Introduction
The term ‘burnout’ was originally coined by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger in the 1970s [1]. Although initially its use was exclusively reserved for those in “helping” professions such as doctors and nurses, today burnout’s grip does not discriminate by profession; it extends far and wide. Today’s workforce is twice as likely to report that they are “always exhausted” than they were twenty years ago [2]. Meanwhile, a 2023 survey of US workers reported that 59% were experiencing burnout, of which 71% were Gen Z and 65% millennials [3]. This is a problem in the ascendency.
In 2019, the World Health Organization (WHO) officially classified burnout as a medical diagnosis, including the condition in the International Classification of Diseases, defining it as “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” [4]
Burnout is generally easy to notice. Employees suffering from it are likely to show a lack of energy, sometimes to the point of exhaustion, a newfound sense of negativity and cynicism for their work, and a loss of productivity and/or drop in performance levels. In terms of the immediate impact on the workplace, employees experiencing burnout are 63% more likely to take a sick day, 23% more likely to visit the emergency room, and more than twice as likely to be actively seeking a different job. [5]
Why are we burned out?
Burnout is not new, but its pervasiveness is. That’s likely because its causes are accentuated by the work structures of modern life. According to 2022 survey data from the recruiting firm Zippia, 86% of fully remote workers experience some degree of burnout in their job, as opposed to 81% among hybrid workers, and 70% of those working fully in person [6]. Given remote forms of working were only recently normalised, that could be a contributory factor in burnout’s rise. A more obvious reason would be technological advancements. The majority of us now have email on our phone and a decent-quality laptop or computer at home. That has allowed work to spill out well past traditional working hours into evenings and weekends. There is no off switch or escape hatch.
It’s common to try to fight burnout with a quick holiday, rest day, or temporary lessening of hours, but any changes need to be more fundamental and long-term. Short-term approaches amount to little more than sticking plasters on a shattered bone. Burnout is a problem that develops over time; it can only be fixed with time too. If the tank is empty, simply driving slower isn’t going to fill it up again.
Not only do holidays not necessarily fix the problem of burnout, they can actually compound it. A recent MyBioSource survey of over one thousand US workers found that 50% of employees said taking time off left them feeling drained for at least a week upon return. Meanwhile, 44% reported experiencing exhaustion and 32% increased anxiety when returning to work after a break [7]. Such problems are going to be especially resonant if staff have to overburden themselves catching up either after or before their rest –– not only will the catch-up period be stressful, but the knowledge that the work is piling up while they’re away will impair their time off.
Witnessing the proliferation of burnout in workers, a number of businesses have taken to addressing the problem through ‘wellness days’ or ‘mental health days’, in which staff can take a day off every now and again to focus on their well-being. Well-meaning as this may be, it is an insufficient solution to a problem that’s roots run far deeper and are unlikely to be mended by a single day of rest. As Jonathan Malesic, author of The End of Burnout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives, writes in The Atlantic: “We might think of a mental-health day as a form of workplace avoidance dressed in the language of self-care.” [8]
All that is not to say that there is no use taking breaks. A 2014 study found that doctors in Japan who had two to four days off a month were more than three times more likely to suffer from burnout than those who had eight or more days off. But to truly address burnout one needs to make fundamental changes to work structures, not simply take a brief break before returning to the exact same approach that caused the problems in the first place.
The need for meaning
It can be easy to think burnout boils down to a simple misalignment between work and rest –– work too many hours without sufficient rest and you will be burned out; rest more and you will be fixed. But it’s more complicated than that. In fact, research shows that the number of hours one works is not the principal cause of burnout. There is something more innately human at play.
“Misalignment burnout happens when we constantly engage with environments and in activities that go against our innermost values and beliefs, leading to a disconnect between our true selves and professional identity,” writes Mark Travers, Ph.D. in Forbes. [9]
Working a job that we feel offers value to the world or that we feel we offer value to is key to avoiding burnout and having a healthy relationship with our work more generally. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Managerial Psychology found that when employees feel like they fit well with their organisation and their specific role, they’re less likely to experience burnout [10]. When it comes to overall well-being, the quality of one’s work experience has been found to be up to three times more important than the number of hours worked [11].
