Are Hearing Health Professionals Quietly Cracking?

“I come home in tears almost every day… the work feels more like sales than the clinical care I trained for.”

This is the reality of today’s hearing health and audiology jobs. Scroll through industry forums or LinkedIn, and you’ll see it again and again - the field is on the brink of a burnout epidemic. Careers are being reshaped, joy is slipping away, and many talented people are wondering how much longer they can keep going.

Burnout - and its quieter, more insidious cousin, in quiet cracking - is already taking a toll. And if these hearing health professional stresses aren’t addressed, audiology will keep losing the very people it depends on.

The state of burnout in hearing health

When we hear about burnout in the healthcare industry, our minds often jump to emergency rooms or sprawling hospital systems. But the reality is that it has made its way into hearing health, too, with recent research from the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), finding rising and concerning levels of burnout reported by hearing health professionals in 2024.

At Staffing Proxy, we have been hearing and seeing this a lot, lately - the long hours that bleed into evenings, the relentless quotas that turn care into sales, the isolation of small clinics, and the creeping doubt about whether the profession candidates trained for is still the one they’re practicing.

The conversations are becoming too frequent, so we dug deep into the research to see just how widespread these stresses are, and this is what we found (if you’re in hearing health, you will probably recognize these already):

One qualitative study of American audiologists identified seven major stressors pushing hearing health professionals to the edge:

Time pressure – overbooked schedules, not enough time per patient.
Patient-related challenges – difficult or demanding interactions that drain energy.
Administrative burdens – endless documentation, insurance paperwork, and compliance.
Financial pressures – constant strain to meet quotas.
Lack of support – limited resources or guidance when challenges arise.
Collegial issues – tension or lack of collaboration within teams.
Work–life imbalance – long hours that bleed into personal time.

And if we are to be completely honest, through our conversations with candidates, we hear all of the above. However, one of the most pressing concerns we hear, especially from entry level candidates, is the same uneasy feeling of being measured by revenue instead of outcomes, and of wondering if their work is still about people or just numbers. It’s no surprise then that one‑third of hearing health specialists want to escape the for‑profit hearing aid dispensing model altogether.

Are they quietly cracking?

All of this raises the question: are clinicians quietly cracking? You’ve probably heard the term before, often mentioned on LinkedIn and in the media. Essentially, quiet cracking happens when your staff autopilot while secretly running on empty: skipping meals, struggling to get regular physical activity, staying late, or holding it together in front of patients while falling apart once the door closes.

But let’s not mistake quiet cracking with disengaging and doing the bare minimum. It’s about doing everything, pushing harder, and still falling apart inside.

Hearing health professionals are on the brink of emotional and physical exhaustion. So much so that a report looking at the current state of retention across the health industry found a 41% attrition rate among audiologists, meaning 41% of those entering the field leave it over time, which is the highest among allied health professions examined in the review.

Creating thriving working environments

In short, quiet cracking is a warning signal that your model is under strain. But, as they say, with every challenge comes an opportunity. So, here are some of the things you can do to help mitigate, and ideally prevent this from happening in your clinic:

Redesign quotas with reality in mind. In other words, quotas that reflect what’s humanly possible, not just what looks good on paper.
Invest in mentorship. Pair early career service providers with experienced voices to help build resilience, learning, and a senior perspective.
Make well‑being operational. Your clinicians may know strategies such as relaxation techniques or the value of regular physical activity, but when in a state of survival and exhaustion, it keeps them from applying them. It may be worth intentionally building time and space for recovery into schedules to help normalize breaks, establish boundaries, improve quality of sleep, and protect long-term physical health.
Treat retention as a core metric. As you are aware, replacing a clinician costs far more than sustaining one. So keep a close eye on retention metrics to spot any early warning signs.

However, the conversation doesn’t just stop at identifying the problem. To build sustainable careers and healthier workplaces, it also comes down to asking the right questions - both as a clinician evaluating a role and as a business leader shaping one.

Here are some of the questions worth asking:

On stress factors: Which pressures in this role - productivity quotas, lack of support, or misaligned leadership - are most likely to impact my (or my team’s) long‑term sustainability?
On role design: Does this clinic balance business needs with clinician well‑being, or are schedules and targets quietly setting people up for burnout?
On career evaluation: What signals tell me this workplace will genuinely support long‑term well‑being before I (or a new hire) commit?
On thriving vs. burning out: What separates the environments where clinicians grow from those where they eventually leave?

Sustaining the future of hearing health

Audiology and hearing health jobs are built on meaning - helping people hear and reconnect with their world. But meaning alone won’t protect against the reality of burnout and quiet cracking. Left unchecked, these pressures drain providers, damage patient outcomes, and weaken clinics from the inside out.

At Staffing Proxy, this is exactly where we come in, helping clinics not only recruit the best talent but work alongside them to create healthier, more sustainable workplaces.

If you’re a clinic looking to build a stronger, more resilient team - or a provider searching for audiology and hearing health jobs where you can truly grow - reach out to us.

Let’s build the future of hearing health together.