Slashdot Mirror
Are We Experiencing a Burnout Epidemic? (washingtonpost.com)
"Burnout is everywhere," reports the Washington Post.
"Caused in part by social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the pressure to check work email outside of office hours, it could hit you, too -- especially if you don't know how to nip it in the bud..." A recent report from Harvard and Massachusetts medical organizations declared physician burnout a public health crisis. It pointed out the problem not only harms doctors but also patients. "Burnout is associated with increasing medical errors," the paper said... Ninety-five percent of human resource leaders say burnout is sabotaging workplace retention, often because of overly heavy workloads, one [2017] survey found. Poor management contributes to the burnout epidemic. "Organizations typically reward employees who are putting in longer hours and replace workers who aren't taking on an increased workload, which is a systematic problem that causes burnout in the first place," says Dan Schawbel, research director of Future Workplace, the firm that conducted the survey along with Kronos
Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term -- at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn't list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.... For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind).
The Post also ran a follow-up article which suggests that to fight burnout, companies need to set reasonable work hours -- and develop a culture encouraging breaks and vacations.
"Caused in part by social media, the 24-hour news cycle and the pressure to check work email outside of office hours, it could hit you, too -- especially if you don't know how to nip it in the bud..." A recent report from Harvard and Massachusetts medical organizations declared physician burnout a public health crisis. It pointed out the problem not only harms doctors but also patients. "Burnout is associated with increasing medical errors," the paper said... Ninety-five percent of human resource leaders say burnout is sabotaging workplace retention, often because of overly heavy workloads, one [2017] survey found. Poor management contributes to the burnout epidemic. "Organizations typically reward employees who are putting in longer hours and replace workers who aren't taking on an increased workload, which is a systematic problem that causes burnout in the first place," says Dan Schawbel, research director of Future Workplace, the firm that conducted the survey along with Kronos
Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term -- at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn't list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.... For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind).
The Post also ran a follow-up article which suggests that to fight burnout, companies need to set reasonable work hours -- and develop a culture encouraging breaks and vacations.
Is there any sort of guideline/range/fuzzy-logic-set of behaviors or symptoms that indicate that you are definitely not/likely not/maybe/likely/definitely experiencing or approaching burnout? It seems like you'd want to be able to definitely rule it out as something that you're experiencing, unless it's an issue of work/life balance, which never seems to be possible.
"i.
don't
give
a
fuck."
that's how to avoid this so-called burnout. when you have no fucks to give.. life is absolutely grand.
(in the presence of others, such as your boss, best to 'think it' not say it).
I rented a primitive cabin in NH this winter where there was no cell service within 10 miles. We had no power, plumbing - just a wood stove.
And it was fantastic...
The shortage of doctors in the US may be, in part, to blame for their long hours and burnout. Their professional organizations have limited the number of medical school and residency slots, which partly explains how they're paid about twice as much as those in other developed countries. Given that a large majority of freshmen entering US universities have pre-med aspirations, there is no lack of potential doctors in the US. More reading here:
The problem of doctors’ salaries
https://www.politico.com/agend...
I asked my union to bargain for more vacation instead of a raise. Guess how popular I was at work.
And not just physical but mental exhaustion. Because we're not shovelling coal all day people expect us to be just as quick, attentive and efficient after 10 solid hours doing mentally taxing work as we were when we walked in the door.
When you're taxing your brain for practically every second you're awake it, like every other muscle, is going to get tired and you're going to fuck up, be slower and generally less able to do what you do.
Implementing the vacations/more sick days/ etc would negatively affect stock values for shareholders. This is actually illegal for a corporation to do in the US, without providing concrete facts stating that it would lead to higher yields (good luck with that).