How to deal with burnout at work

What is burnout at work?

‘Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.’

These are the words of the World Health Organization, which updated its definition of burnout in 2019, in a move crucial to underscoring the global impact of modern employee burnout.² They make sure to push the message that burnout is not an official medical condition.

Burnout was first identified by Herbert Freudenberger, a psychologist working at a substance abuse clinic in 1970s New York City. The definition he uses in his book Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement is: ‘a state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a cause, way of life, or relationship that failed to produce the expected reward.’

Throughout his practice, Freudenberger noticed a troubling trend among his clinic's most dedicated staff. These once enthusiastic volunteers would lose their charisma, become cynical and even show signs of physical illness. But despite their emotional exhaustion, they'd put in more and more hours, even as their work became less and less effective.

What was happening? Freudenberger had personal experience with these exact symptoms and called it ‘burnout’. He further investigated this occupational phenomenon and would later publish articles and a book about it. Thanks to him, the term ‘burnout’ became a familiar term for an all too common ailment.

According to a recent FlexJobs and Mental Health America survey of more than 1,500 people more than 75% have felt burned out at work.³ Over the years, understanding about burnout has improved and expanded beyond clinical settings.

In summary:

• Workplace burnout is job-related.
• Chronic stress that isn't managed well leads to burnout.
• In the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the WHO classifies burnout as an occupational phenomenon,not a medical condition.⁴

What are the symptoms of burnout at work?

Burnout isn't easy to spot, especially from the perspective of someone suffering from its effects. The nature of burnout means there's a good chance you'll be so caught up in the stresses of your environment that you don't pay attention to your body and overall well being.

You might identify it early enough to prevent anything major, but some people only spot burnout when it's too late, having suffered a medical problem or serious mental health issue.

In his articles, Herbert Freudenberger said that if you're feeling burnt you're likely to experience some of the following symptoms:⁵

• Frequent headaches
• Gastrointestinal problems
• Sleeplessness
• Depression
• Resentment
• Irritability
  

Alongside these, more recent research suggests you might also experience:

• Forgetfulness
• Trouble staying focused for more than a few minutes at a time
• Anxiety
• Loss of appetite

These issues can have other causes but they serve as an indicator of the long-term physical and mental stresses that burnout tends to involve.

What are the signs of burnout at work?

Given the negative effects of such an occupational hazard, it's wise to be on the lookout for signs of job burnout in yourself (and in your team, if you're responsible for others).

Here are a few ways to identify the signs of burnout so you can take preventative action to create an employee experience that boosts employee engagement and well-being.

Job burnout, according to the WHO, has three dimensions

• 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

If you're observing a burnout coworker you might notice the following behavior changes:

• Increased frequency of sickness absence. Employees experiencing burnout are 63% more likely to call in sick and 23% more likely to go to the emergency room.⁶
• A careless attitude towards punctuality or delivering projects on time.
• Reduced willingness to participate in social events. 83% of full-time US professionals say that job burnout negatively affects their personal relationships.⁷
• Boundaries between work and personal life start to blur (especially common in remote work arrangements). Those who struggle with balancing home and work are 4.4x more likely to show signs of job burnout.⁸
• Not taking allocated vacation time and working through instead.

What causes burnout at work?

So what causes job burnout? As we learned above, the WHO describes burnout as a result of chronic workplace stress that has not been managed. So, anything that stresses you out at work for an extended period can lead to burnout.

Remote workers have a particularly difficult time defending their boundaries and finding a healthy work-life balance, and are at a high risk for burnout.

Here are some common causes of work-related stress:

Lack of recognition

Feeling like no one appreciates your work never feels good. And as it turns out, it can also contribute to burnout. According to Dice's Salary Survey, 36% of tech pros reported that a lack of recognition caused them to feel burned out.⁹

Lack of autonomy and opportunity for professional development

Physicians at the University of Alabama at Birmingham have a burnout rate of just 13% well below the national average. What made the difference? Well, UAB provides these physicians with the autonomy to choose what aligns with their purpose and even provides leadership development with coaching.¹⁰

Not leveraging your strengths

Working in a role that doesn’t make the most of your unique strengths can drain energy, leading to burnout. Each of us has a set of workplace motivations that drive us,  if these are ignored, we quickly lose interest. For example, if you have an affinity for group environments but are constantly working solo at home, you’ll feel exhausted. Or if you have a need for structure but work in a chaotic environment with a manager who gives you tasks at the last minute, you’ll feel stressed.

Understand your motivations by taking our evidence-based free assessment. In minutes, you’ll have a detailed report of your preferred work environment and communication style, so you feel re-energized at work by aligning tasks to your strengths.

Unfair treatment

Gallup identified unfair treatment at work as one of the 5 main causes of burnout.¹¹ When an employee feels that they are treated unfairly at work, it more than doubles the likelihood that they'll feel highly burnt out.

Working too many hours

Overworking causes job burnout, whether it's from an overbearing boss's unrealistic expectations or from the employee's own commitment to their work.

As Freudenberger saw with the free clinic staff, those with job burnout often make the mistake of working more, in the hopes they can improve outcomes-only to find that they're getting less done.

