This study explored the association between career plateauing and job burnout, with a particular focus on career calling as a potential mediator. We distributed questionnaires to 305 English as a foreign language teachers in China and employed structural equation modeling to analyze and evaluate the proposed conceptual model. The findings revealed there was a negative relationship between career plateauing and career calling, and furthermore, the relationship between career plateauing and job burnout was mediated by career calling. This study provides a fresh theoretical perspective on how career plateauing relates to job burnout and offers practical implications for educational institutions to mitigate the adverse effects of career plateauing and foster sustainable wellbeing among English as a foreign language teachers.