Portland, Ore., is home to great beer, delicious coffee and bike-friendly roadways, but it’s also home to some of the most burnt out workers in tech.
The eco-friendly city, whose burgeoning roster of tech companies has earned it the nickname of the Silicon Forest, ranked No. 1 for employee burnout according to data compiled by Comparably as of May 30. The data came from responses by more than 5,000 U.S. workers in the tech industry and included 15 major U.S. cities.
The full city ranking
Sixty-one percent of respondents in Portland described themselves as burnt out. That’s higher than the average of about 50% nationwide.
Portland was followed next by Phoenix (56%), Denver (54%) and New York (52%). San Francisco, often considered the pressure cooker of America’s tech scene, ranked No. 9 out of the 15 cities on the list: 48% of the respondents there claim they feel burnt out by their work.
The cities where workers reported the least burnout were Salt Lake City, Chicago, and Austin (all at 46%).
Burnout gets worse as careers progress
Work burnout can take many forms, but is generally described as a state of chronic mental and emotional stress that makes it harder to make decisions and get motivated. The rate of it generally increases as people move further into their careers: 42% of entry-level workers experienced work burnout compared to 51% of workers a decade or more into their career, according to Comparably.
Design workers report highest burnout
People who work in design, marketing, and customer support reported the highest rates of burnout, according to the data. Those in HR and executive roles reported the lowest.
Worst burnout rates: women in marketing, men in design
From a gender perspective, women in marketing and men in design reported the highest rates of burnout. Sixty-one percent of women in marketing said they were burnt out (vs. 53% of women overall) and 55% of men in design said they were burnt out (vs. 47% of men overall).
Burnout is less of an issue in older age
From an age perspective, work burnout remained mostly steady near 50% until age 51, when it begins to drop off. For workers age 61 to 65, it was around 44% and for workers age 66+, it was around 31%.
For more insights, check out the full query here
