Burnout

Introduction

Despite the conviction of quick-talking influencers on the socials, the conceptualisation, diagnosis, objective measures, prevention and recovery of burnout are not resolved issues in academic research. Rather, it’s a phenomenon that has received considerable attention over the past 5 decades. Thankfully, that attention has led to advanced knowledge on the prevalence, predictors, and outcomes of burnout. It remains an timely and important research topic with great potential to shape an improved future work design. In this piece, I’ll offer you a brief history of the research, commonly found outcomes, and evidence-based recommendations that may help mitigate its impact.

I will not do it in 60 seconds, and will not use absolute terms. I’m an Organisational Psychologist, not an influencer. I work within science, not within trends.

Brief history of research

Back in 1974, an American psychologist called Herbert Freudenberger introduced the term “Burnout” into academic use after studying stress responses in volunteers of a free clinic in New York. He used the term as a way to describe gradual depletion, reduced productivity, and commitment reduction. For him, the first sign of burnout was an employee working harder and longer, but their accomplishment diminshing (Freudenberger, 1974).

Meanwhile, over in California Christine Maslach and her colleagues were conducting research interviews with human services workers. The participants reported feeling exhausted and had begun to develop a negative attitude toward the service reception. Maslach and her team then defined burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment, that can occur among individuals who work with people in some capacity” (Maslach & Jackson, 1984, p. 134). Incidentally, Maslach also developed something called the MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory). It remains a well-known and oft-used self-reporting instrument in evaluating burnout in human services workers (Lubbadeh, 2020).

During much of the 1990s, there was an assumption that burnout was a response to chronic emotional, interpersonal or social stressors at work (Maslach et al., 2001). During that time, the exclusively of burnout in only the human-services sector was rejected and research shifted to consider other fields. Scholars have adapted a more general conceptualization and operationalization (how we study a concept). Other inventories (e.g., surveys) have been designed to better understand the phenomenon in other lines of work, and in general. This has made the research and findings more applicable to a wider range of jobs, industries, and workers (Demerouti et al., 2021).

So, what is it?

Even though there are a variety of burnout definitions, most scholars agree that exhaustion is a core component. Additionally, research consistently links some sort of cognitive impairment - perhaps slowed thinking processes and reduced mental agility - as a key dimension as well.

For an individual, burnout may have long-term effects on their health. Studies have suggested that workers with high levels of burnout may have a greater risk for mental health problems. For an organisation, burnout may lower productivity, reduce effectiveness, job satisfaction and commitment. Studies have also have associated burnout with absenteeism and turnover. For an excellent and thorough paper explaining where we are currently in burnout research, do read New directions in burnout research by Demerouti, Bakker, Peeters, & Breevaart (2021).

What is there to be done?

I wouldn’t wish to begin this section with bad news, but I similarly wouldn’t wish to offer you false hope - or toxic positivity. Burnout is often the outcome of poor work design and organisational level issues. If you have suffered the above mentioned core symptoms for some time, it is possible that your organisation needs to make changes - not you.

However, if you are not in a high-level decision-making role in your company, that information will come with little comfort. So, let’s consider what actions an individual may take to lessen the impact of exhaustion while you search for a new job!

Rest and recovery

If you are a listener of my podcasts, or a reader of my blog, this will not come as a surprise to you. Recovery is a concept I have covered at length, and will continue to as it is vital to being well. The easiest place to start is with after-work hours, weekends, and holidays. Actively plan leisure activities in those times that are not related to work, and where work cannot force its way in. This can start small and simple. Evening walks without your phone. A cup of tea and a chapter of book (that is not on your phone). See what’s on your Community Calendar this weekend and go to anything - paint, dance, yoga, book club, reading, repair cafe, etc. And keep your phone on Do Not Disturb while you’re there. (For research on recovery, see Sonnentag’s work.)

Reduce Constant Stress

You may have noticed my frequent mention of turning off your phone. That’s because it is likely adding to a constant cortisol response that has become a part of your life via work stressors, demands from your personal/home life, and the habit of being constantly connected. Every app or platform we use is designed to light up parts of the brain to keep up ‘engagement’. Unsurprisingly, this is not helpful (nor healthy) when the brain is seeking recovery (Derks, van Mierlo, & Schmitz, 2014). It is crucial to give your brain things like boredom, soft fascination, and rest.

Soft fascination means attending to softly fascinating stimuli that requires little effort and leaves mental space for reflection (Basu, Duvall, & Kaplan, 2019). Examples for this often use nature, like going for a walk in the forest. You have to pay attention to where you’re going, and you want to look at the trees, but it’s not something you have to stare or concentrate so hard on that your mind cannot rest.

Boredom, as well, can be more useful than one would think. Studies have suggested that boring activities can result in increased creativity (Mann & Cadman, 2014), and that it facilitates daydreaming. Some research suggests that daydreaming helps with future planning, attentional cycling (i.e., when individuals rotate through different information streams to advance personally meaningful and external goals), and dishabituation (i.e., recovered or restored behavioral response)(McMillan et al., 2013).

Final thoughts

Burnout is in danger of being a buzzword - a term applied to so much that it eventually means very little. That would be unfortunate given how much the research has evolved to help us better understand what causes it, what it does to our health, and more importantly - what we can do to ease its impact.

If you are concerned about your experience of exhaustion and possible burnout at work, consider joining one of my upcoming learning sessions on Burnout! I’ll guide you through Maslach’s framework for understanding potential causes, conduct a survey to understand your challenges, and work on a plan to alleviate negative impact.

Works cited

Basu, A., Duvall, J., & Kaplan, R. (2018). Attention Restoration Theory: Exploring the role of soft fascination and mental bandwidth. Environment and Behavior, 51(9–10), 1055–1081. https://doi.org/10.1177/0013916518774400

Demerouti, E. (2024). Burnout: a comprehensive review. Zeitschrift Für Arbeitswissenschaft, 78(4), 492–504. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41449-024-00452-3

Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Peeters, M. C., & Breevaart, K. (2021). New directions in burnout research. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology, 30(5), 686–691. https://doi.org/10.1080/1359432x.2021.1979962

Derks, D., van Mierlo, H., & Schmitz, E. B. (2014). A diary study on work-related smartphone use, psychological detachment and exhaustion: Examining the role of the perceived segmentation norm. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 19(1), 74–84. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035076

Freudenberger, H.J. (1974), Staff burn‐out. Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165.

Lubbadeh, T. (2020). JOB BURNOUT: A GENERAL LITERATURE REVIEW. International Review of Management and Marketing, 10(3), 7–15. https://doi.org/10.32479/irmm.9398

Mann, S., & Cadman, R. (2014). Does being bored make us more creative? Creativity Research Journal, 26(2), 165–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2014.901073

Maslach, C., Jackson, S. (1984), Burnout in organization settings. Applied Social Psychology Annual, 5(1), 133-153.

Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52(1), 397–422. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.52.1.397

McMillan, R. L., Kaufman, S. B., & Singer, J. L. (2013). Ode to positive constructive daydreaming. Frontiers in Psychology, 4. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00626

Schaufeli, W.B., De Witte, H. & Desart, S. (2019), User Manual – Burnout Assessment Tool (BAT). Version 2.0. KU Leuven, Belgium: Internal report.