You may see it in your co-workers, your staff, but will you recognise it in yourself?
The fallout from COVID-19 is continuing to take it toll. We have heard all the stories of the pressures that out Health Service, HSE staff, essential workers and others who went above and beyond. Like stress in any occupation, however, you can only handle so much before facing Burnout.
We’ve all heard the term, but do you know what it is? Can you spot it in your family, co-workers or in yourself? Most importantly, what can be done about this life-endangering condition? What can we do if burnout haunts those close to home? Read this too:Welcome to the Post-Pandemic Workplace
In her book, The Burnout Epidemic, author Jennifer Moss describes and suggests lifesaving ways of “recognizing and responding to burnout.”
In my opinion, it should be considered highly recommended reading for CEOs and upper-management-level employees; it is that valuable.
Jennifer began our interview by noting that, “A great deal of misinformation about this phenomenon tends to minimize just how serious a problem it is.” She describes how management — and employees — are failing to deal with it.
1. Managers don’t see burnout when it’s right in front of them
Consequences: Not recognizing the signs of burnout and prioritizing a response to it in your organization leads to misdiagnosing the problem. One example is labelling employees as underperforming when they are actually chronically stressed. This is one of the main causes of what is now being described as “The Great Resignation” – staff are no longer prepared to accept these levels of stress and looking for a change or to exit the workforce entirely.
2. Employees don’t admit to themselves that something is terribly wrong
Consequences: Workers are falling off the cliff from burnout, leading to long-term unemployment, resulting in a nationwide economic impact. The evening news — where tearful health care professionals admit to being resentful of COVID patients who refuse to be vaccinated — is the perfect example of what burnout does to people. They lose empathy and quit caring.
It is a true psychological disorder, the result of chronic stress, that has a profound impact on brain function. For employees, the following feelings are indicators of burnout:
- A sense of failure and self-doubt.
- Feeling helpless, trapped, defeated.
- Detachment, feeling alone in the world.
- Loss of motivation. “Just going through the motions.”
- An increasingly cynical and negative outlook. Anger.
- Greatly decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
- Gastrointestinal issues, headaches, anxiety. Extreme fatigue. Insomnia.
3. Managers falsely believe that burnout suddenly appears and can just as suddenly vanish.
Consequences: Many managers don’t know how to recognise burnout when it’s there. They fail to address the mental health among employees with high-stress jobs, only accepting that someone is in trouble is when they hit a wall, don’t show up to work or go home in tears.
It isn’t something that just happens one day. There is a point where it can be dealt with, but if left to fester and grow, it can reach a point of no return . Management needs to prioritize mental health. Co-workers should be aware of and look for these typical outward signs of burnout and encourage those exhibiting them to seek professional help:
- Increased absenteeism.
- Impaired focus. “She often seems to be physically exhausted.”
- Disengagement. “I used to care, but I just don’t anymore.”
- Being overly sensitive to feedback in a way that’s greatly different from their usual positive attitude.
- Keeping away from others. Isolation.
- Headaches, nausea, loss of appetite or weight gain, as food becomes a coping mechanism.
- Decreased productivity. Inability to catch up. More errors.
Top of Form
“Overwork and burnout contributed to more than 745,000 deaths worldwide in just one year,” concluded a World Health Organization study reported in Psychology Today. “People working 55 or more hours per week have an estimated 35% higher risk of a stroke and a 17% higher risk of dying from heart disease than those who work 35-40 hours a week.”
4. They fail to recognize the risk inherent in their whole field.
For example, lawyers, physicians, financial, insurance and tax advisers, health care — people in caregiver/lifesaving roles are vulnerable. Certain occupations, such as Tech and Software struggle due to workload and unrealistic deadlines, plus the high level of neurodiversity in their professions. In addition, police, nursing, EMT, firefighters — often due to low staffing — essentially obligate employees to work overtime or take on additional shift work.
Consequences: People who are attracted to these occupations generally have Type-A personalities, high levels of compassion, and tend to be perfectionists. If you are looking for a strong predictor of hitting the wall, it’s members of these groups.
In Technology, a field that has extremely high levels of burnout, work in software/IT is carefully planned. It rarely allows sufficient time or resources to debugging or testing, which is an incredibly challenging time as staff, management and CEO are invariably going over their deadline to deliver.
I asked Jennifer, “How can family and friends help?”
“When you hear, ‘I’m fine,’ read between the lines. If they say things like, ‘I am so tired. It will never change. It will always be like this,” these are warning signs you must not ignore. Get them to a mental health counsellor regardless of their protest. You may very well be saving their life.”
