Founder’s Note

Burnout is usually treated as a personal failure. A lack of balance. A boundary problem. A time-management issue.

This framing misses the point.

Burnout is increasingly a structural outcome; one that shows up earlier, lasts longer, and is quietly normalized for young workers entering unstable labor systems with few safety nets.

Too Young to be this Tired is not a personal essay. It’s an observation from inside the system. It examines how early work, especially in care-driven and public-facing roles, conditions people to accept exhaustion as a baseline rather than a warning.

This piece sets the tone for The Urban Brief: grounded, systems-focused, and concerned with how policy decisions show up in real lives.

—

Founder, The Urban Desk