Often it is a sign that I've learned and accomplished as much as I can from a particular job -- and that it is time to raise my hand for a new, more-challenging position. Other times, I've realized that rather than change jobs, I want to change where I am working, or how I am getting the job done, or with whom I am working. TOP

"One of the greatest causes of burnout is either disappointment in others or disappointment in yourself -- and that experience can compel you to take some sort of action," says Mark Goulston, a Los Angeles psychiatrist and executive coach.

Unfortunately, he believes, many managers try to numb the feeling of burnout rather than to learn from it and perhaps seek a new direction. TOP

"They may become more and more invested in an assignment or situation even as their gut is telling them to cut their losses and do something else," says Dr. Goulston. Successful executives who avoid burnout, by contrast, tend to "recognize unsatisfying or no-win situations and move on," he adds.

Still, not all burnout can be resolved by switching jobs, warns Dr. Kerry Sulkowicz, a New York psychoanalyst and management consultant. "I've seen people who feel burnt out after receiving a major promotion -- and go chasing after another job -- when they are fearful of their own success."

Success wasn't the issue when Ken Winans experienced two different bouts of burnout during his 18 years in the investment business. Both times, it propelled him to alter his career. He started out as a financial analyst on Wall Street in 1982 and quickly concluded that he had made the right choice. "I was born to do this work," he says.

But the stock market crash of 1987 shook him up. Along with hundreds of other analysts, he was laid off and soon found himself wondering, "Why am I in this industry?" TOP

As he questioned what he would do next, he felt a mixture of anxiety and depression, and soon became ill with pneumonia. "The burnout hit me physically," he says. Seeking more security, he applied for a phone-company job. But he also consulted a career counselor, who told him that he had a strong entrepreneurial streak and could tolerate more risk than he thought he could.

He opted for more stability. "I wanted out of the path of layoffs and in a job where I had more control," he says. He stuck with finance but switched from being an analyst to a money manager. Over the next five years, Mr. Winans worked at several large brokerage companies, eventually landing at Merrill Lynch's Chicago office, where he experienced burnout again.

He didn't feel vulnerable to layoffs, but he did feel hemmed in by corporate politics. His bosses had pushed him to follow investment strategies that he didn't feel comfortable making. TOP

He recalled what his career counselor had told him about being entrepreneurial and decided to "jump off the payroll cliff and live and die by my own decisions," he says. In 1992, he formed his own investment company, Winans International, Mill Valley, Calif., which now has assets of $112 million.

"No one starts a business of his own who is happy," Mr. Winans says. But by allowing himself to "stare into the abyss, I found a happier path."

For Mark Breier, a bout of burnout provided relief from what he calls "the Internet tornado." As vice president of Amazon.com from 1996 to 1998 and then chief executive of Beyond.com, he worked nonstop for several years helping to build two of the Internet's top sites and to take both public. "It was exhilarating and exhausting and I was at 10 on both scales," he says. TOP

By late last year, Mr. Breier concluded that both he and Beyond.com needed to cut back. The company was spread thin in four distinct businesses "and I told the board, we have to choose just two," he says. When he and directors decided the company should focus on digitally downloading software for Web sites and for government projects, Mr. Breier also decided it was time for him to take a break. "I'd been doing this Internet tornado for three and a half years and wanted to take some time off," he says.

He hit the road with his wife and two young sons for a five-week hiatus, traveling around the U.S. He came home recharged and began writing a book, "The 10-Second Internet Manager."

Today he and three friends are launching an investment fund to help launch a new generation of entrepreneurs. "I'm combining the things I most love doing -- writing, public speaking and teaching with a hands-on approach," he says.