When Burnout Turns Bodyguards Into Operational Liabilities

A few days ago, we shared a post about burnout in the Executive Protection (EP) industry and why it’s an issue that deserves serious attention from both EP agents and service providers. What prompted that post was a job listing we came across, requesting EP agents to work for 120 consecutive days, with the possibility of an extension.

Now, for those of us who’ve been in this industry long enough, we know this kind of demand isn’t new. But what’s alarming is how it’s becoming the norm rather than the exception, and even more concerning, that it’s being accepted by many EP agents rather than condemned. Instead of pushing back, we’re seeing an increasing number of professionals willing to sacrifice not only their well-being, but also client safety and operational success for a paycheck, often under the illusion that more days equals more dedication or more money. But at what cost?

The original post reached over 115,000 views, sparking  many comments from our colleagues. Many highlighted the dangers of such expectations. However, to our disappointment, a few said they’d take the job, if the pay was good enough. And that right there is the issue. This isn’t a matter of whether someone can work 120 days straight, it’s about whether they should. Burnout doesn’t always show up as physical collapse or feeling discomfort or fatigued. It can be something far more dangerous: lack of attention to detail, slower reaction times, memory lapses, and wrong judgment. All of which, in our line of work, can mean the difference between prevention and failure.

We have all worked extremely long hours, for too many days in a row. But what we need to understand is that there is a significant difference between pushing hard for a short-term assignment and being pushed to the brink for weeks or even worse, months.

Anyone in our profession, whether working in EP, residential security, secure transport, or standing post on a guard detail, knows the job isn’t just physically demanding. It’s mentally exhausting. It requires razor-sharp situational awareness, attention to detail, instant decision-making, emotional control, and the ability to remain calm under pressure, sometimes for hours or days on end. You’re constantly scanning, assessing, and calculating risk in real-time. One moment of distraction, one second of fatigue-induced hesitation, and the entire operation can fall apart putting you, your teammates, and your CLIENT at risk. This isn’t a job where you can afford to run on autopilot. The margin for error is slim, and the consequences are real and can be brutal.

Keep in mind, it’s not about whether you can show up for the job and be just present, it’s about whether you can be present enough and operationally sharp enough, not just a shell going through the motions. Burnout doesn’t just affect your mood or physical capabilities, it damages the very skills this profession depends on (and asks for when hiring you): attention to detail, good memory, good judgment skills, reaction speed, great interpersonal skills and emotional control. And in a field where your performance directly impacts someone else’s safety, that’s not just unfortunate, it’s unacceptable.

Burnout is the dark side of the security industry that too many ignore. Providers push agents to the limit for profit. Agents accept exhausting schedules just to stay afloat and put food on the table. But this isn’t just about being tired. This is about degraded performance, impaired judgment, and increased liability. We’re not talking about fatigue anymore; we’re talking about real safety risks. And it’s time we stop normalizing it. Not tomorrow, today! Now, for those respected colleagues who said they would take the job for the right money, let’s discuss why that’s NOT a good idea, and why more money is not the answer…

What Is Burnout?

Burnout isn’t just feeling tired after a long week. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), it’s classified as an occupational phenomenon, a direct result of unmanaged, chronic workplace stress. And although it’s not considered a medical condition, that doesn’t make it any less serious. Burnout is a dangerous cocktail of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that affects how you think, feel, and most importantly for us, how we perform, especially in high-pressure roles like executive protection.

Here’s what that looks like in practice:

• Exhaustion In simple words, you’re running on empty. Energy levels crash, sleep doesn’t help, and even simple tasks feel overwhelming, and it takes more time and effort to complete them. In a job where alertness is critical, that’s a huge red flag. Executive protection isn’t just about being physically present, it demands a constant state of readiness, fast reflexes, and the ability to assess threats in real time and then take actions. When exhaustion sets in, situational awareness drops, decision-making slows, and your ability to respond under pressure is compromised. And in EP, that delay can mean the difference between preventing an incident and reacting too late.

• Cynicism and Mental Withdrawal You just stop caring or at least stop showing it. Everything bothers you, you become detached, negative, even resentful toward your job, your colleagues, household staff, the public, or even your principal. Communication and interpersonal skills go out the window. In protective operations, that kind of mental withdrawal is a security risk. Executive Protection demands sharp communication, coordination, and the ability to work seamlessly with others. A withdrawn agent can miss subtle behavioral cues, fail to respond appropriately to threats, or overlook key changes in the client’s routine or mood. That breakdown doesn’t just affect you; it weakens the entire operation.

• Decline in Professional Performance You feel ineffective, distracted, and off your game. Tasks that used to be easy now take more effort and time to complete. You hesitate, miss things (vital information), or second-guess decisions. And often, you know you’re slipping, which adds a new layer of stress and self-doubt. In the Executive Protection world, that’s more than a performance dip or a “bad day”, it’s a huge liability. This isn’t a desk job where mistakes get edited later. You’re expected to process quickly, react immediately, and stay one step ahead. Burnout chips away at that capacity. Studies have shown that burnout significantly impairs cognitive functions essential to EP functions. When agents are chronically overworked, they’re not just tired, they’re less alert, less responsive, and more likely to overlook critical details. And in a field where a single missed cue can have life-or-death consequences, “off your game” simply isn’t good enough.

• The Spillover Effect If you think that burnout affects only your professional performance, you are wrong. Burnout doesn’t clock out when you do or when you finish shift. It follows you home, bleeds into your relationships, chips away at your health, and clouds your sense of identity and purpose. You’re not just tired on the job, you’re also short-tempered with family, disconnected from friends, and constantly running on the fumes with no energy.

