A recent study finds 84% of millennials have experienced burnout
in their current job.
10 Oct 2019
Stress
– from the Latin “stringere”, to squeeze tight, touch or injure – is not bad,
per se. Positive stress and adrenaline in the right circumstances can make us
stronger, happier and healthier. Yet, in certain work environments, chronic
stress provokes anxiety, detachment and fatigue that can lead to burnout.
The
World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that nearly every fifth child or
teenager and every fourth adult will be affected by burnout at some point in
his or her active life. The situation is so widespread in developed countries
that the WHO has added burnout to its list of globally recognized diseases, defining
it as a syndrome of “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully
managed” which “includes feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, results in
increased mental distance from one's job and reduced professional efficacy.”
A Gallup poll of 7,500 full-time
employees indicates that one in four employees feel burned out
at work very often or always, while nearly half report feeling it sometimes.
The trend seems particularly acute amongst the young. A Deloitte study on workplace
health in the US suggests that 84% of millennials have
experienced burnout in their current job. Women are more likely to suffer
from the disease than their male counterparts.
Although
the global economic burden of burnout has not been calculated, it is estimated that the global
cost of mental illness will grow to $16 trillion by 2030, in part,
owing to the increase in burnout.
As we
celebrate World Mental Health Day, let’s take a look at the drivers of burnout.
Burnout: a disease of the 21st century
We live
in a high-speed world, where digital interconnection, sophisticated technology
and social media purportedly make us smarter, faster and more effective. But
greater digitization is also causing acute isolation; our connection to other
humans and to nature is quietly superseded by FOMO (“fear of missing out”) and
social media angst.
Medical
research indicates that our connection with ourselves, other humans and with our natural world improves
our sense of health and happiness. Conversely, when we lose our sense of
connection, anxiety, depression and burnout are all too frequent.
As the
pace of change increases, so organizations are asked to produce more with fewer
resources. This is perhaps where the squeeze of burnout is most keenly felt.
Year-on-year the bar gets raised, without the requisite reflection on human
costs.
Gallup’s study of
the primary causes of employee burnout found that the main factors have less to
do with expectations for hard work and high performance, but are more closely
associated with the management and treatment of an individual.
Oversized
workloads, unreasonable time pressures, lack of role clarity, lack of communication
and support from management and unfair treatment at work correlated most with
incidents of burnout. When employees say they often or always have enough time
to do all of their work, they are 70% less likely to experience high burnout.
Similarly, when employees strongly agree that they are often treated unfairly
at work, they are 2.3 times more likely to experience burnout.
Work
environments are the least equipped of all support networks to respond
constructively to burnout with just 27% of supervisors responding positively to
incidents of burnout and only one in three colleagues offering the support
needed.
Women are more likely to experience burnout in
part because of factors outside an employer’s control such as low self-esteem
and poor division of labour outside of the workplace. A significant
contributor, however, is unfavourable working conditions that hit women harder
than their male counterparts, including fewer professional advancement
opportunities and more frequent occupation of low-authority roles.
Countering a culture of fear
Standard
protocols for addressing burnout in the workplace are starkly nascent. Those
affected by the disease tend not to speak out for fear of reprimand or out of
shame. This culture of fear inhibits the early identification of the disease
and makes reintegration into the workplace more challenging.
If you
are feeling emotional, mental or physical exhaustion, or if you are
demotivated, frustrated, cynical or anxious at work, it may be time to ask
yourself some hard questions. If burnout goes unaddressed, it can translate
into panic attacks, digestive issues, heart disease, immune disorders,
migraines, depression and - in the most extreme cases - could lead to suicide.
As we
move towards a fast-paced technological age, where we pride ourselves on
equality of opportunity and efficiency, let us not forget the importance of
being human-centred at work. Once we recognize burnout for the pandemic it is,
we can begin the journey towards healthier and happier lives and work.
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Description Written by
Gill Cassar , Programme
Lead, Environment and Sustainability, Global Leadership Fellow, World Economic
Forum
Dominik
Breitinger, Project Lead, Climate Governance and Finance, Global
Leadership Fellow, World Economic Forum
The
views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World
Economic Forum.
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