eBusiness Weekly
I’m sure by now you’ve come across the term burn-out, but is it a modern affliction or a human condition?
The technical term for burnout according to the World Health Organisation is thought to be a syndrome brought on by ongoing work-related stress that has not been managed.
It has three defining characteristics: emotions of energy depletion or fatigue; reduced professional efficacy and, among other things, an increase in mental distance from one’s employment.
In short, to be burned out is to be used up, like a battery so depleted that it can’t be recharged. In people, unlike batteries. Around the world, three out of five workers say they suffer from burn-out.
Although burn-out has been said to date to 1973; it has become synonymous with the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Burn-out is becoming a serious and widespread problem despite the World Health Organisation’s official recognition of it in its International Classification of diseases in 2019.
CNBC reports that burn-out is on the rise, especially among young millennials and Gen Z women. The 42 percent mark a new record since Future Forum began measuring work burn-out in May 2021 which is up from 38 percent.
“Nearly half (48 percent) of 18-to-29-year-olds said they feel drained compared with 40 percent of their peers age 30 and up, while women (46 percent) reported higher levels of burn-out than men (37 percent),” the news report read.
Burn-out is more likely to occur in women and people under 30 than in everyone else. It affects women and young working adults more than other groups for a variety of reasons, but researchers concur that the Covid-19 pandemic and economic concerns have worsened stress and disengagement in these populations.
Since 2019, the gap between women and men reporting higher degrees of burn-out has more than doubled, according to Gallup.
The explanation for this widening gap can be boiled down to gender inequities: Women were found to be more prone to burnout than men in a 2018 study published by researchers from the University of Montreal.
The study followed 2 026 workers over four years and found that women were more likely to be in positions of less authority and less likely to be promoted than men.
The researchers also discovered that women were more likely to be the heads of single-parent homes, to struggle with child-related issues, to spend time on household chores, and to have poorer self-esteem — all of which make burnout worse.
Additionally, young people are more likely to have lay-off anxiety than older, more experienced workers, which may explain such a surge in burn-out.
There is cause for concern in South Africa, where mental health indicators are among the poorest in the world, and our legislation does not provide enough protection for employees regarding mental
illness.
Besides impacting individuals suffering from it profoundly on their health and well-being, the condition has a significant impact on their families, their workplace, and their economy as a whole.
Sweden is about the only country to recognise burn-out as a disease, you can go on sick leave for burnout. That’s probably harder to do here because burnout is not recognised as a mental health disorder. — IOL Health
