In a world where
it seems as though the pressure to perform is always on, more and more people
are admitting to burnout at work. What is this phenomenon, and how can you cope
with it if it happens to you? In this Spotlight feature, we investigate.
In May 2019, the World
Health Organization (WHO) formally
recognized burnout as an "occupational phenomenon."
Their decision
came after years of hearing people talk about it, trying understand why it
affected them, and attempting to identify what they could have done to cope
with it.
Recently, a Gallup
study of around 7,500 full time workers found that 23% were often in "burnout mode."
About 44% "sometimes" entered a burnout mode.
Although the WHO
do not yet recognize burnout as a medical condition, some researchers call it "an
occupational disease." This is due not only to the high number
of people — all across the globe — who report experiencing it, but also due to
its important impact on well-being and quality of life.
According to the
same researchers, some of the occupations most at risk of burnout are linked to
professions that encounter high levels of stress,
including healthcare, social work, police work, teaching, and customer
services. Other professionals who have reported high levels of burnout include lawyers and academics.
So, what is
burnout, and how is it different from other forms of occupational stress? If a
person does experience burnout, how can they cope with it in the moment, and
how can they learn to overcome it with time?
For this Spotlight
feature, we spoke to professionals who have had burnout themselves, as well as
experienced mental health and well-being coaches, to find
out the whats, whys, and hows of this occupational hazard.
What is burnout?
For years, academics
and mental health professionals alike have been working to put together a
definition of burnout based on the most common causes and symptoms.
"In a nutshell, [burnout] is a syndrome brought on from
chronic workplace stress that hasn't been successfully managed," explained
Kat Hounsell.
Hounsell is the
founder of everyday
people, an organization (based in the United Kingdom) that offers
leadership development, well-being coaching workshops, and mental health first
aid training.
"[It] can
include feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance
from one's job, or negative/cynical feelings related to one's job — including
reduced belief that [the person is] capable of doing the job and producing good
results," she continued.
"Burnout can
be defined as the loss of meaning in one's work, coupled with mental,
emotional, or physical exhaustion as the result of long term, unresolved
stress," agreed business neurolinguistic programming practitioner and
mental health trainer Tania Diggory.
Diggory is also
the founder and director of Calmer, which supports entrepreneurs and professional
teams with mental health and well-being training.
However, burnout
is not simply work related stress; a moderate amount of stress at work can even
have positive outcomes. So what's the difference?
The difference
between stress and burnout
Some studies have
shown that stress can help boost a person's motivation, improving their mental
performance in the short run. This was the conclusion
of a study from the University of California, Berkeley, led by
Elizabeth Kirby, who is now an assistant professor at Ohio State University in
Columbus.
"Some amounts
of stress are good to push you just to the level of optimal alertness,
behavioral and cognitive performance," says Kirby.
There is nothing
positive about burnout, Diggory told Medical News Today. "The
difference between burnout and work related stress is the point at which it
becomes a serious health issue," she explained.
"Stress is
something we all go through and there are different degrees of stress [...].
However, studies have shown that ongoing, high levels of cortisol — the primary
stress hormone — are not good for our well-being," Diggory said.
"When stress
starts to build over a period of time and we experience symptoms of anxiety or
low moods," she added, "this can lead to chronic stress and our
cognitive skills can become impaired. By this, I mean that our working memory,
our ability to think logically and carry out tasks effectively isn't as sharp
as it usually is."
"High volumes of stress over a long period of time can lead to
exhaustion and, therefore, burnout."
Tania Diggory
Why does burnout occur?
Being under
constant pressure to achieve, with few opportunities to take real breaks from
work, can add to a person's levels of stress. This can make them feel
overwhelmed and more likely to reach the burnout stage.
But aside from an
overwhelming workload, other factors can also contribute to stress levels and
lead to burnout.
For one person who
spoke to MNT,
these factors included financial stress, as well as instances of workplace
bullying.
"I
experienced burnout [...] in the second year of my Ph.D., when there was just a
constant level of stress underlying everything that I was doing in my
job," Robin told us.
"That was from the workload that I had, financial struggles
that went along with it, some workplace bullying — my supervisor and my team
were very unsupportive," they added.
Douglas, who used
to work a public-facing job in a healthcare environment, mentioned that his
relationship with his managers also increased his risk of burnout.
"I think it
was a mixture of unachievable targets and often having to deliver bad news to
people as part of the job [that led me to burnout]. My managers did not deal
with stress well either, which often had a knock-on effect to the rest of the
team," he told MNT.
Indeed, many of the people we spoke with explained that the
example set by higher-ups and peers — who worked to exhaustion and did not put
any time aside for mental or physical recovery — was an important contributing
factor to engaging in behaviors that led to burnout and not recognizing this
experience for what it was.
"I found it
really hard to tell that I was experiencing burnout [when] I was, and when
people told me that I was, I didn't believe them," said Sam. He entered
burnout mode while juggling a full time postgraduate degree and a job in order
to make ends meet.
"In a way, [I] kind of thought that I wasn't working enough.
[...] You get pressure from almost all angles, and one of the things I think
isn't talked about enough [in examples of academic burnout] is that natural,
peer-to-peer pressure that you get."
Sam
"I'm thinking
about the shared misery of working on a Saturday, past midnight, or posting
photos on social media accounts [showing] that you're working on the beach
although you should be on holiday. That sort of pressure, I think, really gets
in your head," he added.
No comments:
Post a Comment