The dutch work culture shock: from short maternity leave to burnout

Could the Dutch societal work-ethos be a recipe for burnout? And could the short maternity leave, that in my view prefers economic gain above the nurturing of the future generation, be a sign of the burnout motivating work ethos?

“Why would you want to be at home with a newborn the whole first year if you can put your baby to a creche after 3 months? It’s good for him to socialize.” To which I respond “sure socializing is good but at the age of 3 months, are you crazy?” The discussion went on and I threw in arguments from developmental psychology, for example the importance of safe bonding of the child in their first year. 

But honestly, I will find any arguments that support my (Czechoslovak / European) worldview - which causes me to question everything considered ‘normal’ here in the Netherlands. 

 The differences we discussed summed up to: we get more than 1 year of maternity leave in the Czech Republic - compared to 4 months in the Netherlands, find it strange to send our parents to a senile home - whilst here it’s the standard, hang out with our neighbors where in the Netherlands the government desperately tries to make neighbors meet by subsidizing neighborhood parties.

 Of course, it’s not all this simple or all roses back home (apart of our maternity leave the social system does not protect its unemployed as well as the Dutch system does for example) but hang on for a minute and think about this.

 What if the short maternity leave is a symptom of the independence & individualism-striving, efficiency, economy and entrepreneurship driven culture that I so much enjoy but that brings with her drawbacks such as burnout?  

 There’s 1 million people or 1 in 7 employees in the Netherlands with burnout symptoms (according to the TNO 2015). 

So, I asked myself, why is there so much burnout in the Netherlands?

 And more importantly, am I going to get one since I work here?

 And how do I protect myself from this (western) disease?

 To calm myself down I started digging back into the definitions of burnout.  

 There are a lot of opinions, but I found the article “Historical and conceptual development of burnout” by Christina Maslach & Wilmar B. Schaufeli very complete.

 According to Freudenberger & Richelson (1980) it is “to deplete oneself; to exhaust one’s physical and mental resources; to wear oneself out by excessively striving to reach some unrealistic expectation imposed by oneself or by the values of society.”

It can be considered as a “prolonged job stress” which is a long-term process of “demands at the workplace that tax or exceed an individual’s resources”. Other articles point to the fact that burnout is a combination of person - private - work issues or pressure (e.g. Nagelkerke 2003).

It consists of “three phases: alarm, resistance, and exhaustion.” In the final phase, after prolonged exposure to stress, the physiological resources are depleted and irreversible damage is caused to the organism.”

 The difference between stress and burnout is that stress “is temporary and is accompanied by mental and physical symptoms, whereas burnout refers to a breakdown in adaptation accompanied by chronic malfunctioning” since its two first phases come unnoticed. 

 Another interesting difference is between depression and burnout. “Depression is considered to be “context-free,” [impacting all aspects of one's life] whereas burnout is regarded as “job-related”.” You might thus have energy to hang out with friends but the moment you turn up at work you are exhausted.

 In addition, “burnout has been characterized as “a progressive loss of idealism, energy and purse.”

Right. So why do I see short maternity leave as a symptom of a system that inherently drives people to burnout?

Consider, for example, some of the historical factors that served as a recipe for burnout in America (Maschal & Schaufeli).

•  the disconnection and alienation from your community,
• the focus on “attaining personal fulfillment and gratification from their work” which produced “workers with higher expectations of fulfillment and fewer resources to cope with frustrations.”
• “Tendency toward individualization in modern society” leading to “increasing pressure on the human services.
• “Problems in living have to be solved by professionals instead of relatives, neighbors, or other members of the community” due to the disintegration of the social fabric.

Do the points above sound familiar? To me, they describe the working ethos of the Dutch society.

Could this ethos be designed for burnouts? And could short maternity leave be a consequence of this work-ethos?

 Who knows, someone should study the link.

 For now. I’ll see if my employer is as convinced as me to let me take 1 year of maternity leave and see it as totally normal, necessary and an important step towards the nurturing of our future society.

Sources:

• Historical and conceptual development of burnout. By Christina Maslach & Wilmar B. Schaufeli. Found at: https://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/publications/Schaufeli/043.pdf 
• Werkstress, Burn-out & Verzuim in cijfers. TNO 2015. Found at: https://www.rijksoverheid.nl/documenten/publicaties/2015/11/16/werkstress-burn-out-en-verzuim-in-cijfers
• Weg van slechte werkverhoudingen. Nagelkerke, A.G. 2003. Found at: https://pure.uvt.nl/ws/files/858126/SMADM2003.pdf