Also vital to having a thriving sense of professional value is a level of autonomy and support –– are we trusted to do the work? Is there someone there to help us on the difficult days? In his book Dying for a Paycheck, Jeffrey Pfeffer writes of workplace autonomy: “If through their actions people cannot predictably and significantly affect what happens to them, they are going to stop trying. Why expend effort when the results of that effort are uncontrollable, rendering the effort fruitless?” [12]
In terms of support, Harvard Business Review reports that there is a significant correlation between feeling lonely and work exhaustion [13]. Bill Hudenko, Ph.D., global head of mental health at the digital care company K Health, points out that “burnout is not an individual failing, rather it is a systemic issue that stems from a disconnect between expectations of workers and the leadership or conditions of the workplace.” [14]
The role of managers
Steve Salee, Founder and CEO of Wildfire Strategies, writes in Forbes that too often the burnout diagnosis puts the onus on employees to fix themselves. They are told to meditate, exercise or take some time off. In other words, to sort themselves out. Salee prefers a different term for this dismissive attitude employers can show towards their workers: moral toxicity.
Moral toxicity “describes the cumulative experience of being disregarded, unprotected, undervalued or dehumanised by an employer. It’s a potent cocktail of disrespect, injustice and emotional erosion that, over time, can poison the entire workplace culture,” he writes. He says that we saw a prime example of moral toxicity at play during the pandemic in the way exhausted healthcare workers were treated. To describe what those workers were going through as burnout, he says, “ignores the deeper ethical breach at play.” [15]
Whether staff are suffering from burnout or moral toxicity, employers have a duty of care to their workers. A Gallup study found that employees who felt cared for by their manager were 70% less likely to experience burnout. [16]
Dr Steven E. Pratt, M.D., senior medical director at Magellan Healthcare, suggests a number of policies and strategies that employers can put in place to prioritise employee care [17]. These include encouraging frequent breaks, offering healthy food options in workplace dining areas, providing education on positive health habits, and encouraging open dialogue about stressors and ways to manage stress.
Every individual’s relationship with work is different. Some will burn out easier than others. Good management involves a tailoring of approach according to how staff are likely to respond. Too often managers create an achievement-at-all-costs atmosphere and act as if any negative fallout employees feel is a result of their individual weakness rather than any systemic problem.
As Christina Maslach, a psychology professor at UC Berkeley and one of the foremost burnout researchers in the United States, puts it: “The phrase ‘If you can’t take the heat, get out of the kitchen’—it’s sort of saying: The kitchen is what it is, and you’re going to have to figure out how to deal with it, without ever saying, really, ‘Does the kitchen have to be that hot?’” [18]
There are of course steps individuals can take to improve their own sense of well-being and to counteract burnout –– ideally before it manifests, rather than relying strictly on reactionary measures. Yoga, meditation, exercise, a regular sleep schedule and having a social life outside of work are all suggested, as well as being disciplined in cutting off work hours at a reasonable time, especially difficult in the age of remote working.
And if a job proves too demanding or so unfulfilling that you feel yourself draining, it could be a sign that it’s time to move on to ventures new. As the Dalai Lama advises, “If you feel ‘burnout’ setting in, if you feel demoralised and exhausted, it is best, for the sake of everyone, to withdraw and restore yourself.” [19]
More on Burnout
The Million-Dollar Impact of Burnout & Busyness Culture
Personal Leadership Through a Performance Mindset with Laura Piccardi – Podcast
Rethinking the Workplace with Prof. Deirdre O’Shea – Podcast
Sources
[1] https://spssi.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1974.tb00706.x
[2] https://hbr.org/2017/06/burnout-at-work-isnt-just-about-exhaustion-its-also-about-loneliness
[8] https://www.theatlantic.com/family/archive/2022/11/workplace-burnout-mental-health-days/672111/
[10] https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JMP-12-2012-0404/full/html
[12] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/03/how-tell-if-you-have-burnout/618250/
[13] https://hbr.org/2017/06/burnout-at-work-isnt-just-about-exhaustion-its-also-about-loneliness
[14] https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/signs-of-work-burnout/
[16] https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237059/employee-burnout-part-main-causes.aspx
[17] https://www.forbes.com/health/mind/signs-of-work-burnout/
[18] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/03/how-tell-if-you-have-burnout/618250/
When asked how he went bankrupt, a character in Ernest Hemmingway’s The Sun Also Rises responds, “Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.” This description encapsulates so many of the changes that emerged as a result of the pandemic, most especially within the workplace. Plenty of the shifts we saw to working practices—such as introducing some form of home or hybrid working as standard—have already become accepted1 as part of the much-touted “new normal”. Others are still evolving, not least when it comes to the relationship between businesses and their employees’ health and wellbeing. One practice that has emerged as potentially pivotal in bridging the gap between personal welfare and workplace performance is that of mindfulness.
