after 12 hours of rest, the exhaustion didn’t go away. That’s when it hit him, this wasn’t just being tired. It was burnout. The kind that creeps in quietly, after months of saying “yes” to every job, back-to-back deadlines, and no time to recharge.
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5. Freelancer – Aida
Aida’s been a freelance graphic designer for about two years now, based from home in Johor Bahru. On paper, she’s living the dream, choosing her own clients, setting her own hours, never battling morning traffic. The reality? It can feel like she’s trapped in a one-woman hamster wheel, with no one else to share the load.
She’s juggling three client projects at once, a startup’s logo redesign, social media templates for a café, and packaging artwork for an online skincare brand. Deadlines sometimes overlap, feedback can come in late, and time off often feels like a luxury. She hasn’t taken a full day to rest in a while, always keeping an eye on what’s next.
What nobody warns you about freelancing is how lonely it can be. No pantry banter, no team lunches, no “Are you alright?” from a co-worker when you look tired. Some days she works straight through from breakfast until late evening, only pausing for a quick bite and to refill her kopi tarik or scroll through Instagram to feel like she’s part of something. Sometimes, that just makes her miss real conversations even more.
Briefs that used to spark excitement now feel like chores. Opening her laptop first thing in the morning turns her stomach into knots. She reminds herself she’s her own boss but that boss never gives her a break. That’s burnout, not just the mental fatigue of constant deadlines, but the emotional toll of doing it all by yourself.
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