Updated July 2026
What does 外耗 mean?
外耗 (wài hào) means drained by other people in work Chinese slang. Energy drained by other people and outside demands — meetings, group chats, obligations. The counterpart to 内耗, which is self-generated overthinking. Literally, it means "external drain".
Opposite / pairs with
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Example
我不内耗，我纯外耗，都是被别人烦的。
Wǒ bù nèi hào, wǒ chún wài hào, dōu shì bèi biérén fán de.
I don't overthink — I'm just drained by everyone else.
Where 外耗 comes from
Coined against the already-popular 内耗 ("internal friction, overthinking"). Splitting exhaustion into internal and external sources gave people a way to say "this one is not on me".
Related slang
Physically present but emotionally flatlined — still at your desk, nobody home. A burnout joke, never literal.
The worn-down, drained look a job stamps onto you — dead eyes, no spark, the 'office vibe' you can't wash off after months of clocking in.
Pointless, exhausting competition where everyone works harder and harder just to stay in the same place — the rat race with no payoff.
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