Should you hire a person that has had a burn-out?

A burn doesn't happen to weak people, it happens to strong people. Of course generalisation is bad, but burn-outs are quite specific to a type of person. They usually are devoted to their work, and care a lot about what they do and care about the people they work with. For this reason if stress becomes high, they will usually work harder and harder, because they want to deliver and be proud of themselves.

Why do these people get a burn-out? For a burn-out, several factors need to go wrong, not just 1.

1. Overloaded ( to much stress, can't do their work good enough anymore)
2. Underloaded (boredom, can't grow, thinks their boss doesn't believe in them, can't deliver anything they are proud off)
3. Under-appriciation, mismatch in management style (see previous post about managementhttps://steemit.com/management/@hefziba/how-to-grow-people-as-a-manager-no-matter-how-experienced-your-employee-is-or-how-experienced-you-are-in-managing-people (No compliments, or even getting told off that the quality isn't good enough, that they don't care enough, that they don't do enough)
4. Problems at home (money shortage, sickness, travel time to work, no social support, big trauma's)

There is only one kind of burn-out that people can't recover from. Its usually caretakers, that are working under high pressure in combination with high pressure at home, for instance: in combination with chronic illness at home, money problems and no social support. The amount of time that a person needs to deal with a situation like this (a very severe case), is also their recovery time. If somebody has endured it for 10 years, and finally breaks, it can take 10 years to recover.

But most burn-outs are not severe, and when it hasn't lasted long, the recovery is short, and the learnings are a live lesson that can benefit any employer.
A person that went over their borders, has learned where their borders are and what they need. They lost their fear, as they already faced it, and can help you as an employer to understand better what it takes to create a good environment to work.

I would recommend to hire somebody, if they have had a burn-out, especially if they tell you in an interview. Do be careful in an interview, as you are not allowed to ask if somebody has had a break-don, or their home situation.

Good luck. If you have any management questions I’m happy to answer them.

Background: I have 10+ years in different start-ups. My background is a PhD in Chemistry and have studied project management. I launched many products with international teams enjoyed working as a program manager under the CEO in a start-up company that was sold for $250M.
Currently I'm building a start-up company myself, that won many (subsidy) grants, and pitch awards. It launched its first product to market in December 2017 within two years