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Burnout: The Silent Executor

Birsu Obalar
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March 25, 2021

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This article will introduce the following points:

  • What is a burnout?
  • Why do we burn out in the first place?
  • How can we prevent the road to burnout? And how can we deal with it?

What is a Burnout?

The definition by Maslach, Jackson and Leiter (1996), is the most popular one. Burnout is a psychological phenomena linked to long-term stressors from work. The three main characteristics are: 

  1. Exhaustion 
  2. Cynicism
  3. Low levels of professional efficacy [5,6].

Study or Academic burnout is defined by a feeling of tiredness because of academic demands, feeling like you are not good enough for your study and/or feeling detached from what you are studying [6]. 

The three characteristics mentioned above are linked with different burnout types. These burnout types are: 

  1. Overload burnout - is associated with exhaustion. This happens when employees overwork themselves in order to achieve a successful outcome, at the cost of their personal lives, and sometimes even their health.
  2. Lack of development/under-challenge burnout - is associated with cynicism. This type is driven by not having enough opportunities for personal growth or development.
  3. Neglect burnout - is associated with low professional efficacy. It is feeling like you are not good enough to fulfil work responsibilities [4].

Why do we burn out in the first place? 

The causes of burnout mostly depend on what type you are experiencing. In other words, it depends on whether you are struggling at university, school, job or in another aspect of your life. Indeed, some researchers suggest that burnout can be seen in different domains of life or in distinct situations, while others hold that burnout solely occurs in work-specific environments. Despite this debate, the causes are quite clear.

In literature, seven causes of burnout have received a lot of attention. These causes are: 

  1. Lack of control over one’s destiny - highlights the low degree of decision making. When employees cannot engage in decision making, it can lead them to feeling stressed or trapped in the job.
  2. Lack of occupational feedback and communication - In most situations, people want to learn what behaviors are considered as good and bad. Naturally, this varies a lot depending on what kind of industry, organization, job you work at. If feedback is not given frequently and clearly, this can lead employees to be stressed about how well they are performing
  3. Work overload or underload - this focuses on having either too much work to do, such as long hours, working with complicated people or dealing with crises, or not having challenging work to do. Whenever people are overwhelmed with work, it can cause them to sacrifice their physical or mental health [1]. On the other hand, not being challenged enough or having a narrow set of tasks to do, will most likely lead people to boredom.
  4. Contact overload -  This means having too much social stimulation. In some jobs, for example teaching or counseling, you can have many social interactions of which some may be unpleasant or unfruitful, which will result in increased levels of distress.
  5. Role conflict or role ambiguity -  Here, an employee does not know what is expected of them at their job. Role conflict and ambiguity have been related to decreased job satisfaction, high levels of frustration and decreased levels of trust in the organization.
  6. Individual factors - such as personality and situational variables that may lead people to feel stressed. For instance, it is very likely that your work performance will decline if you are struggling financially. Another factor is neuroticism, which can increase the levels of anxiety in all of the presented causes, compared to other people [1]. 

The student perspective [9] paints a different picture. A study investigating the obstacles and facilitators of academic performance looked at burnout and engagement as a consequence of successful or unsuccess. As the number of obstacles increases, burnout increases as well. However, the authors did not find any effects on performance. The finding that burnout and performance have a weak relationship is quite common amongst studies. Thus, the outcomes and causes of burnout are still debated [6]. Other reasons that may lead to burnout in students are the pressure of getting a job after graduation, the education given in schools (e.g., too much theory and not much practice), self-efficacy and self-attribution (failures are attributed to poor personal skills) [9]. 

People that are working and studying during these difficult times are probably experiencing extra pressure from their environments, as they need to adapt to new dynamics through an online system. The impact of COVID-19 is still being investigated, but it is obvious that it’s having dangerous consequences on students and workers. 

How can we prevent the road to burnout?

