“Burnout:” The Good News About the Most Overused Word of the Year
Everyone Says We’re All Experiencing Burnout — Except the Woman Who Invented the Term. The Truth About What We’re Feeling and How to Respond.
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On a list of most used expressions over the last year, burnout would almost assuredly make the Top 10. If there’s one thing everyone seems to agree on, it’s that the pandemic has made more people than ever feel burned out.
Indeed: Employee burnout has only gotten worse over the last year: more than half (52%) of respondents are feeling burned out.
Washington Post: America’s workers are exhausted and burned out — and some employers are taking notice.
Insider: The Great American Burnout.
There’s one massive problem with this consensus: All of these articles – and most of us – are using the word incorrectly.
The term burnout has a heart-rending origin and a very specific meaning. In the 1970s, researchers of social workers in addiction clinics began to notice that individuals doing what they called people-work felt emotionally exhausted and unable to give themselves fully to their work. A key ingredient in their experience: Workers felt unhappy about themselves and dissatisfied with their accomplishments.
In 1981, Christina Maslach of the University of California at Berkeley introduced a tool to measure this phenomenon called the Maslach Burnout Inventory. “The challenge is people use the term to mean different things,” Maslach said recently. “It’s a catchy term, so people apply it to all kinds of stuff.”
As Maslach came to define burnout, the phenomenon has three key ingredients.
1. Exhaustion: A person feels completely drained, with a persistent feeling of being wiped out;
2. Cynicism: A person feels emotionally detached and pulls back from their work;
3. Loss of productivity: A person no longer performs basic functions or believes they can master their responsibilities.
Maslach and the many scholars who have continued this research in the intervening decades insist that all three ingredients must be present for someone to be classified as burned out.
As Michael Leiter, a professor at Deakin University and the co-author, with Maslach, of The Truth About Burnout¸ put it, “People use burnout as a synonym for tired, and they’re missing the point that there’s a world of difference between the two states.” He adds that the worst method for gauging burnout is “simply asking people” whether they feel that way.
Still, while burnout researchers have recoiled at how their ideas have been cheapened and flattened over the last year, they acknowledge that the emotional toll of the pandemic on employees, parents, and especially frontline workers has been intense.
So, what advice do they have for those who feel what they’re feeling, even if they’re not technically burned out?
1. Your feelings are not your fault. Don’t blame yourself. You are not experiencing these emotions because you’re not tough enough, resilient enough, skilled enough, or passionate enough. The conditions that overcame the world in the last year would dampen anyone.
2. The leading factors that contribute to burnout are well known. They include demand overload, lack of control, insufficient reward, and a feeling of unfairness. As I wrote in Harvard Business Review last fall, the days when bosses and managers can avoid these problems are over.
3. The solutions to burnout are equally well known, and involve collaboration with those around you, designing a customized plan, and commitment to fix the problem. Don’t wait for others to take the first step, reach out to others to initiate a conversation.
4. Acknowledge and appreciate. As in all emotional challenges, simply finding others willing to listen to and express empathy for your feelings is a great first step to improvement.
The good news: Most of us are not feeling burned out! The better news: The insights from this overlooked field can help us avoid getting to that state in the first place.
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