Therapist burnout and productivity pressure: what the surveys show
Three surveys in three countries found burnout in about half of respondents or more, and their headline figures don't name a cause.
Therapist burnout surveys from three countries found burnout in about half or more of respondents. Their headline figures don't show what caused it, so they can't show whether productivity pressure plays a part in therapist burnout.
Among UK speech and language therapists surveyed in 2024, 55% reported burnout within the previous 12 months. A US survey of 2,813 physical therapists, carried out between December 2020 and January 2021, put the figure at 49.3%. In Ireland, figures published in October 2022 put job-related burnout among occupational therapists at over two thirds.
The three surveys, side by side
| Profession | Country | When | Burnout | Thinking of leaving |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Speech and language therapists | UK | Survey run in 2024, published July 2025 | 55%, in the previous 12 months | 39%, their current role |
| Physical therapists | US | Survey run December 2020 to January 2021, published 2023 | 49.3% | No figure used here |
| Occupational therapists | Ireland | Figures published October 2022 | Over two thirds, from their job, in the previous 12 months | Almost half, the profession, in the previous year |
Each row is one profession in one country. None of the three covers all therapists.
Why the figures don't merge into one number
A line such as "half of therapists are burned out" takes three separate results and treats them as one. Each survey asked a different group of people, in a different country, at a different time.
The professions differ. The UK figure covers speech and language therapists, the UK name for the profession called speech-language pathology in the US. The US figure covers physical therapists only. The Irish figure covers occupational therapists only.
The dates differ. The US survey ended more than three and a half years before the UK one began. A figure from the winter of 2020 to 2021 describes that workforce at that time.
The leaving questions differ. In the UK survey, 39% were considering leaving their current role. That can mean moving to another job in the same profession. In the Irish figures, almost half had thought about leaving the profession altogether. The two numbers measure different decisions, so they can't be compared directly.
The site's view is that a burnout figure should always carry its profession, country and year, so a reader can check it. A manager then can't dismiss it as a figure about some other workforce.
What the surveys say about therapist burnout and productivity
The headline figures report how many respondents had burnout. They don't report why. They can't separate productivity targets from caseload, staffing, pay or anything else in the job.
The figures don't show that productivity targets cause burnout. They also don't show that targets play no part.
The US professional associations have addressed productivity pressure from a different angle. The joint Consensus Statement on Clinical Judgment comes from AOTA for occupational therapy, ASHA for speech-language pathology and APTA for physical therapy. It names "employer pressure to meet quotas" as one way clinical judgment can be overridden or ignored.
That line is about treatment decisions, along with the rules that govern them, such as payer rules and state licensure laws. The statement is a US document. Neither the surveys nor the statement measures the link between quota pressure and burnout.
The part of productivity pressure you can measure
One part of productivity pressure leaves a record you can count. It is the documentation that doesn't fit into the paid day and moves into unpaid time.
The documentation time calculator takes four figures. The first two are your documentation minutes per day and how many of them are done off the clock. The other two are the days you work each week and your paid minutes per day. An hourly rate is optional.
Here is an example. A therapist is paid for 450 minutes on each of four working days a week. Notes take 50 minutes a day, and 30 of those minutes are written after clocking out. The hourly rate is 35, in any currency. The calculator assumes 46 working weeks a year.
- Per week: 50 × 4 = 200 minutes, or 3.3 hours.
- Per year: 200 × 46 = 9,200 minutes, or 153 hours. That is 19.2 eight-hour working days.
- Unpaid per year: 30 × 4 × 46 = 5,520 minutes, or 92.0 hours. That is 11.5 eight-hour working days.
- Value of the unpaid time: 92 × 35 = 3,220.
- On the clock: 50 − 30 = 20 minutes a day, which is 20 ÷ 450 × 100 = 4.4 productivity points.
The example shows a trade that the productivity report doesn't show. If those 30 unpaid minutes moved back onto the clock, they would cost 30 ÷ 450 × 100 = 6.7 more points a day. Writing them at home keeps the percentage higher, and in this example it costs 92 unpaid hours a year.
If you work more than 46 weeks a year, the yearly figures go up. If you work five days instead of four, multiply the weekly and yearly figures by five and divide by four.
Getting your own figure
Your own figure is the one a manager can act on.
Two weeks of rough notes are enough to start. Record documentation minutes on the clock and off it, rounded to five. A routine of about two minutes a day is laid out in tracking your own minutes.
Once you have the figure, the guide to what therapy documentation costs covers how to present it. For the meeting itself, see how to handle a supervision meeting below target.
In a first job, the new grad therapy productivity guide covers documenting at home and what to ask about it before you sign. A record started in week one gives you a trend by your first review.