CFO burnout is no longer a private struggle or a personal weakness. In her session The Resilient CFO: Cultivating Wellbeing in High-Stakes Environments, Antinea Reyes (CFO LATAM, Marathon Petroleum Corporation) frames burnout as the result of chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed. That framing matters because the CFO seat carries a unique mix of pressure and isolation. CFOs often hold responsibilities and information they can’t fully share, which makes it easier for stress to build quietly.
Reyes also makes a leadership-level point: burnout affects decision quality, relationships, and your ability to lead in dynamic markets, amid technology change and talent turnover. She challenges a common belief many executives hold: treating constant stress as “part of the job” makes it part of the problem. This article translates Reyes’s insights into a skimmable, executive-ready guide to spotting burnout symptoms early, protecting your capacity to make sound decisions, and building a finance culture where performance is sustainable.
Why CFO burnout happens
The CFO role is both guardian and strategic partner
Reyes describes modern CFO expectations as expansive. CFOs are expected to be guardians of financial integrity and risk control while also acting as strategic partners who help the organization see what’s next and create opportunities. That combination can keep leaders in a constant state of vigilance while also demanding forward motion.
Information overload drives decision fatigue
Reyes highlights a reality many finance leaders recognize: CFOs are surrounded by technology and information, often more than any one person can reasonably process. When inputs keep piling up, the risk of poor decision-making increases, not because the leader is careless, but because the system is overloaded. Over time, this becomes decision fatigue: the mental strain of making high-stakes calls while continuously absorbing new data.
Team turnover and boundary gaps turn stress into a constant
Reyes points to high team rotation as a practical stress multiplier. When people leave, the remaining team absorbs more work, more context switching, and more pressure. She also notes that senior leaders can find it difficult to say “I need help,” to set boundaries, and to have tough conversations about what should not be theirs to do. If those patterns continue, stress stops being a peak and starts becoming the baseline.
The “solitary CFO” problem is real
Reyes describes CFOs as solitary in many organizations. Not everything a CFO holds is confidential, but it isn’t always something that can be broadly discussed. When responsibility is high and outlets are limited, isolation becomes part of the burnout equation. In her view, not sharing becomes part of the issue because stress has fewer release valves.
Burnout symptoms CFOs shouldn’t normalize
A clear definition CFOs can use
Reyes defines mental exhaustion (burnout) as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed. She contrasts this with temporary stress. Stress can spike during a hard season and then ease. Burnout is different because it does not turn off.
Physical and cognitive signals: sleep, focus, and decision-making
Reyes lists practical symptoms leaders should take seriously: fatigue, headaches, difficulty sleeping, and difficulty concentrating. When burnout builds, you may notice that your decision-making process suffers. You can’t focus the way you normally do. Even if you sleep, it may not feel restorative the next day.
She also describes a pattern many executives recognize: feeling relatively fine over the weekend, then feeling dread on Sunday as the workweek begins.
Emotional detachment and cynicism
Burnout can change how you relate to others. Reyes describes depersonalization as a process of becoming cynical, emotionally detached, and increasingly irritated. When a leader starts feeling like “everybody annoys me” or “I hate everything,” it can be a signal that something deeper is happening. For CFOs, this matters because finance leadership depends on trust, composure, and strong working relationships.
Self-doubt and impostor syndrome
Reyes explains that burnout can trigger persistent questioning: Am I doing this the right way? Should I be here? Am I actually adding value? When that disconnection persists, impostor syndrome can show up as the feeling that you are a fraud—even when your track record says otherwise. Her guidance is to watch for patterns over time. A hard moment is one thing. A constant state is another.
A warning sign: believing stress is “part of the job.”
One of Reyes’s most important reframes is blunt.
"If you think stress is part of the job, then that’s part of the issue already."
– Antinea Reyes, CFO, LATAM
She is careful to distinguish long hours from burnout. You can work many hours and be fine if you enjoy what you are doing. The risk rises when you no longer enjoy it, stress becomes chronic, and you can’t recover.
CFO burnout prevention strategies that protect decision quality
Start with assessment, then acceptance
Reyes references Christina Maslach’s work on burnout and notes that self-assessments can help leaders understand where they are. Her next step is acceptance—like the first step in AA. You acknowledge there is an issue and accept that you may not be able to handle it by yourself. Action begins with naming reality clearly.
Detach identity from title
Reyes emphasizes that your job is not who you are. Many leaders fuse their identity with their role, making it harder to step back, set boundaries, or ask for support. Detaching your identity from your title creates space to prioritize yourself without feeling like you are failing.
Use micro-resets: breathing, breaks, boundaries
Reyes advocates for simple practices that change your state quickly. She calls out breathing as a real tool: it helps immediately, and she encourages leaders to actually do it rather than dismiss it. She also emphasizes breaks and boundary-setting. The goal is not to escape responsibility; it is to prevent chronic stress from accumulating silently.
