.:3:. What is Burnout?
Burnout is like hitting a wall where you feel like you can’t continue doing what you’re doing and have lost your sense of purpose or satisfaction in your work or life.
The first time I think I started the mental debate and earnest consideration that I may be experiencing burnout was circa 2018. I had just completed my Executive MBA program — a two-year program that I attended on Fridays and Saturdays in addition to working my full time workload Mondays thru Thursday. I’d also switched companies midway through the program, going from being the Director of Program Management for a manufacturing company to a Commercial Director at a Consulting firm.
And when I completed the program (read: submitted my final assignment and completed the capstone presentation) my body shut down for a week. I was inexplicably sick and just could not work. Following that, I got into what I thought was my new work groove, but really, I was operating on autopilot. And I’d convinced myself that perhaps it was just the kind of work and the culture. You see, at this time, I worked with people and leaders who wore working longer hours like a badge of honor. Where we would often hear, with reverence, about how X or Y people were working [insert activity here] over the weekend and late at night.
I’m all for working those hours when it is necessary and the situation warrants it, and fully believe and strive to eliminate it as an everyday expectation and imposition on teams that are in my span of influence and control. And this is coming from me, an Army veteran who has supported critical missions and activities. So when I assure you that what my teams were doing at this time role was NOT that, you can believe it. Team culture or not, I finally considered and explored that I might just be burnt out.
I turned to good old Google for my preliminary research and while I, sadly, cannot go into the wayback machine and find that exact search, here’s what today’s results would yield along with my interpretation.
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Key sources for the above + more:
- Maslach, C., & Leiter, M. P. (2016). Understanding the burnout experience: recent research and its implications for psychiatry. World Psychiatry, 15(2), 103–111. doi: 10.1002/wps.20311
- Shanafelt, T. D., Boone, S., Tan, L., Dyrbye, L. N., Sotile, W., West, C. P., … & Westerman, M. (2015). Burnout and satisfaction with work-life balance among US physicians relative to the general US population. Archives of Internal Medicine, 175(2), 187–193. doi: 10.1001/archinternmed.2014.3199
- World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
- Schaufeli, W. B., & Taris, T. W. (2014). A critical review of the Job Demands-Resources Model: Implications for improving work and health. In Bridging occupational, organizational and public health (pp. 43–68). Springer Netherlands. doi: 10.1007/978–94–007–5640–3_4
- Bianchi, R., Schonfeld, I. S., & Laurent, E. (2015). Is burnout a depressive disorder? A reexamination with special focus on atypical depression. International Journal of Stress Management, 22(4), 307–324. doi: 10.1037/a0037906
- Halbesleben, J. R., & Buckley, M. R. (2004). Burnout in organizational life. Journal of Management, 30(6), 859–879. doi: 10.1016/j.jm.2004.06.004
- Demerouti, E., Bakker, A. B., Nachreiner, F., & Schaufeli, W. B. (2001). The job demands-resources model of burnout. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86(3), 499–512. doi: 10.1037/0021–9010.86.3.499
- Golembiewski, R. T., Boudreau, R. A., Munzenrider, R. F., & Luo, H. (1996). Understanding and dealing with teacher burnout: A sourcebook of international research and practice. Psychology Press. doi: 10.1017/CBO9780511527784
- Peterson, U., Bergström, G., Samuelsson, M., Asberg, M., & Nygren, Å. (2008). Reflecting peer-support groups in the prevention of stress and burnout: randomized controlled trial. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 63(5), 506–516. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2008.04743.x
- Pines, A. M., Aronson, E., & Kafry, D. (1981). Burnout: From tedium to personal growth. Free Press.
