Burnout: I just can't any more...

//Disclaimer: All opinions are my own//

Mental health issues and burnout have been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic, and it hasn't changed despite gradual return to office. Working from home was a blessing for some, especially young parents, but for others it meant almost literally living in their workplace. Many struggled with drawing the line between work time and leisure. Disconnecting at the end of the day was getting harder when you can always reach for your phone or laptop and check the inbox.

Not surprisingly, we saw an increasing number of employees going on a sick leave due to burnout during the pandemic. Work was not the only factor, and for many, taking care of close family and children, sharing work space with a partner, and general sense of isolation created additional challenges. In 2024 we can generally say, we’re out of the woods when it comes to COVID19, but mental health issues linked to the economic situation, high costs of living, inflation, and layoffs are high. A survey by YouGov found that 35% of respondents experienced high to extreme levels of pressure at work, and 20% had to take some time off due to stress. According to Statista, only 35% of people in Germany felt they could talk openly about their mental health with colleagues and managers. A 2021 study showed that Poland topped the list for burnout with 66% of the population surveyed admitting to experiencing it; Czechia came second with 59%.

Burnout is not an illness or a disability. WHO defines burnout as a syndrome, which means it is a group of symptoms where the root cause is not clear. This is accurate for burnout, because the reasons can be very individual, and treatments may vary. Another myth about burnout is that it’s about individual’s mental resilience. However, the research has shown otherwise. Christina Maslach has been researching burnout since 1970s; she developed the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) used widely across industries. Together with Michael Leiter she published The Truth about Burnout, where the researchers demonstrated that burnout is a workplace problem, not a worker problem. It happens when there is a mismatch between an organisation and its employees in one or several areas:

• Workers’ amount of control
• Fair treatment
• A sense of community
• Workload Levels
• Doling out of rewards
• Organizational values

Interestingly, it’s been remarked that healthcare professionals were disproportionately affected by burnout, especially during COVID19. This highlights another trend: People who are most likely to get burnt out are the engaged and the committed (Podcast There are no stupid questions), the hard workers who tend to take too much on themselves, and end up feeling guilty for (what they feel is) failing their managers and colleagues.

What about burnout in recruiters?

You won’t be surprised to hear that recruiters often run pretty high risk of getting a burnout: the nature of the job implies always being connected. It is one of the jobs that are easy to take home – unlike doctors or nurses, we can do our job from the sofa, and we often feel tempted to. As long as our laptop is often, the never-ending cycle of messages and emails is going, and work often spills into the free time without us noticing. Together with high workload, tight deadlines, and the constant negativity of rejections this often leads to exhaustion and eventually to burnout in recruiters. As you can see, at least half of the reasons for people to be frustrated is about how their work is organised, which supports Maslach & Leiter’s conclusions.

How can you recognise that you or someone close to you is not feeling well about their work? The MBI assessments suggests looking at three groups of signs:

• Exhaustion – feeling tired the moment you get out of bed; having the energy for the bare minimum – any additional tasks sound like a punishment
• Cynicism – the negative attitude, feeling disconnected from your work results, not recognising the positive impact of one’s work
• Inefficiency – not feeling productive or able to make progress, often due to the work circumstances.

Only about 10-15% of employees usually score positively on all three negative scales and qualify as having burnout. Gallup has put together some tips for managers to recognise the signs of burnout. They called it The Faces and Sounds of Burnout. Some common “faces” of burnout for individuals may include:

• looking tired or withdrawn
• consistently bearing a different countenance than normal
• self-isolating when faced with many tasks
• looking angry or frustrated more frequently (and not trying to hide it)

Some common?sounds?of burnout for individuals may include:

• responding with irritation
• softening their feelings with words or phrases like “overwhelmed” or “a little bit tired”
• outrightly sharing they are stressed, anxious or struggling
• referencing having a difficult time “balancing” or “prioritizing”

So what is the main takeaway? Burnout is not about some individual weakness – on the contrary, it is often an outcome of high engagement and eagerness to do more. The task of a manager is to see where a stretch assignment becomes overwhelming. It is also good to remind employees that being busy doesn’t equal being productive. Look at your work and see if you can apply the Pareto principle: 80% of results will come from just 20% of action. Hopefully, between managers caring for their employees, and workers being conscious of their limits, we can get rid of guilt, and treat a burnout as a learning experience.