Mindfulness
The Oxford Mindfulness Center2 defines mindfulness as “moment-to-moment awareness of one’s experience, without judgment.” Dan Harris, author of 10 Percent Happier3, describes it even more plainly. “I think of mindfulness as the ability not to be yanked around by your own emotions”. Whatever definition you use, the consensus is that mindfulness offers an array of benefits on a personal and professional level. Which is why it’s no wonder business innovators—some before the pandemic, many after— have chosen to bring it into the workplace.
Tipping point
A 2019 survey by LinkedIn4 found that nearly half of workers feel stress in their jobs, with 70% of them feeling it as a result of their workload and their work-life balance. Meanwhile Gallup5 found that 23% of employees feel burnout at work very often or always, and a further 44% reported feeling it sometimes. The fact that these findings are from before the pandemic makes clear that businesses had been dancing on cracks for a long time before the ultimate disaster struck, and that the system (or at least a stark number of the employees within it) were teetering on the brink. To call the pandemic the straw that broke the camel’s back would be to minimize its devastation. But let’s face it, the camel was staggering and stumbling for a long while before whispers started emerging from Wuhan.
Some businesses could see that. It’s why many of the leading corporate innovators had been incrementally introducing mindfulness techniques to their work environment through the late 2000s and 2010s6. Apple, Google, Twitter, and a whole host of other Silicon Valley movers and shakers were championing everything from meditation rooms to in-office yoga and mindfulness classes through mindful lunches. That was Hemmingway’s gradually. Then, in March 2020, came the suddenly. Worker welfare became unignorable. Mindfulness emerged as a clear solution.
Mindfulness productivity gains and profit
Reducing burnout and caring for worker well-being are some of the benefits mindfulness offers businesses. But to put the major tech players’ adoption of such techniques down purely to concern for their personnel may be to give them undeserved credit. While worker welfare likely did factor into their reasoning, they were no doubt also influenced by the numbers surrounding mindfulness’ productivity gains.
Aetna, a US health insurer that trained 13,000 employees in mindfulness practices, estimated an annual productivity improvement of around $3,000 per employee, as well as a reported reduction in stress levels of 28%7. Meanwhile SAP, a leading German software company, saw a 200%8 return on investment, based on data from a survey undertaken with the help of 650 SAP employees who underwent mindfulness training through the Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute9 (SIYLI). Awareness around well-being and mental health has increased in prominence across society as a whole and the business world is no different, but it would be naïve to pretend the bottom-line numbers weren’t a major contributory factor—if not the primary one— in mindfulness’ corporate ascendency.
Origins
Of course, to give Silicon Valley credit for the benefits of mindfulness would be myopic in the extreme. These ideas are of an Eastern origin and have been around for millennia. Jon Kabat-Zinn, founder of MBSR10 (mindfulness-based stress reduction), is often attributed with bringing mindfulness techniques westwards in the 1970s. Though it’s the advent of more modern technology—best exemplified by the then-unimaginable convenience of yoga and meditation apps— that has contributed significantly to the practice’s meteoric rise.
Spirituality integrates with business
While it may be tempting to presume that utilising these grand spiritual ideas for corporate agendas was a result of this move westwards, instigated by the monetise-at-all-costs instincts of Mega Capitalism, that assumption would be wrong. East Asian corporations such as Panasonic and Toyota have long been taking advantage of ancient teachings in a corporate context11. In fact, “zen”, a widely recognised if less widely understood concept relating to (and deriving from the Sanskrit translation of) meditation, is the foundation of the term “kaizen”.
