Author of Beyond Burnout Suzi McAlpine recently joined Groov VP and Clinical Lead Dr Fiona Crichton for a Groov customer-exclusive webinar about burnout in 2022.
Suzi shared some incredible insights about the current state of burnout in the world, answering questions such as:
What exactly is burnout?
Is burnout still on the rise in 2022?
What are the top causes of burnout?
Who’s at the most risk?
How can we prevent burnout?
Read on for her answers!
Burnout research is evolving all the time, but what we do know is it’s a type of chronic, work-related stress.
“True burnout is a state of physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress related to your professional life,” says Suzi.
“You’re more likely to see burnout if it’s ‘baked into the role’. It’s stress that becomes extreme, chronic, and happens over a long time without being resolved.”
Unfortunately, yes. Burnout was rising before the pandemic hit (Suzi began researching her book in 2017), but Covid-19 continues to accelerate rates of burnout around the world.
“Since Covid-19 has hit, burnout rates have absolutely skyrocketed across the globe,” says Suzi.
“I don’t think we can blame Covid-19 for all our burnout woes, but it certainly hasn’t helped.”
In her book, Suzi identifies 6 key causes of burnout: Overwork, lack of control, isolation, values mismatch, insufficient reward, and absence of fairness.
1. Overwork: Consistently working 55+ hours/week increases burnout risk. But overwork is about more than just hours. It can also arise when you lack the resources you need to do your job well.
2. Lack of control: Research shows burnout is particularly prevalent among people who have little to no say in how they carry out their work.
3. A sense of isolation: This may stem from remote working, a lack of connectedness with coworkers, or even microaggressions due to gender or race.
4. Insufficient reward: This is about money, but also about praise and acknowledgement. People want to feel valued and cared for by their workplace.
5. Absence of fairness: Relating to pay, perks, prestige, promotion, or even whether your voice gets heard in meetings or not.
6. Values mismatch: If you feel like your personal values are at odds with the organisation, over time you’ll have to make some tradeoffs, which increases your risk for burnout.
Research shows that burnout is most prevalent among top performers and people who go the extra mile, says Suzi. It’s also particularly prevalent among middle managers.
“One of the biggest myths about burnout is that you’re mentally weak or a non-performer. What the research shows is that unequivocally is not the case,” says Suzi.
Since burnout is a workplace problem, preventative strategies must come from the top.
“Burnout is not an individual problem, it’s an organisational one. Leaders need to take the lead in addressing this,” says Suzi.
She adds that the best organisations are tackling burnout head-on and taking actionable steps to reduce their risk, such as:
Prioritising work effectively at an organisational level and a team level.
Embracing flexibility “as much as they can stand”.
Giving people a say in how they work.
Improving the competence and capabilities of leaders, especially when it comes to empathetic leadership.
Building high-trust working relationships between managers and their people.
Creating psychologically safe work environments where everyone feels safe to bring themselves.
Championing wellbeing at the highest level, i.e. a CEO or board level, not just relegating it to HR.
There are also steps you can take as an individual to reduce your risk of burnout, such as Dr Fiona’s wonderful 5 Bs of burnout: Breathing, breaks, boundaries, being kind, and looking after your body.
Although burnout levels are on the rise and burnout is a very serious issue, there’s a silver lining: more organisations are talking about it and taking action to improve the wellbeing of their people.
“We’re seeing more talk about burnout than ever before. It’s gone onto the radars of just about everybody!” says Suzi.
“Organisations are far more aware of the issue and recognising that it’s not an individual problem.”