Make sleep restorative, not just long
Reyes stresses that sleep is not only about hours. Routines matter. A consistent schedule matters. Your environment matters: dark room, supportive temperature, fewer disruptions. She gives a concrete example: cutting water earlier in the evening can reduce waking up to use the restroom. Small habit changes can improve rest in a measurable way.
Movement and nutrition as leadership inputs
Reyes points out what many leaders already know from experience: exercise changes how you feel. She mentions a common guideline of 40 minutes, five days a week, and acknowledges that may sound like a lot, but she frames movement as a practical lever for wellbeing.
She also shares a takeaway from a neuroscience elective she took during a 12-month Wharton program: starting the day with protein (rather than carbs) may support better decision-making. She presents this as a practical insight from that coursework, not a rigid rule.
Connection reduces stress: “vitamin people” and oxytocin
Reyes encourages leaders to surround themselves with “vitamin people”—people who energize you rather than drain you. She also references oxytocin and how connection can release tension, including greeting someone or hugging someone.
She shares another example from her learning: making eye contact with your dog can release oxytocin, helping you feel better. She describes using this in her own life, keeping her dog close when she needs to make decisions.
Seek help without stigma
Reyes is direct: seeking help is not something to feel bad about. Do it. The CFO role is too complex to treat support as a weakness. Whether support comes from professional help, trusted peers, or a leadership network, the point is to stop carrying everything alone.
Preventing burnout in finance teams
A leadership check: even if you feel fine, is your team burning out?
Reyes makes a pointed leadership challenge. If you are not feeling the symptoms she described, that is great. But what is happening to your teams? She frames burnout as partly a management issue—especially at lower levels—so finance leaders need to look at the systems they create.
Keep workload peaks temporary, not permanent
In the discussion, a leader describes rapid growth and the stress created when open roles leave remaining staff to cover additional responsibilities. Reyes’s response is practical: if stress becomes constant, leaders may need to make decisions that prevent it from becoming the baseline. In some cases that decision may impact profit, but it may also protect people and performance over time. Her goal is to turn constant stress into a peak that can be planned for and then reduced.
Reduce bureaucracy and protect focus
Reyes calls out bureaucracy directly: do you really need three approvals? She also challenges unnecessary interruptions: do you really need this right now? Constant interruptions prevent people from focusing on what they are doing, which increases stress and reduces quality. Cutting friction is a low-cost way to improve wellbeing and performance simultaneously.
Align expectations and communicate clearly
Misalignment creates invisible pressure. Reyes emphasizes expectation alignment: do people truly know what you expect, or are you asking for many things without clarifying priorities? Assertive communication helps people understand what matters most, what success looks like, and what can wait.
Recognition matters, even when it is not expensive
In the Q&A, a participant describes using a rewards platform called Bucket List where points are used to recognize contributions. Reyes connects that to a broader truth: people want to feel valued and to know they are adding value. Recognition does not always need to be financial to be meaningful. Being acknowledged in front of others can matter.
Vacation must include real disconnection
Reyes shares a story from her own experience. While on vacation, she logged in briefly to send an email she had drafted, waiting only for an attachment. Her boss replied: “What are you doing? Why are you connected?” That moment changed her habits. Now she removes Outlook during vacation and tells people to text if something is critical. Her reasoning is practical: if you see the email notification, you will think about it. Removing triggers supports real recovery.
She also stresses that leaders need to let their people disconnect too. If vacation is not a true break, people return depleted.
Train email norms to reduce executive overload
A participant describes a simple principle: if you are in the “To” line, you need to act. If you are in CC, it is informational. When people copy everyone, leaders spend time scanning messages they do not need to act on. Training email norms protects attention across the organization.
Create structured human connection, even in remote teams
One leader shares a weekly team meeting where it is forbidden to talk about work. They ask questions, play games, and connect as people. The leader describes learning more about their team through those interactions than through formal work updates. The practice started during COVID and continued because it improved resilience and created a stronger environment for navigating stress.
Other participants note the challenge of recognition when teams are remote and describe creative approaches to include people who are not physically in the office. The consistent theme is that teams perform better when people feel seen.
Conclusion
CFO burnout prevention is not about lowering standards. It is about protecting the decision-making capacity and leadership stability that high-stakes finance roles require. Antinea Reyes’s session makes two executive-relevant points. First, burnout is chronic workplace stress that has not been effectively managed—not a personal failure to be “resilient enough.” Second, CFO wellbeing is also a leadership systems issue. Even if you feel fine, your team may be carrying constant stress.
Reyes’s guidance is practical and actionable: assess where you are, detach identity from title, and build recovery habits that actually restore you—sleep routines, movement, boundaries, and micro-resets like breathing. Then look at the system you lead. Reduce unnecessary bureaucracy, align expectations, recognize people authentically, and protect true disconnection during vacation. A simple next step is to choose one change you will make for yourself and one change you will make for your team in the next 30 days, then watch what improves.
Contributors:
- Antinea Reyes, CFO at LATAM
