In today's fast-moving consulting ecosystem, the balance between productivity and welfare for the employees is turning out to be one of the hot topics many companies are trying to reach. Burnout has long been considered a major problem, but now another, more covert and overwhelming trend has started to take place: brown-out. The internal resignation of employees in which they lose a sense of meaningfulness about their work is remolding discourses on engagement and performance. It is equally important that consultants think through the nuances of brown-out in complex projects with rising expectations, whether for personal fulfillment or the success of client organizations.
When motivation slips away…
What is brown-out? It is a relatively new concept in workplace dynamics. An employee who continues to perform all his duties and tasks but no longer finds meaning in them falls under this category. The other two cousins, burnout leading to an entire emotional and physical collapse of the individual, and the 'bore-out', which refers to a lack of challenge or stimulation in performing the tasks, can be easily located. There is nothing like that in the case of brown-out. They may look productive, but inside, they have checked out of the purpose and values that used to drive them1. For management consultants, who generally operate on the basis of their love of the challenge of transformation and change, brown-out is a particular threat: not just to their sense of fulfillment, but to the effectiveness of those organizations with whom they interact.
The silent drift: understanding the causes
As Christophe, a consultant with 30 years of experience in process engineering and change management, puts it: “In a project the biggest challenge isn't the technical issue, it is the human aspect that is the most complicated”. When a major change occurs, the loss of knowledge and skills can be fatal. This resistance to change can generate stress and a loss of motivation very quickly. It is the primary cause of brown-out and it has been a long-standing topic in consulting, dating back to the 90’s. With the ERP systems revolution, tasks were streamlined but, in some cases, they also led to a decline in employees’ skills. Many workers found themselves reduced to content feeders for the system without understanding what they were doing. This led to a wave of sick leave which can be one of the indicators of brown-out.
Another cause is the disconnect between an individual's role and their personal values or long-term career goals. When employees feel that their tasks no longer align with their personal aspirations or the broader mission of the company, their engagement begins to fade. This erosion of purpose can occur slowly masked by continued productivity. But internally, a disconnection from the meaningful aspects of work takes root.
Employees who perform routine tasks without the opportunity for growth or creativity may slowly disengage as their job satisfaction diminishes. In recent years many tasks have been automatised, thus the employee may feel less useful. While burnout is caused by overwork, brown-out often arises from a lack of intellectual challenge or a mismatch between an employee's skills and the tasks they are assigned.
Organizational culture and leadership also play a significant role in the onset of brown-out. Poor communication, lack of recognition, and a failure to involve employees in decision-making processes contribute to a sense of alienation.
What can we do about brown-out ?
Understanding the causes is the first step, but addressing them effectively requires concrete strategies. One of the key factors in countering brown-out according to our interviewee is employee engagement. Employees need to be as involved as possible in their missions, in the company’s internal life, and in the organizational changes it faces. An engaged employee is one who is valued, whose skills are recognized, and who therefore feels useful to the company. As a result, they are productive and invested in their work. This is even more important when we know that, on average, 70% of large-scale transformation projects fail2.
The second-best practice in the fight against brown-out is appropriate communication. Each employee has a different job and mission, then we need to communicate with them in a way that is adapted to their needs. During our interview, Christophe mentions that “communicating about quick wins will keep employees motivated and highlight their endeavors”. Again, employees will feel essential to the company and will find more meaning in the time they devote to it.
The last element in countering brown-out is training. Training and supporting employees means staying close to them. This makes it easier to anticipate a loss of motivation on employees' behalf. Moreover, training and support help employees progress, giving them a real sense of satisfaction as they develop their new skills. Training is not taken seriously enough by companies and employees alike. Unfortunately, in organizational change projects, it is regularly a stage that is not sufficiently respected. As a result, employees are left to deal with their various tasks on their own and quickly lose motivation and job satisfaction. Training and support should not only be provided when a change is implemented. They must be provided upstream and downstream, as well as throughout the employee's journey within the company.
Future-proofing strategies: balancing technology and humanity
As organizations keep changing in a world characterized by rapid technological advances and new workplace dynamics, addressing this problem demands forward-thinking strategies. It was pointed out during the interview that automation and the use of ERP systems could further increase disengagement. Yet from the broad view of how matters are, brown-out is not just a product of technological change but also organizational culture and approaches to leadership. This bleak view of automation can blind one from using the full potential of technology such as reclaiming the employee’s time from mundane and repeated tasks. In a future scenario, consultants might leverage AI-driven engagement tools that can analyze patterns in employee behavior. Similarly to digital twins, it could help proactively address issues before they even happen.
Moving forward, consultants must shift from short-term and survival-focused transformations to more proactive, human-centered approaches. The future belongs to the organizations that first can come to terms with these new dynamics and build cultures where both people and processes thrive. Brown-out is more than disengagement, it’s about how to build a resilient and adaptive workforce that finds purpose in the face of continuous change.
1 Marie Duneau, Personal Development: Why and How Should We Integrate It in the Workplace? College of Management, Mahidol University, 2020.
2 Jon Garcia, Common pitfalls in transformations: A conversation with Jon Garcia, McKinsey, March 29, 2022.
AVARVARI Vlad, BOUAT Antoine & POCHY Gaspard