People develop various coping strategies to deal with their burnout, which are often maladaptive and only reinforce a state of stress. Some of these strategies include passiveness, hence ignoring the problem, engaging in substance or venting emotions to others. A way to battle these is to eliminate negative cognitions related to burnout (“I am not good enough” or “It will always be like this”). Moreover, mindfulness, emotional regulation training, acceptance and commitment therapy are also proven to be useful [4]. 

Most of the time, people discover that they are burnt out when the worst possible symptoms hit them (e.g., stomach ulcers, heart problems, not being able to enjoy life, being unable to work). However, this can be prevented. 

Here are some tips to prevent the road to burnout:

  1. Take a walk everyday for 30 minutes, make it a part of your schedule and be mindful about it. Mindfulness has been found to have many benefits. When you are stressed, it is good to take 20 to 30 minutes away from the workplace/study space [7]. During this time, let your mind cool off from all the responsibilities. Don’t listen to music, but focus on yourself, your emotions and your surroundings. 
  2. At work, it can help to ask for different responsibilities to make your work more engaging and varied. 
  3. Make your work more engaging and fun. For example, having a leaderboard with your friends or colleagues can make you more motivated. A study shows that making work playful can result in less burnout and more innovation behaviors. This should be encouraged both by the managers and the organization[3].  
  4. Take care of yourself. Sometimes, we get caught up with everything going around us and so we forget about ourselves. It is okay to slow down, breathe and take some time off from people, work and responsibilities. 
  5. Whether you are a student or a worker, take a vacation. It is easier said than done during COVID-19. However, taking yourself out to a date or treating yourself can also be considered vacation nowadays. Take a day off work and safely travel to a new part in the city that you have not discovered yet. Don’t forget to wear a mask :) 

In conclusion, 

Burnout research is still developing and finding more ways to solve this global phenomena. There are different types of burnout and some types are still being debated in terms of their existence or relation to other variables. Some people experience burnout because of workplace related issues, whereas others experience because of study-related stress. Unfortunately, the outcome will damage the person. Always remember to take care of yourself and to play it slow. The only person you have to catch up with is yourself: instead of running, try walking! 

Have you ever felt this way? If you did, how did you cope with it? Let us know!

Additional resources:

References

  1. Beheshtifar, M., & Omidvar, A. R. (2013). Causes to Create Job Burnout in Organizations. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences, 3(6), 107.
  2. Bianchi, R., Truchot, D., Laurent, E., Brisson, R., & Schonfeld, I. S. (2014). Is Burnout Solely Job‐related? A Critical Comment. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 55(4), 357-361.
  3. Lee, A. Y. P., Wang, Y. H., & Yang, F. R. (2019). Feeling Exhausted? Let’s Play–How Play in Work Relates to Experienced Burnout and Innovation Behaviors. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 1-20.
  4. Montero-Marin, J., Prado-Abril, J., Demarzo, M. M. P., Gascon, S., & García-Campayo, J. (2014). Coping with Stress and Types of Burnout: Explanatory Power of Different Coping Strategies. PloS one, 9(2), e89090.
  5. Robins, T. G., Roberts, R. M., & Sarris, A. (2018). The Role of Student Burnout in Predicting Future Burnout: Exploring the Transition from University to the Workplace. Higher Education Research & Development, 37(1), 115-130.
  6. Salanova, M., Schaufeli, W., Martínez, I., & Bresó, E. (2010). How Obstacles and Facilitators Predict Academic Performance: The Mediating Role of Study Burnout and Engagement. Anxiety, stress & coping, 23(1), 53-70.
  7. Taylor, N. Z., & Millear, P. M. R. (2016). The Contribution of Mindfulness to Predicting Burnout in the Workplace. Personality and Individual Differences, 89, 123-128.
  8. World Health Organization. (2019, May). Burn-out an "Occupational phenomenon": International classification of diseases. Retrieved from: https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
  9. Wu, W. (2010). Study on College Students' Learning Burnout. Asian Social Science, 6(3), 132.

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