Labor groups to employers: Help prevent burnout
Labor groups on Tuesday urged employers to see past their profit margins and look after the well-being of their workers, following the pronouncement of the World Health Organization (WHO) that burnout due to work is a legitimate medical condition.
According to the Federation of Free Workers (FFW), burnout in the workplace, though long overlooked, is most common among call center employees who deal with irate customers, and manufacturing workers who try to meet their quotas.
“This is a big challenge since a lot of employers find it difficult to comply with existing basic standards, such as having enough doctors and nurses depending on the firm’s size and having fulltime safety officers. The occupational safety and health culture really has to change,” FFW vice president Julius Cainglet said.
Chronic workplace stress
On Monday, the WHO included burnout in its International Classification of Diseases, which is widely used as a benchmark for diagnosis and health insurers.
The decision, reached during the World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland, which wraps up on Tuesday, could help put to rest decades of debate among experts over how to define burnout, and whether it should be considered a medical condition.
The assembly defined burnout as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
The syndrome is characterized by “feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and reduced professional efficacy.”
Josua Mata, secretary general of Sentro ng mga Nagkakaisa at Progresibong Manggagawa, said that apart from improving a workplace’s occupational safety and health program, the best way to address burnout is for the country to pass the security of tenure law.
“After all, what could be more stressful than worrying about being unemployed due to lack of job security?” Mata said.
For the Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines, the WHO classification brings to light the need for employers to provide their workers not only with recreational activities but also with routine paid rest.