BURNOUT

“Burnout is everybody’s business” - Mark Butler

In this recent series of newsletters, I have been sharing several types of mental health problems that are experienced by teams and workpalces in a great many sectors in our world.

Our tag line has been “It Might Not Be Burnout”. But, sometimes it is. Or sometimes, the issues we are dealing with lead to and result in burnout. There is an abundance of material already available on the concept of burnout, but for the sake of balance

Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by prolonged stress, often seen in just about every workplace setting. It’s definition in the academic and medical journals describe it as:

“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by 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; and reduced professional efficacy” (WHO, 2019).

Unlike specific stressors like vicarious trauma or moral distress, burnout is generally linked to workload, lack of control, and job dissatisfaction. Symptoms can range from exhaustion and apathy to reduced professional ability and, when chronic, the emergence of mental health disorders like anxiety and depression.

Addressing work-related burnout generally involves organisational changes, workload management, and self-care strategies.

Understanding burnout is essential, not just as a standalone issue but also for its potential to coexist with other workplace mental health challenges. Indeed, we can often see burnout occurring when the aforementioned mental health and work-related challenges are not addressed effectively.

Furthermore, when we assume all of the mentioned mental health issues are assumed to be burnout, our approaches to rectify them will fall short and can even be detrimental to the wellbeing of our people.

I can help with that. As a Clinical Director, I have developed and delivered programs tackling extreme levels of burnout and mental ill-health in individuals and groups for over a decade.

If this information is important enough for your to read this far, then please share it with anyone you know that needs to read it as well.