The Work Burnout Series, Part 1: Work Burnout Symptoms

Read about burnout symptoms, what causes burnout, and why/how burnout happens.

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En-masse, people on a global scale seem to be burning out or on a path sloping down towards burning out. This especially includes medical or service professionals in the COVID epidemic, but also others outside of the medical/service fields (which is the sector where the concept of “burn out” originated from), too, such as tech, business, and client services.

One person in technology whom I talked to in my burnout research spoke this truth to the trend of burnout:

“While you may feel like an only, you’re actually not alone. More and more people feel this way and are having internal battles, monologues, and awareness to their own struggles with burnout, too.”

Another person I spoke with from digital marketing provided this lucid and tragic account of the damage wreaked on individuals, relationships, and society by burnout:

“Personally, I’ve seen people develop life-long physical disabilities due to stress of burnout. I’ve seen people become alcoholics to cope with burnout and blacklist themselves from the industry. I’ve seen managers expect individual members to stay late if the team is staying late (even if there’s no within their core responsibilities.) I’ve seen young talent get taken advantage of since their labor is cheap. I’ve seen people get verbally abusive around launch time due to overwork. I’ve seen people have serious mental breaks in the office and disappear.. [Or] take a year off work to mentally and physically recover after 10 years of overwork.”

But what exactly is burnout? How is burnout defined? What are burnout symptoms? What are the causes of burnout? What helps us avoid burnout, or deal with it if we have already become burned out?

This essay is part 1 of a 4-part series that aims to answer the above questions and shed more light on the theme of work burnout overall.

What is burnout?

In 2019, the World Health Organization elevated its recognition of the seriousness of burnout by upgrading burnout’s classification to an “occupational phenomenon.” Previously, the WHO simply defined burnout as a “state of vital exhaustion.”

The WHO’s definition of occupational burnout is:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:

1 — feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;

2 — increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and

3 — reduced professional efficacy”

Herbert Freudenberger (and Gail North), who officially coined the term “burnout” envisioned it as “burnout syndrome,” which is the 12th stage of a series of 12 progressive stages, including:

1. The compulsion to prove oneself

2. Working harder

3. Neglecting needs

4. Displacement of conflicts

5. Revision of values

6. Denial of emerging problems

7. Withdrawal

8. Odd behavioral changes

9. Depersonalization

10. Inner emptiness

11. Depression

12. Burnout syndrome

Why does burnout happen?

There are many reason that can lead people to burn out.

For me, it was a combination of many things, such as:

• Not wanting to disappoint others

• Not taking the time to fully process my grief and sadness for a personal loss

• Believing that the happiness that would come from “succeeding” in entrepreneurship was going to make it all worthwhile, and that I couldn’t slow down or take a break, or else everything would start to unravel

Some common and diverse kinds of influencing factors include:

• Personal loss/pain

• Perfectionism or a need for control

• An intense work environment with high/unreasonable demands

• Not wanting to disappoint others or an inability to say no/prioritize one’s own wellbeing

• Trying to prove oneself; trying to get rid of the chip on the shoulder or outrun pain in the past

• Disillusionment from reaching a goal that doesn’t bring lasting happiness and resulting in doubling down

Here are some other comments from people who have burned out on the firsthand causes of burnout:

• “Having to adapt to a new environment of uncertainty in a new company”

• “An unhealthy coupling of my self-worth with my work performance, or how my work performance was perceived.”

• “Navigating ‘top performer’ status and ensuring I’m working on what the business feels is most important/impactful”

• “Unfortunately most of us push down/ignore [burnout] early signs due to work etiquette (what your CV should look like) and the need for a stable salary”

Continue reading at GabeKwakyi.com

And read more burnout causes from real people at Learn About Burnout.

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