Kaizen12 is a commonplace piece of business terminology in Japan, meaning change for the better or continuous improvement. It involves making the work environment more efficient and effective by creating a team atmosphere, improving everyday procedures, ensuring employee engagement, and making a job more fulfilling, less tiring, and safer. Its prevalence demonstrates that the marriage between mindfulness and corporate practice is no recent (or exclusively western) thing.
The benefits
When looking at the benefits mindfulness offers, it’s easy to see why it’s an appealing prospect to all parties, east and west. Mindfulness has been found to help reduce emotional exhaustion13, to help foster compassion and empathy14, to improve decision making15, to reduce aggression16, to generate greater attention and focus17, to promote divergent thinking18, to reduce stress, and to improve short term memory19. It is a seemingly endless list of benefits, each impacting instrumental parts of our day-to-day life, personal and professional. What’s more, research20 shows that only short mindfulness sessions are necessary to achieve such results, rather than any dramatic lifestyle overhaul. A matter of minutes each day is enough. It’s no wonder businesses see it as an easy win. Even the US army is using mindfulness21 training to help soldiers better prepare for and deal with stress, before and after deployment.
The science
How mindfulness works and how it impacts—and potentially alters—our brain has unsurprisingly been the intrigue of scientists and academics the world over. In their book Altered Traits22, Daniel Goleman, a Harvard psychologist, and Richard Davidson, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, found that mindfulness practices such as breathing meditation are associated with decreased gray-matter density in the amygdala, the region of the brain that initiates a response to stress. Researchers at the University of the Sunshine Coast23 in Australia found that mindfulness training increased the efficiency of brain pathways that process information coming in from the senses. In other words, participants in their study were found to literally see information more accurately24. The idea that mindfulness can genuinely re-wire our brains continues to enthral, and the evidence is mounting.
Going forwards
Scott Shute25, former Head of Mindfulness and Compassion at LinkedIn, author of The Full Body Yes: Change Your Work and Your World from the Inside Out, and upcoming guest on The 1% Podcast26, wants to mainstream mindfulness—in the workplace and beyond. Scott says that we should treat mindfulness in the same way we trat our physical health. “Fifty years ago, physical exercise was a strange thing. Now, every company feels good if they can provide gyms at work.”27 His argument is that in the same way we make time to exercise or go out of our way to eat nutritiously, we should also make the effort to strengthen our minds.
Considering the wide-scale proven benefits, the relatively little effort needed to achieve them, and the ubiquity of mindfulness apps28 offering free trials for curious parties, now feels as good a time as ever to start your mindfulness journey. One that will likely provoke change in two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.
More on burnout
- “The cultural obsession with productivity has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress in the workplace, and it’s impacting quality of life as well as businesses.” (Read more)
- “Reducing burnout and caring for worker well-being are some of the benefits mindfulness offers businesses” (Read more)
More on mindfulness
- “Mindfulness and meditation can help with stress and the ability to remain calm under pressure. Prioritising mental health is equally important as physical health and the items on a to-do list. Goals are important, but they also need to be sustainable.” (Read more)
- “Studies have shown that practising mindfulness and meditation can help with depression, chronic pain, anxiety, and a variety of other mental and physical conditions.” (Read more)
References
2 https://www.oxfordmindfulness.org/
5 https://www.gallup.com/workplace/237059/employee-burnout-part-main-causes.aspx
6 https://www.wired.com/2013/06/meditation-mindfulness-silicon-valley/
7 https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/unleashing-power-of-mindfulness-in-corporations
8 https://www.mindful.org/mindful-working-the-best-practices-for-bringing-mindfulness-to-work/
10 https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-based-stress-reduction-mbsr/
11 https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/unleashing-power-of-mindfulness-in-corporations
12 https://www.investopedia.com/terms/k/kaizen.asp
14 https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2015/07/mindfulness-meditation-empathy-compassion/398867/
15 https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140212112745.htm
16 https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0118221
17 https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnhum.2018.00315/full
18 https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-014-0352-9
19 https://www.bcg.com/publications/2018/unleashing-power-of-mindfulness-in-corporations
20 https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/mindfulness-at-work/
21 https://www.army.mil/article/149615/improving_military_resilience_through_mindfulness_training
22 https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34272471-altered-traits
23 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-78343-w
24 https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/can-mindfulness-change-your-brain-202105132455
25 https://www.scottshute.com/
26 https://steeringpoint.ie/the-1-podcast/
27 https://www.mindful.org/mindful-working-the-best-practices-for-bringing-mindfulness-to-work/]
28 https://positivepsychology.com/mindfulness-apps/
In a pre-pandemic world, employees would often show their dedication to the job by being the first one in the office, the last one to leave, and rarely taking breaks. Busyness was a sign of the high achiever. Now, with hybrid working conditions of both remote and in-person, the method might not be the same, but the mindset is still prevalent. The ideal employee is one who is always ‘on’.
