Teleworking and burnout (2020–2025): A critical narrative review and research agenda

Abstract

Purpose: This article critically examines the relationship between teleworking and burnout during the period 2020–2025, emphasizing the intensity of telework as a key variable. It argues that remote work can operate either as a source of resilience or as a driver of emotional strain, depending on how its emotional, subjective, and relational dimensions are managed.

Design/methodology/approach: A critical review of recent literature was conducted, drawing on high impact indexed academic databases, through a reflective approach that combines theoretical and comparative analysis.

Findings: The article proposes a relational explanatory framework that expands on traditional burnout models and explicitly integrates six key concepts for understanding the risks and potentialities of intensive telework: digital recognition, asynchronous reciprocity, meaningful connectivity, forced hyperconnectivity, digital relational erosion, and subjective self-exploitation. These constructs allow for a more accurate interpretation of how the intensity of teleworking modifies psychosocial well-being, showing that such intensity is a decisive factor in explaining trajectories of resilience or emotional exhaustion in virtual environments.

Limitations:The lack of direct empirical data is acknowledged, and future research is encouraged to develop more robust explanatory models, specific measurement scales, studies on empathetic remote leadership, intersectional approaches, and longitudinal analyses in hybrid environments.

Practical implications: The findings underline the importance of regulating the intensity of remote work, fostering empathetic leadership, and redesigning spaces for recognition and emotional support in digital environments.

Social implications: The study stresses the urgency of implementing public policies that ensure the right to disconnect and address the psychosocial risks associated with intensive telework, from an inclusive and context-sensitive perspective.

Originality/value: The main contribution of the article lies in offering an innovative perspective that articulates classical theories with emerging phenomena, proposing original explanatory categories for understanding burnout in the digital age and outlining a research agenda focused on its study in hybrid and remote environments.