EP is a profession where emotional regulation, personal discipline, and mental clarity are mission critical. When your off-hours are spent in a state of exhaustion, irritability, or emotional shutdown, that instability doesn’t stay at home, it follows you back on to the detail. You end up running in circles, unable to recharge or reset. Over time, that chronic spillover doesn’t just chip away at your performance, it wears down your professional longevity. Because when burnout hits, it doesn’t just affect your job. It affects everything!

Do you think you’re too tough to be affected by burnout? Consider this: EP roles often involve long shifts with little to no downtime, constant vigilance, frequent travel and disrupted sleep, high cognitive demands for ongoing threat assessments, emotional strain from suppressing stress while maintaining composure, dealing with irrational client demands, and relentless pressure to perform without showing weakness. If you still think burnout can’t touch you, it's time to reconsider. ALL executive protection agents are at considerable risk!

Time for Real-World Data

While research that specifically addresses burnout in private security personnel is nonexistent, studies on law enforcement, a closely related field with comparable operational stressors, can provide valuable insights. The high-pressure demands of executive protection (EP) agents, such as constant vigilance and rapid decision-making, mirror those of police officers, making these findings highly relevant.

1. Slowed Reaction Times and Decreased Attention

Fatigue significantly impairs performance in high-pressure roles. According to a 2006 study by Bryan Vila, involving 1,200 police officers across multiple U.S. departments, 41% reported falling asleep while driving, 15% admitted to critical errors due to fatigue, and 22% noted safety-related mistakes linked to exhaustion. These findings highlight the dangers of fatigue for EP agents, who require constant vigilance. For context, in a study by Williamson & Folkard (2011), staying awake for 19 hours was shown to impair reaction times equivalent to a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.05%, while 24 hours of wakefulness equated to a 0.10% BAC—legally considered drunk in many countries, such as the United States and Canada.

2. Poor Memory and Reduced Attention to Detail

Chronic stress and fatigue undermine cognitive functions essential for EP agents, such as working memory, processing speed, and attention to detail. Directed attention fatigue, the inability to maintain focus amidst distractions, is particularly problematic in high-stakes environments where missing details can lead to severe consequences. In a study by Sapolsky (2004), chronic stress was shown to impair prefrontal cortex function, reducing working memory and attentional control, both critical for EP operations requiring precision and focus.

3. Mental Overload During Critical Stress

The timing of stress and fatigue significantly affects performance in high-pressure scenarios. In a 2018 study by Hope et al. published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, stress and fatigue were found to impair situational awareness and memory recall in 48 police officers during simulated critical incidents. Specifically, officers with higher fatigue levels exhibited a 25% reduction in accurate recall of critical details (e.g., suspect descriptions) and a 30% decrease in fixation on threat-relevant stimuli (e.g., weapons) compared to rested officers, as measured by eye-tracking technology. These impairments are critical for EP agents, who must maintain heightened awareness and precise threat assessment in dynamic, high-stakes environments to ensure effective decision-making and safety.

4. Degraded Decision-Making and Emotional Control

Burnout contributes to emotional exhaustion, compromised judgment, and reduced decision-making capacity. According to a 2016 study by Queirós et al. on law enforcement officers, burnout was strongly correlated with lower job performance and increased personnel turnover, indicating disengagement. Emotional exhaustion also increases the likelihood of impulsive or erratic decisions, which can be catastrophic in EP roles requiring calm and precise judgment under pressure. Additionally, in a study by Maslach and Leiter (2016), burnout was linked to diminished emotional regulation, further exacerbating decision-making challenges in high-stress environments.

As we can see, the evidence is clear: burnout can significantly impair cognitive and emotional functioning and in the context of private security, those impairments can have immediate, real-world consequences. So, ask yourself: Could fatigue cause you to miss a key detail during reconnaissance or overlook an exit route? Absolutely. Could a delayed reaction, when seconds count, cost lives? Without question. And could emotional miscalibration make you overreact to a non-threat, damage client rapport, or unnecessarily escalate a situation? Yes. This is where burnout crosses the line, from personal strain to operational liability!

Feeling burnout doesn’t make you weak, it makes you human. It’s your body and mind signaling that you’re overloaded. In Executive Protection, that’s not just a personal warning, it’s a professional red flag. Burnout isn’t just about being tired; it’s a safety hazard that can impact your performance, your team, your principal, and everyone in your operational environment. When you’re burned out, your margin for error shrinks and in our line of work, that margin is already razor thin!

Yes, many EP agents pride themselves on their stamina. But endurance without recovery? That’s not resilience, that’s risk. We recognized that there are quite a few of you out there that will state that, “While I was in the military, we had to be awake for hours and hours!” While this may be true, you also had an enormous support team with you and you hoped and prayed that between all of you during extreme stress, you would catch everything!

Our Craft is about a very small, specialized team that absolutely depends on each and every one of us being at our absolute best. Burnout slows your reaction time, clouds your judgment, and opens the door to mistakes that will put your mission and team at risk. EP work requires both physical strength and mental clarity, lose one, and you compromise the other. True professionalism and maturity aren’t about how long you can keep going without rest; it’s about knowing when to reset so you can stay sharp, responsive, and reliable when it counts most.

To the respected professionals who said they’d take the 120-day job “for the right price”, listen, we understand. We truly do! We’ve all felt the pressure to take on more for the sake of a paycheck. But here’s the reality: If your performance slips, if you miss one key detail, that paycheck won’t save you from the consequences and the consequences will inevitably take your paycheck!

Let’s stop normalizing overwork and bringing agents to their limits. Remember, it’s okay to say no. It doesn’t make you weak, quite the contrary. It makes you a professional who prioritizes operational excellence and long-term success over short-term gain. You are hired to mitigate risks, not make yourself become one. This is the mindset this industry needs to foster and encourage.