Changing Perceptions of Burnout Through The Generations

Jo & JJ Go Mental

Jo is on her own this week and shares her reflections on how the attitude around burnout has shifted throughout the generations, especially since the pandemic. Jo discusses three perceptions of burnout that she has seen a shift: that if you burnout that means you are broken or weak; that burnout and exhaustion is just a side effect of being busy which is a good thing, and that life is just tough and you should just get on with it and not complain. After two burnouts in five years and coming through the other side, Jo now works with clients to help them do their best work without burning out. She is also on a mission to move through the still palpable stigma around burnout in both work and interpersonal settings.

Takeaway:

[4:04] Jo discusses the impact that the pandemic has had on more people talking about their burnout, and more people experiencing the stress and fatigue that comes with working from home. By April 2020, 2.6 billion people went into lockdown, and 80% of the global workforce was fully or partially closed. A huge percentage of knowledge workers were doing their job from home, and this opened up more conversations about mental health and the work/life balance. Burnout is a global problem, and this was a rare time that the whole world got to pause and take stock of what is actually important in their life.

[5:41] One of the feelings of burnout is typically that you are alone and that everyone else is winning at life, while you are broken or not cut out for success. Even if more people have been talking about burnout during the pandemic, there is still a stigma around speaking up about it.

[7:33] In 2014, 16 years into her tax career, Jo went through her second burnout in five years. After healing and coming out on the other side, she wrote her book, created two TEDx talks, and started this podcast with J.J. to have open conversations around mental health and burnout.

[9:05] The concept of workplace burnout first appeared in the 1970s, and since then there has been much debate within the medical community on how to treat it, who is susceptible to it, what causes it, and if it is an illness or all in the head. In 2019, the WHO included burnout in the international classification of diseases as a syndrome linked to chronic workplace stress that has not been properly managed; it also characterized the syndrome around three main elements: (i) feeling exhausted and depleted, (ii) increased cynicism and distance from the work, and (iii) reduced feelings of professional efficacy.

[10:58] Perception #1: If you burn out, it means you are weak and broken and not cut out for this kind of high-pressure work. Burnout has long been placed on the employee, but studies show that the work environment may have more to do with it than we think.

[11:25] According to the research, a few traits of a workplace that employees tend to get more burnt out include unsustainable workload, extremely high pressure, perceived lack of control, and lack of community. Much like a canary in a landmine, it’s the environment that made them sick. When an employee falls off their “perch” at work, people are recognizing that maybe it’s the workplace and not just their traits as an individual.

[15:48] Only time will tell if organizations have really learned during the pandemic what employees need, or if we will fully go back to the way things were before.

[18:02] Perception #2: Burnout means you are exhausted because you are busy, and surely that’s a good thing because being exhausted is a badge of honour. Jo talks about how exhaustion became this badge of honor that we carry around today, and how in the 18th century, doctors stopped blaming it on the individual and instead on society. Exhaustion is linked to success and status, and we almost one-up each other by showing how hard we work and how little we take breaks. Our self worth and prestige has become measured by how productive we can be, and exhaustion represents this.

[20:11] Junior employees come through and demand that there be more to life than being tired or exhausted, but there has to be a balance of doing the hard work, of learning the ropes.

[25:05] Perception #3: Life is tough and you should just get on with it, and quit complaining. Many high achievers feel that working hard is shown by putting in long hours and that your dedication is directly attached to the number of hours you work. Jo shares how she believed that self-care was lazy, unprofessional, and something for California hippies. However, if we all learned more about emotional intelligence alongside other more traditional and academic studies, we may not have the same levels of burnout, PTSD, or even depression that we see today.

[29:41] Talking about mental health and burnout has got to happen. People need to know they are not on their own and there is a different way to thrive and blossom based in reality where you don’t have to drag yourself into the ground.

Connect With Us:

Joanna Denton | Dr. J.J. Kelly

Dr. Christina Maslach

Simon Sinek on Millennials in the Workplace

How Exhaustion Became A Status Symbol

How the Pandemic Exacerbated Burnout