For an executive, the need to be busy might look like an inability to shut off, constantly checking emails on the weekends, or refusing to delegate work. But this is not sustainable. The cultural obsession with productivity has led to an epidemic of burnout and stress in the workplace, and it’s impacting quality of life as well as businesses.
What are the signs of burnout? And why should leaders care about the well-being of their employees and themselves?
The World Health Organisation classifies burnout as a ‘syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed’. It lists the three characteristics of burnout as:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- reduced professional efficacy (WHO, May 2019)
In a study by Personio, 38% of employees in the UK and Ireland are looking to change roles due to toxic workplace culture, bad work-life balance, and a lack of career progression. This turnover rate could cost businesses nearly €17 million. In fact, companies in the States are seeing a similar trend with a ‘record number’ of employees quitting their jobs. McKinsey & Co. refers to it as ‘The Great Attrition’. Burnout always existed, but the pandemic has exacerbated its effects.
Employee burnout is a huge problem that affects not only the employee themselves, but the business, the leaders, and the broader culture. And it’s costing millions.
Busyness can lead to burnout because of the ‘tunnelling’ effect. According to a Harvard Business Review article, researchers describe this phenomenon as the inability to focus on anything but the immediate task at hand. In this state, there’s no bandwidth to focus on long-term goals or strategic planning. It’s exhausting. The first step to breaking free of this cycle is to recognize the signs of burnout and admit that something needs to change.
As burnout and stress are cumulative and chronic, a few ‘bad’ days in a row should not be ignored. Nutrition, sleep, and physical exercise play a huge role in overall well-being. It’s important to get a minimum of seven hours of sleep a night, eat a well-balanced diet, and move the body regularly. Meditation and mindfulness are also proven to improve the effects of stress when practised consistently.
Another way to combat burnout, which on the surface may seem counterintuitive, is scheduling downtown and relaxation into the workday. A Scientific American article explains that ‘downtime replenishes the brain’s stores of attention and motivation, encourages productivity and creativity, and is essential to achieve our highest levels of performance’. Downtime can include a meditation practice, but it can also be taking a midday nap or a walk outside.
For a company culture to drastically change, leaders need to create new models for productivity and success. Perhaps the ideal employee is one who prioritises their mental health and physical well-being while getting the job done. Leaders can also encourage their employees to create personal boundaries. There will be times when an executive or manager sends an email at 9 p.m., but it does not mean that they require an immediate response.
Lastly, burnout is often a symptom of an underlying issue. There are simple ways to combat burnout, such as proper diet and nutrition, sleep, and setting boundaries, but there could also be another cause that requires deeper reflection.
In a study on how the most successful people conquer burnout, Bismarck Lepe, CEO, talks about the importance of mission in relation to burnout:
‘I don’t believe “burnout” is a function of the amount or intensity of work one takes on. Rather, feeling burned out is usually caused by a misalignment between the individual and their daily tasks’.
Bismarck Lepe, CEO Wizeline
Stability, benefits, and healthcare are all important aspects of a job, but if a person hates their work, it can also have an array of negative health impacts. The solution to burnout might be less about finding work-life balance and more about finding work that is fulfilling.
Burnout may be leading to a million-dollar loss for businesses, but the price on quality of life is equally bad, if not worse. If leaders can address burnout and stress and create better working conditions, there will be more attraction and retention rather than attrition. Change needs to start from the top-down for the culture to shift.
