Burnout. It's a persistently relevant topic. Bookstores are flooded with books about quitting. Most of them tell the story of someone who felt burnout at work, boldly quit, and took their lives in a different direction. Recently, there are also many stories about parenting stress and early divorces. Again, most of these are stories of people who felt burnout in their married lives and decided to make changes. But what exactly is burnout? Am I burnout out? How is burnout 'diagnosed'? How can burnout be 'treated'? Let's look at everything about burnout in this post.
In 2019, the WHO defined burnout syndrome in the International Classification of Diseases 11 (ICD-11) as 'chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed', that specifically occurs in a work environment. It's not officially a disease, but it's recognized as an important phenomenon as many people in modern society experience it. Burnout especially consists of the following three components:
If you're not sure if this applies to you, consider these more specific expressions. Exhaustion is expressed as wearing out, loss of energy, depletion, debilitation, and fatigue. Cynicism is expressed as negative or inappropriate attitudes towards clients or team members, irritability, loss of idealism, and withdrawal. On the other hand, Ineffectiveness is expressed as a decrease in personal satisfaction, reduced productivity, low morale, and inability to cope.
Some recent research suggests a few more characteristics that are included in burnout. They include a lack of enthusiasm for work (it's interesting that this factor is included), numbness, laziness, and guilt. Lately, burnout is seen more as a situation on a continuum. On the opposite end of burnout is 'engagement,' which means high energy, high participation and involvement, and a high sense of efficacy.
That said, the definition of burnout is not clear. It's not an official mental disease, so to determine if you are experiencing burnout, you need to refer to the various expressions mentioned above.
The fundamental model of looking at burnout syndrome is based on the premise that 'certain factors (especially situational and personal factors) lead people to experience burnout, and when burnout occurs, it will produce certain outcomes (situational and personal outcomes)'. However, key research to prove this premise is still lacking. Nonetheless, here are six major factors found by researchers that have been statistically significant.
An excessive workload exhausts people. It makes it impossible to ever satisfy demands. It’s okay if this happens for a brief period. It's fine to have occasional periods of hectic busyness. The problem arises when such situations persist chronically. Chronic overwork has a valid correlation with burnout as it takes away the opportunity to recover and balance.
The loss of control over work and situations is a vital factor in burnout. People have heightened 'engagement' when they have a sense of control over their work, can freely choose their work, and have sufficient access to the resources needed to do that work. Conversely, the probability of burnout significantly increases in the opposite situations.
Compensation matters. However, compensation here does not simply mean financial rewards. Financial, organizational, or social rewards are all valid. Either way, people have heightened 'engagement' when they feel rewarded for their work. Conversely, inadequate rewards can heighten burnout by lowering self-efficacy, which consequently increases 'inefficiency', the third element of burnout.
Being well-connected within a community matters. When interactions and relationships between people are weak, support and trust decrease while conflicts increase. This significantly heightens the risk of burnout. Conversely, people who work in communities with well-established social support and effective ways to handle disagreements have heightened 'engagement'.
When people feel fair and equal, they have heightened 'engagement'. Conversely, the risk of burnout increases as cynicism, anger, and hostility increase in situations perceived as unfair.
Values play a key role in motivation. Values make the goal of work within a work environment more than just a 'practical exchange of money and time'. In situations where values are lacking in the work environment, conflicts occur between individuals or between individuals and institutions, and people feel their work as a mere exchange of money and time, which effectively heightens the risk of burnout.
The occurrence of burnout and the phenomena reported to be statistically significant are as follows. The listed items below could be considered ‘symptoms of burnout’.
Interestingly, these symptoms of burnout are 'contagious'. When burnout occurs, the probability of negatively affecting colleagues is high. And these social interactions perpetuate 'burnout' within that community. Therefore, some scholars suggest that burnout should be considered a collective phenomenon within a work group.
Earlier, it was explained that physical health (exhaustion) induces burnout. However, inversely, burnout also deteriorates physical health. Burnout induces health problems that are similar to stress. Therefore, stress symptoms such as headaches, chronic fatigue, gastrointestinal problems, muscle tension, high blood pressure, colds, sleep problems, etc. can appear. In addition, according to one study that conducted follow-up observations over 10 years, burnout has a significant relationship with the onset of cardiovascular diseases and substance abuse.
There are no separate diagnostic criteria for burnout as it is not an official mental illness. Instead, a variety of evaluation tools exist to assess burnout. The problem, however, is that these tools evaluate differently because burnout is defined in various ways. In fact, burnout was originally a concept established in research focusing on occupations involving people (particularly in the medical field), which is why there are separate evaluation tools for those occupations. In some cases, tools may focus only on a few of the three elements of burnout: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficiency. Well-known tools include the following. Most of these tools need to be purchased for use. If you're interested, search and try them out.
If using these tools is cumbersome, consider the two pieces of information below to determine if you're experiencing burnout. The first is the pattern in which burnout occurs, and the second is the similarity between burnout and depression.
There are many models explaining the course of burnout. According to those models, the onset of burnout occurs in the following sequence. 'Exhaustion' is the first to occur due to an overwhelming workload, including both physical and emotional exhaustion. This leads to intensified 'cynicism', resulting in a loss of interest in work and negative reactions to people. If this continues, feelings of worthlessness and uselessness follow, leading to 'inefficiency'. As a result, achievements decrease and mistakes start to increase.
Recent models describe the course of burnout from the perspective of causative factors. According to the model, burnout happens in the following order. First, 'job stressors' appear, mainly due to an imbalance of work demands and the inner or outer resources available to an individual. This creates a 'strain' on the individual, resulting in anxiety along with emotional exhaustion. Individuals under strain exert 'defensive coping strategies', and their coping strategy is cynicism.
Burnout often appears similar to depression. Many items overlap between a burnout evaluation index (SMBM) and a screening index for depression (PHQ-9) created by WHO. Many studies support that there is a certain correlation between burnout and depression. Burnout and depression are clearly connected. According to a study in Finland, when depression occurs due to problems at work, burnout can be the first phenomenon in that process. So, if you're wondering if you've got burnout, it might be a good idea to assess yourself for depression. Please refer to a separate post for a description of depression.
In addressing burnout, personal effort must precede social or organizational efforts. While research clearly supports the view that situational factors lead to burnout, unfortunately, treatments and preventative measures are more supported by individual efforts. Here are the most recommended approaches:
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