Burnout is a lot like period cramps. You can’t understand it until you experience it, and most companies tend to ignore it.
I remember the first time I heard of the term. A naive spring chicken who couldn’t fathom that there would ever be a time that I would be so on top of my game, too on the ball, that it would cause me to slip, slide and fall into an abyss of complete fatigue.
If burnout isn’t something that’s completely splattered over your life before, let me spoil your peaceful screen time by filling you in.
The technical definition for burnout is “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” a know-how way of saying “you overworked yourself or were overworked beyond your abilities and now you’re exhausted but have to continue paying your bills.”
Burnout impacts not only your energy (or lack thereof) toward your work, but also your mental capacity for your craft. Moreover, it can seep into the other aspects of your life you once held sacred. Sounds scary? It is.
The misunderstood concept
In 2021, Refinery29 published a piece that argued burnout is a “broken promise”; commenting on how desirable jobs are as explorative as they are ‘scambitious.’
The American Dream (which has well infected most of the world) has long said that hard work sees results. It has always, however, danced around what the costs of that dream actually are, and who realistically benefits from the ‘results’ the most.
Anne Helen Peterson’s book Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation, ties the burnout experience to a whole generation. She separates the immense exhaustion and anxiety linked to the “cool job” and shines the spotlight on many low-paying forms of employment that also see burnout consequences.
In short, burnout can’t be linked to one kind of over-ambitious field; it can be experienced by anyone crushed by the weight of their workload – no matter how ‘qualified’ HR personnel deem them to be.
Why does burnout happen?
Burnout doesn’t just happen because you’ve been putting out too much work and get stressed from time to time. The stress is almost always chronic, the pressure an aggressive monkey on your back.
And, most of it is linked to your mind.
Are you actually resting when you close shop for the day? Do you set boundaries toward anything work-related after your shift ends? For people who see their overall success as a person reflected in their work; those questions are usually scoffed at – of course I don’t!
What happens is that your mind is still working even if you are lying in bed enjoying your favourite TikTok creator’s work. Maybe you even let yourself relax for a few minutes… until your boss Whatsapps you asking for assistance.
There are so many reasons why burnout happens. Unfortunately, most people (especially young people) aren’t in positions where they can comfortably set boundaries.
So, can the government?
The case for burnout leave in South Africa
According to Karin Calitz, a legal expert, burnout is “cutting a swathe through the SA workforce but its victims are on the back foot because no law covers their psychological safety,”
The Stellenbosch University emeritus professor is arguing for major changes in SA’s legal framework with hopes that these will allow two important things, per Business Insider:
- A code allowing employees to disconnect by ignoring after-hours WhatsApps and e-mails
- Burnout to be added to the medical conditions acknowledged by the labour department’s Compensation Fund.
If enabled, the first point could prevent burnout, while the second could allow burnout to be considered leave-worthy.
Calitz also argues in favour of reducing work hours. The 4-day work week is currently being trialled in SA – which if successful, could prove to be the ultimate game-changer for both companies and employees on both sides of the coin.
All in all, if the pandemic taught us anything work-related, it’s that we need a dramatic change in how we understand the ‘working world to be.’
Especially when it comes to young employees, the more technology we have means that more resources exist to do a lot more work from anywhere. A vicious cycle of productivity, the Instagram poets might say.
And if there’s someone you know who thinks this is all hocus pocus (there’s always one), ask them to take a look at the world outside of their own. A world where more people suffer mental illness than ever, where anxiety is a personality trait, and where every second video you’ll watch is some sort of advice on how to cope with it all a little better. There aren’t any problems strolling side by side with productivity? Deliciously ignorant.
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Feature Image: Pexels
