Workplace ‘burn-out’ – a legitimate occupational syndrome
It’s normal to feel stressed at work from time to time. But for some people, the stress becomes all-consuming, leading to exhaustion, cynicism and hatred towards their job. This is known as burnout.
Burnout used to be classified as a problem related to life management, but last week the World Health Organisation (WHO) re-labelled the syndrome as an “occupational phenomenon” to better reflect that burnout is a work-based syndrome caused by chronic stress.
The newly listed dimensions of burnout are:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- reduced professional efficacy (work performance).
In the era of smartphones and 24-7 emails, it’s becoming increasingly difficult to switch off from the workplace and from those who have power over us.
The new definition of burnout should be a wake-up call for employers to treat chronic stress that has not been successfully managed as a work health and safety issue.
The parameters of burn-out are in desperate need of clarity, and these new international standards could greatly improve diagnosis and treatment. Currently, there is no neat or universal way to tease out symptoms of burn-out from symptoms of other mental health conditions, such as depression. On a global scale, this makes it extremely difficult for doctors to recognise the syndrome, let alone treat it, and in some professions it’s causing an epidemic.
Within certain people-oriented professions such as teaching, the norm is to be selfless and work for others, but it isn’t long before the demands of altruism take their toll. Far from being an excuse for laziness, WHO’s own research suggests that burn-out occurs when the demands of a job far outweigh the rewards, recognition, and times of relaxation.
As a result, workers who are burned out often feel like their ambitions, idealism, and sense of worth are slowly being strangled. The losses from this syndrome are not simply financial, and they could have a large impact on public health.
Research has shown that the profound emotional exhaustion and negativity brought on by burn-out can actually change a worker’s brain, making it harder for them to deal with stress in the future. A study of nearly 9,000 employed adults found that workplace burn-out was a significant risk factor for coronary heart disease and many other serious and life-threatening conditions.
And those are just the physical effects. The psychological effects from burn-out include such doozies as insomnia, depression, use of medications such as antidepressants, hospitalisation for mental and psychological ill-health symptoms.
If you think you’re suffering burnout, the first step is to talk to your line manager or workplace counsellor.
In the event this doesn’t provide you with an adequate solution, please talk to your IEU(SA) organiser –
8410 0122.
Sources:
https://www.sciencealert.com/burn-out-is-now-officially-recognised-as-a-legitimate-syndrome-by-the-world-health-organisation
https://theconversation.com/are-you-burnt-out-at-work-ask-yourself-these-4-questions-118128
