Job burnout isn’t just work-related stress — it’s a health issue
Working from her rental in Brighton Heights, Alison Falk, 27, has often forgotten to give herself a break.
She’s a full-time master’s student, pursuing an online degree in cybersecurity engineering from George Washington University.
Plus, she’s the founder of “Women in Technology: Pittsburgh,” where she spotlights women’s contributions to the field through interviews, events and more. And then there’s her publication “Sex Tech Space,” a bimonthly magazine on the intersection of human sexuality and tech.
In the past, it seemed there was never a moment to pause. Or if there was, Ms. Falk didn’t take the opportunity — she felt ashamed.
“We have productivity guilt as young people,” she said. “It perpetuates this cycle of burnout.”
She kept it up until her body could no longer physically handle it. About two months ago, Ms. Falk scheduled back-to-back meetings for seven hours straight. She didn’t even stop to eat.
“I started to get dizzy and shaky ... that’s when I realized I needed to take a step back and balance my professional life with self-care,” she said.
Ms. Falk is part of the estimated 23% of the U.S. workforce impacted by feelings of burnout “very often or always,” which can often morph from mental to physical health concerns, according to a 2018 study by Washington, D.C.based Gallup, an analytics and polling business.
In totality, about two-thirds of full-time workers experience burnout on the job, according to the report.
Burnout — that feeling of mental exhaustion that comes after working too much — is now being recognized as more than a career hindrance.
In May, the World Health Organization a Geneva-based arm of the United Nations, officially classified burnout as an “occupational phenomenon” that could be diagnosed as a medical condition.
“I started to get dizzy and shaky ... that’s when I realized I needed to take a step back and balance my professional life with selfcare.” Alison Falk
Not a new risk
Deborah Good, a clinical assistant professor of business at the University of Pittsburgh, said it’s significant that the health organization classified burnout as a “phenomenon” rather than a “hazard.”
A hazard designation, she said, would trigger action from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which sets and enforces safety standards in the workplace.
Offices would then need to put specific controls in place to ensure workers aren’t exposed to health risks.
Ms. Good noted that burnout isn’t necessarily a new phenomenon just because it’s now being formally recognized.
“A lot of times, things that appear and have labels on them are not new, they just are renamed. In the 1990s, when we really had women first coming to the workforce ... we began talking about superwomen who could work
and be the PTA mom,” she said. “That was burnout too.”
In Japan, some workers have been so overloaded that they’ve died. There’s even a term for it: “Karoshi,” which translates to “overwork death.” The term was coined in 1978 to describe workers dying from fatal strokes and heart attacks that could be traced back to overworking.
Chronic work stress
To be diagnosed with burnout, three criteria must be present, according to the World Health Organization: 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.
Most people experience these feelings at some point in their professional lives, but that doesn’t necessarily equal burnout — just as a stomachache doesn’t necessarily mean you’ve developed a chronic disease.
Workers should consult their physicians and avoid self-diagnosis.
It’s also important that medical professionals first ensure that an individual isn’t suffering from a separate, nonwork related mental health condition, like anxiety or depression.
If the mental health issue seems to be directly related to the workplace, there are a few approaches that may help reduce negative outcomes.
The Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit medical center in Rochester, Minn., found talking in small groups can help mitigate feelings of burnout at the office.
While working with a group of medical doctors, researchers at the Mayo Clinic found allowing them to chat in small groups at restaurants, coffee shops or in conference rooms resulted in higher levels of employee satisfaction and reduced feelings of social isolation.
So those kitchenettes with free food at Google’s various offices may be about more than just organic juice and potato chips — they could be a way to keep employees balanced.
But there are other corporate “benefits” like a cool office or free food that may look attractive at first, and then in practice lead to unhealthy habits.
Unlimited vacation is a perk some employers offer that allows workers to do exactly what the name suggests: take off as much time as they want. However, even if employees get the job done, they feel guilty taking time off. So they don’t.
Ms. Good suggests that employers can help alleviate burnout by paying close attention to the signs and intervening.
One way to help can be allowing employees to work from home a few days per week where appropriate, she said. However, it’s not a one-size-fits-all fix.
‘Just part of the job’
The tech industry has its own quirks when it comes to burnout. On Reddit, where many developers hang out in online forums to chat, users recalled their own struggles.
“My boss burned out when his 5-year-old was tasked by his teacher to draw a picture of his family and my boss wasn’t in it. His son didn’t see him as a member of the family,” wrote one user, KayakBassFisher.
That person was working over 100 hours per week, according to the user, and resigned the next day.
“Technology work can really mess with your eyes ... and hands. You can literally see the arthritis on some people’s finger joints! Take lots of small breaks,” wrote u/EvitaPuppy. “I found the best thing was to walk at lunchtime. Sitting in a chair for 8+ hours is the new cancer.”
Stop scrolling
Although burnout has become “just part of the job” for many workers, the hard organizational cost can be substantial: Burned-out employees are 63% more likely to take a sick day and 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job, according to Gallup.
Even if they stay, workers with burnout typically have 13% lower confidence in their performance and are half as likely to discuss how to approach performance goals with their manager.
Ms. Falk has taken a few steps to reduce her burnout.
She has learned how to manage her work/life balance by taking on less. “I’ve learned how to say no ... if people actually respect your work, they’ll respect your boundaries,” Ms. Falk said.
She also has an unconventional way of unplugging: Ms. Falk relies on her bird — a cockatiel named Stinky — to bring her back to reality.
“If he’s sitting on my shoulder and I’m wondering if I’ve done enough and he screeches, it brings me back to earth,” she said. “It reminds me to stop scrolling, stop being so consumed with the digital world.”