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Agency burnout
Posted by on May 25, 2026 at 10:45 amHow have people coped with agency burnout in this industry? I’ve only been doing this full-time for a few years and I can feel myself approaching burnout. I feel like it’s just a never ending uphill battle doing work that gets next to no acknowledgement on a good day and “this is the end of the world” feedback on a bad day.
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1 Reply
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Sounds like a client relationship issue. Can you thin out the clients that give you no acknowledgement in place of those who do? Or if it’s an internal problem then you need to raise it, as it doesn’t have to be this way.
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What I did, quitted the job
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Got a job in-house. There’s still a shit tonne of pressure because you’re the ‘One true voice’ of the marketing dept. and not just some agency they can give their 30 days notice to.
Perks of being in charge, should you be at a good employer, will be they’ll relay how shit-hot you are to board members because then you become an asset at the company. “WE’VE GOT A MARKETING GENIUS! LOOK AT THIS DUDE! INVEST MORE MONEY!”
But again, pressure, if something fails – you’re on the hook.It’s easier to get your ideas in order in-house rather than put out several fires at a time at an agency.
I also sleep a lot better at night. -
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Left the job
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For me, it’s loving the people you work with and being selective on what clients you take on. I make it a habit of trying to avoid taking on new clients that I think are going to make my staff’s lives miserable. There are some people that will never be happy no matter what you do.
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I 1000% get this.
No one is ever going to acknowledge when things are going great, they’re scared of the asymmetric value (in case they have to pay you more) and pat themselves on the back for ‘choosing the right guy’, they won’t refer you to anyone decent, because they want to keep you focused on their account and when they do it will just desperate clients that have made years of bad choices for what they think are easy wins.
And don’t forget the constant queue of people who want you to copy paste results from an account you’ve worked on to their own, and expect to shortcut the years of work you did learning that account into theirs for a cheaper price in a shorter timeframe.
The benefits of sticking with it though is pattern recognition in all aspects of the craft, communication, cadence, strategy you no longer even have to think about and lot of willpower.
I feel the first 5 years in the game I was on the brink of burnout the entire time and stressed out of my mind. Then one day it all clicked and I started absolutely loving my job, once I started loving it, I made a lot of money.
17 years now.
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I took an extended break 6 years long and then have started again it’s like starting from zero once more but this time working for myself so hopefully things are better
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