Burnout has been an issue in the workplace for decades.
But in the digital age,
there's been an uptick, whether it's pressure to be on call 24/7 or having to do more with less.
Job burnout has become a troubling issue in the 21st century workplace.
And this was happening before Covid-19 upended our lives.
Now for those lucky enough to still have a job, there are even more stressors.
And when this adds up and is not resolved, you're vulnerable to job burnout.
This is defined as chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
It includes exhaustion, negativity or cynicism, and a sense of professional ineffectiveness.
And it costs employers up to
190 billion dollars per year in health care spending to deal with issues ranging from anxiety to high blood pressure
to substance abuse.
While it may seem counterintuitive,
the pandemic crisis may be the best time to plan for real workplace change. It's really
possible under these kind of circumstances, I think, where where the ground is not as stable anymore to think out of the box.
Dr. Christina Maslach pioneered the study of burnout and in the early 80s, she developed the Maslach Burnout Inventory,
which has since become the gold standard in measuring this phenomenon.
Her research has identified at least six potential problem areas between the job and the person.
Chances are you've dealt with at least one of these, if not more?
So, Maslach suggests employers think of this time as a reset and try to flip these problem areas.
For instance, with demand overload workers often suffer in silence,
usually out of fear of saying no and then the demands escalate. That can cause a whole host of mental and physical health issues.
Instead, employers can build an environment of trust and reassurance just by asking, "what can I do to help?"
And engage with employees to get their input to build a better framework
So, when there are these imbalances in any of those six areas, you're going to see people more at risk for experiencing
not just the exhaustion, the cynicism, the lack of competence and efficacy.
Whereas, if it's working better
then there's gonna be more engagement. To successfully make these changes, Maslach says employers should keep in mind what she calls the three C's.
One is collaboration -  really bringing everybody in together. The second one
is to customize.
And, in other words, to really adapt and not be locked into a particular solution, but find out what works best for us.
And then three is commit.
And commit means that you are going to stick with it.
And if it doesn't work as well at first you're going to keep trying until we get to a place where it's actually helping.
So, while the pandemic is unsettling and scary - the silver lining is we've already shown that we can adjust to big changes.
Why not use this opportunity to try to reverse the causes of job burnout and rethink how we work moving forward?
This is a time to, you know, kind of step up and help create
a better world.
