Lynette Oss Connell: Burnout Is Not a Personal Failure. It’s a Nervous System Signal | The Disruptors

Waiting until people quit is no way to manage burnout.Full show notes hereThe DisruptorsWith Liz FarrFor CPA TrendlinesYoung accountants still want to become leaders. They just don’t want to work the way many of today’s leaders do.A 2026 KPMG intern survey cited by burnout coach Lynette Oss Connell finds 92% of interns aspire to reach the C-suite or another senior executive role. Yet the workplace behavior they most want eliminated is an “always-available” culture.MORE Disruptors with Liz Farr | CPA Trendlines Streaming NetworkFor accounting firms worried about keeping their next generation of managers and partners, Oss Connell says younger professionals hear firms encouraging boundaries and work-life balance while watching managers and partners remain constantly connected, work long hours and push through stress.Burnout, she argues, is not simply an individual problem to be fixed with more resilience or better self-care. Chronic stress is also built into how work gets done — and changing the outcome may require firms to examine the behavior they reward and the example their leaders set.“We thrive on feeling like we have a sense of control, or certainty,” says Oss Connell. But when medical crises with her children collided with impossible business demands, she hit that wall of burnout. “The illusion of certainty had really been washed away from me, and it felt like an existential crisis of what value am I providing?” she explains.MORE > > >