Employee burnout can cost companies up to $21,000 per employee in the United States, resulting in millions of dollars worth of losses each year for American businesses. According to a study recently published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, a company employing 1,000 people risks losing about $5 million each year as a result of employee burnout.

The study is based on a computational model that simulates an employee’s response to workplace stressors that can influence active participation, disengagement and burnout at work. The model considers factors such as the employee’s position, including hourly non-manager, salaried non-manager, manager or executive. It also allows researchers to assign a stage of burnout to the employee at the start of the simulation. For example, the simulated employee can be engaged, burned out, overextended, disengaged, ineffective or ready to leave their job.