A 50% Burnout Rate is High, But 30% is Acceptable?!

Last week, LinkedIn posted results from their latest Workforce Confidence survey. It showed that 50% of people working as project managers or in healthcare and social services feel stuck and burned out because of workplace stress. The article went on to say that "at the other end of the spectrum, just one third of workers in consulting, real estate and business development roles report feeling burned out."

Excuse me... JUST one third?! That still seems like a lot to me.

With numbers like these, it seems to me that the more important and unasked question is WHY do so many people feel stuck in stress? Why is it ok for them to go through life this way? Why are they not pushing back and saying "NOOOOO! I'm not taking this $h!t anymore and I'm not going to live my life like this?"

And I'm not saying they have to quit and walk away from their jobs. Because sure, while the job itself may be a large contributor to their stress, it's much more likely it's their way of reacting to the circumstances around them that's causing more of the issue. Put them in another job and it'll be the same thing.

Someone I lived with for 27 years changed jobs in those years several times. And each time, he felt significant work-related stress. Because each time, he brought his same self to the position. So was it the jobs? Or was it his way of reacting to the situations?

This is curious to me so I did a little research into why people are willing to live like their hair's on fire all the time. I found there are several factors contributing to why people stay stuck and don't take action to alleviate their stress. Not surprisingly it comes down to FEAR, LACK, and MISCONCEPTIONS.

The Big Bad Wolf

Let's start with FEAR. What are people so afraid of?

First, they're afraid of the consequences of speaking up and expressing their inability to handle the load. No one wants to be seen as the "weak link." Layer on top of that fear their belief that they're the only one feeling like they can't manage. Because of course everyone else is hiding their feelings too. No one's being real. Or if they are, and everyone seems stressed, it can normalize the experience and make it seem unavoidable. So now people are looking around and thinking this is "normal," and there's nothing to do about it.

This happens a lot in the "hustle and grind" workplace cultures where competition is emphasized over collaboration. I bet you know someone who's ascribed to the "sleep when you're dead" approach to work. Believe it or not, I bought into that myself for a short time when I was younger. The funny (or maybe it's more ironic than funny) thing about that attitude is it will lead to death faster than a more relaxed and intentional approach - given that it causes way more cortisol to course through your veins, which is a leading cause of heart disease.?

Of course there's also the two-pronged fear of financial pressures. What if they won't get paid if/when they take time off to relax and refocus? Or what if they put their job at risk by admitting they're buckling under the stress? Someone's gotta pay the mortgage and put food on the table, so they suck it up and keep living groundhog day.

There's Not Enough

When you look around, you'll notice there's the appearance of a lot of LACK and scarcity in the world. In the workplace, that shows up firstly as a perceived lack of control. Many employees feel they have little control over their work environment or workload. And this sense of powerlessness can lead to a state of learned helplessness, where people stop trying to improve their situation. Have you ever heard the horrible story of an experiment done with baby elephants? Elephants are super strong, so trainers were looking for a way to control and restrain them. They found that if they took baby elephants and tied one leg to a steel stake in the ground, when they weren't strong enough to pull it up, the baby elephant would keep trying to get away but it couldn't because it wasn't strong enough yet. As the elephant grew up and did become strong enough to tear the stake out and escape, it didn't even try because it had been conditioned to believe it couldn't pull up the stake.

Habits and inertia can easily take over and people become accustomed to their current state, even if it's stressful. Then change, even positive change, feels uncomfortable.

Tied into that learned helplessness (see what I did there?), is a lack of awareness or denial. Employees may not recognize the signs of burnout in themselves or may downplay their stress levels because they've been conditioned to believe the stress is a normal part of their job or career, or of adulting in general. I'm here to tell you it is NOT, but more on that in a moment.

Can't See Straight

Another weird thing about extreme stress is it makes you not able to think or see properly. Everything gets distorted. When people are overwhelmed, their cognitive resources are depleted, making it harder to make decisions or take action to improve their situation. Their brains literally cannot process what to do even in simple circumstances. The energy required to change seems greater than the energy to maintain the status quo, so they just keep on keeping on the same path.

Pile on perfectionism and high expectations that managers may set or high performing employees can set for themselves, and it becomes extra difficult to step back or ask for help. Doing so, even though it will reduce stress, can be seen as a form of "giving up" or admitting failure.

I've seen this first hand in both work and non-work situations. Most recently, my dad's wife has been managing my dad's ongoing and worsening health conditions. Of course she's beyond stressed, yet she's still trying to juggle doctors' appointments, interactions with the insurance company, paying bills, updating friends and family, and all the usual things that go with living life. For the past year, she's refused help, believing she could handle it herself. Until a critical moment when she found herself facing a grave physical condition. And even then, a few days later, she still attempted to insist she didn't need the level of assistance she really did need.

How often have you done this yourself? I got it! I got it! I got it! Uh oh, I don't got it! No one's handing out Superwoman or Superman awards to people for carrying unbearable loads.

Making the overwhelm worse is the misconception that managing stress requires major life changes, when small adjustments can often make a significant difference. This often comes because there are lots of people in the health and well-being space preaching that in order to get big results, you have to make big sacrifices. That's simply not true! One of my mentors always said, "small hinges swing big doors." Consistently putting one foot in front of the other to get up a mountain is far more likely to get you where you're going than trying to make giant leaps and bounds that wear you out before you even get a tenth of the way there.?

Others think stress management techniques don't work for them based on limited past experiences. This is one of my favorite myths to bust. There is a stress management technique that works for everyone. What is it?

Do you remember the movie "City Slickers?" There's a scene with Billy Crystal's character Mitch asking Curly, the cowboy, what the secret of life is. Curly says, "oh yeah, there's just one thing that matters in life." And Mitch is all really, what is it? What's the one thing?! And Curly says, "that's what you gotta figure out." It's not the same for everyone. But there is SOMETHING out there that will work.

Exposing Yourself

This is why it's so important to expose yourself to new ideas. And as a manager to introduce your team members to those same ideas and tools. If one of the main reasons employees stay stuck in workplace stress - a reason that's bigger than their fear, their conditioning, or their misconceptions - is they simply don't know what resources are available to them or how to access support, then it behooves business leaders to find innovative ways to enhance their employee skills and knowledge. Because the connection between employee well-being and performance is not just theoretical; it's tangible.

?? Well-rested, stress-managed employees bring their A-game to problem-solving and decision-making.

?? Their positive mental state is fertile ground for innovation and out-of-the-box thinking.

?? Mentally healthy teams communicate more effectively and work together more harmoniously.

?? Employees with strong mental well-being bounce back faster from setbacks and adapt more readily to change.

One powerful strategy for gaining exposure to new knowledge for stress management that's gaining more traction than ever is bringing in external speakers for corporate workshops. And what really makes a difference is when those speakers deliver tools and techniques that can be applied right away. No one needs a strategy that takes six months to develop and another three months to implement. That's a guarantee of ineffectiveness.

Prioritizing employee well-being isn't just a nice-to-have; it's a strategic imperative. As you navigate the complexities of today’s workplace, investing in the mental health of your workforce equates to investing in the future success of your organization. Are you ready to take that 30-50% burnout stat down to closer to zero?

When you’re ready for a customized solution for your organization, see my profile to schedule a call.

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Lori Saitz is the CEO of Zen Rabbit, a forward-thinking health and wellness company specializing in helping corporations build healthy and high-performance focused teams and workplaces. She’s also the host of Fine is a 4-Letter Word. As an award-winning author, speaker, and broadcaster, she has been published in Business Insider and worked with various organizations, including AARP, Insperity, Women in Technology, Infinity Broadcasting, and JK Moving Services.