Unclear boundaries

Even if an employee doesn't work too many hours, they can still feel stressed if there are no clear work-life boundaries. According to a 2018 Virginia Tech study, when an organization expects its employees to answer work emails after hours, those employees feel like they're ‘always on’ which harms their health-even if they're not doing any actual work.¹²

Never taking a vacation

Taking time off is good for employees' wellbeing. The American Psychological Association's 2018 Work and Well-Being Survey found that 68% of Americans reported improved mood, 66% reported more energy and 57% reported feeling less stressed after returning to work from a vacation.¹³

But, the same survey found many barriers to American employees taking a vacation, including:

• Their employers don't provide paid time off.
• Their organization's culture ‍and their supervisors don't encourage taking time off.
• Their workload makes it challenging to take time off.
  

These findings point to a need for a cultural shift in organizations to help employees feel comfortable taking the break they need.

Poor workplace communication

According to Dynamic Signal's 2019 State of Employee Communication and Engagement Study, 80% of American employees feel stressed because of poor communication at work. Sixty-three percent of them have been so stressed by it that they've wanted to quit their job!¹⁴

What are the five stages of burnout?

Winona State University in Minnesota offers a unique take on burnout in their stress management guide for students and faculty. Researchers at the institution created a 5 stage guide to burnout for assessing an individual's risk of burning out:¹⁵

1. The honeymoon phase

This is a phase where burnout isn't really on your mind. It's when you've just started a new role or project and are developing an affinity for it, you're in a state of high focus and flow. You're committed to the task at hand and feel creative and determined to perform well.

It could be referred to eustress (the opposite of distress), but while it can be beneficial to some extent, you need to have proper coping mechanisms and relaxation techniques to avoid getting overwhelmed.¹⁶

2. The balancing act

This is where you become aware of some of the negative aspects of your job, and start to feel the pressure. Some days are more enjoyable than others, and you're beginning to feel fatigued occasionally.

Classic symptoms of stress start to appear, anxiety, lack of sleep, and general dissatisfaction with your job. Your lower productivity might appear alongside escapist activities in your downtime, where you distract yourself from stress rather than relax in a healthy way.

3. Chronic symptoms

Stress symptoms are now becoming severe, with noticeable physical ailments becoming a regular, or even persistent, experience. Exhaustion, general illness, depression and emotional swings have become the norm for you.

In this stage, you'll start to withdraw more from friends and family, and your colleagues will increasingly notice your poor performance and attitude at work.

4. The crisis

This stage is where your burnout symptoms become critical, and severely impair your ability to manage your personal life and working life.

Your physical symptoms will worsen to the point of potentially causing long-term damage to your body. Your attitude will be almost exclusively negative, with most days being a blur of anxiety and struggle.

You're likely to develop unhealthy habits to distract yourself from these feelings, such as drinking, drug taking, or other escapist pursuits.

5. Enmeshment

Life is burnout; burnout is life. The symptoms of burnout are now so 'enmeshed' in your life that you're more likely to be labeled as having some significant physical or emotional problem than you are to be called a burnout case.

The hope is, of course, that you'd never make it near that final stage. It's an extreme example that highlights the fact that burnout is a scale, rather than a single point. It's a state you can reach over time in situations of constant stress.

The good news is that you can fix things before they get too bad and if you act early enough, you can prevent symptoms from happening altogether.

What are the subtypes of burnout?

There are 3 distinct types of burnout, and it's crucial to understand the type of burnout you or your team members are experiencing in order to know which solutions to implement to help fix it.

These types are:

Frenetic burnout

Frenetic burnout is the most common type suffered by people who give 110% of their energy to their work, usually due to underlying anxiety.

This often means they are high performers, and even overachievers, so their managers contribute to creating an unmanageable workload, assuming they are doing fine.

Their bosses are hesitant to suggest they slow down in fear that it will result in decreased output, but this couldn't be further from the truth.

Investing this level of energy into work is unsustainable and if left unaddressed, it will inevitably lead to reduced personal accomplishment and burnout.

Worn-out burnout

Worn-out burnout happens frequently in a toxic workplace culture where there is little social support, work life balance or high levels of work related stress that goes unmanaged by HR or leaders. Workplace trauma is often a key contributor, too. This type frequently leads to depressive symptoms and low job satisfaction.

Throughout the pandemic, managers struggled with compassion fatigue due to challenges in their personal life, plus the personal issues of everyone they worked with, while keeping their team energized, engaged and focused on hitting targets.

If your team is struggling with worn-out burnout, forget about giving them gadgets, lunches, or a Zoom happy hour, they need time off to rest and decompress, no strings attached.¹⁷

Underchallenged burnout

Underchallenged burnout is straightforward: it happens when someone does not feel sufficiently challenged by one's job.

If you suspect one of your employees is suffering from this type of burnout, it's important to use it as a catalyst to start an honest conversation around what types of projects they find most stimulating—do not simply add more projects to their workload as that could quickly backfire and cause them to resign.

Employees who are burned out are 2.6 times as likely to be looking for a new job.¹⁸ And almost half of millennials say they’ve quit a job because of burnout.¹⁹

The most effective way to match people to the projects that excite them is to use our crazy-accurate assessment tool that measures 48 different motivations at work. Set your personal goal and AI Coach Marlee will match you with personalized coaching programs to help you achieve your goals.