Understanding and Combating Workplace Burnout: Effects, Consequences, and Solutions

“Workplace burnout”, An increasingly frequently used term has started to become an increasingly serious problem for workers and organizations lately. In this blog, we’ll be looking at what it is, what it does to an organization, and how it has started to become and continues to be a prevalent issue in the age of the modern workplace.

Workplace burnout as the name suggests is an occupation-related syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed. According to the WHO, Burnout, or in this case, workplace burnout is not classified as a medical condition but has been recognized under the International Classification of Diseases according to the WHO (World Health Organization). Besides Normal “Burnout”, Workplace Burnout is more specific to one’s job and is more concerning and detrimental than the typical workplace irritations that one’s seniors can give which is surmised and is sympathized by most reading this blog!

What is Workplace Burnout?

When viewing workplace burnout issues, It is mainly divided into 3 components. Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment (these 3 components were put into place by Maslach). To understand its effect in the workplace in particular we can classify it as:

1. Feelings of Energy Depletion or exhaustion (A.K.A Emotional Exhaustion)

2. Increased Mental Distance from one’s work and negative thoughts towards one’s Work (A.K.A Depersonalization where one distances oneself from their said work 

&

3. Reduced sense of the value of the self at their place of work

Consequences of Workplace Burnout:

Since the term “burnout” is often taken in a negative manner so does the consequences of it take over a similar form. Workers going through with workplace burnout, can inadvertently create the following consequences on their employers:

1) Overall Decrease in Performance:

Burnout more often than not leads to one’s creativity to dwindle down (which create a huge effect for fields that solely or partly depend on your creativity). Furthermore, one can also see an increase in the frequency of workplace mistakes, accidents and injuries (this can be fatal especially for workers involved in the area of construction where one wrong step can be the main difference between life and death)

2) Conflict:

Individuals going through their burnout phase are more likely to emotionally withdrawn or detached which can make them distant from their work and workplace colleagues alike. This can majorly affect workplaces which majorly make use of team-based environments.

3) Absenteeism:

Due to heightened demotivation than usual, Employees affected by this are more likely to leave their jobs or begin the habit of absenteeism which would decrease their productivity and work contribution (especially in team environments)

Solutions:

As there are problems at the end of the tunnels there lies the hope of solutions to problems.

1) Recognizing the signs early:

One has to be aware of the warning signs (symptoms) of burnout) such as constant exhaustion and reduced productivity. If you feel that you are going through burnout it is important to pay attention to both emotional and behavioural symptoms (which fall within the criteria for the components of burnout). If one is able to solve it at an early stage, and take certain steps that can distance themselves from the task that they feel burnt out in particular,

The said individual can focus on recovering in the short run which can be beneficial both for themselves and inadvertently in the long run.

2) Prioritizing self-care:

It is really important to take care of oneself before taking care of others and the same applies to the workplace as well. One way of prioritizing self-care is by taking regular breaks in between or during your work hours by watching TV shows, taking a powernap or by even simply take a gentle stroll around the office premises (if the workplace allows to). Another way where one can prioritize self-care is simply by regularly exercising which can overall alleviate stress-levels and can improve both your physical and mental health.

3) Reevaluating Priorities:

It is important to reflect on your workplace priorities and values from time to time. Make sure to adjust your goals according to your capabilities and values as setting an unrealistic goal can lead you to work too hard and too fast which can lead you to burnout quicker than what one would expect even despite being recovered from it recently.