Glossary entry

Compassion bandwidth

Definition

The sustainable amount of emotional labor a system asks of people — care teams, moderators, frontline staff, or users. When a system asks for more, people start avoiding tasks the system punishes, and the system runs on their burnout.

BurdenAgency

Related terms

Finitude Compassion telemetry Exhaustion triggers Rest cycle enforcement
Cite this glossary entry · v1.17.1 · updated Oct 6, 2026 · CC BY-SA 4.0

APA

Ethotechnics Institute. (2026). Compassion bandwidth. Ethotechnics glossary. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/compassion-bandwidth

MLA

Ethotechnics Institute. "Compassion bandwidth." Ethotechnics glossary, 2026, https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/compassion-bandwidth.

Chicago

Ethotechnics Institute. "Compassion bandwidth." Ethotechnics glossary. Oct 6, 2026. https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/compassion-bandwidth.

BibTeX

@misc{glossary_compassion-bandwidth,
  title={Compassion bandwidth},
  author={Ethotechnics Institute},
  year={2026},
  howpublished={Ethotechnics glossary},
  url={https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/compassion-bandwidth},
  version={v1.17.1}
}

RIS

TY  - WEB
TI  - Compassion bandwidth
AU  - Ethotechnics Institute
PY  - 2026
UR  - https://ethotechnics.org/glossary/compassion-bandwidth
ER  -

Authorship

Contact: hello@ethotechnics.org

Publication details

  • Published: Dec 3, 2025
  • Last updated: Oct 6, 2026
  • Version: v1.17.1

License: CC BY-SA 4.0

Credit Ethotechnics Institute, include the term title and version, and link to the glossary permalink.

Archive: Wayback Machine history

Latest change

v1.17.1 · Oct 6, 2026 — Editorial revision. Titles are in sentence case. Pasted spec blocks are replaced with prose and worked examples, 79 operational tests are rewritten as pass conditions, 22 origin notes are rewritten or sourced, and unsourced superlatives are cut. No terms were added or removed, and permalinks are unchanged.

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