Americans suffer from weekly burnout, but some employers don’t care

A new study of 2,000 working Americans indicates that over 40 percent suffer from workplace exhaustion, stress, or anxiety. And, many have considered leaving their places of employment due to intense job pressures.  

The World Health Organization recognizes this as burnout, an occupational phenomenon consisting of three dimensions: being depleted or exhausted, feeling negative, cynical or emotionally distant about one’s job and reduced job efficiency. 

Burnout can be the result of many things. Some of us work in high-pressure, high-demand, energy-depleting environments. We have physically and psychologically demanding tasks that need to be completed at fast rates, with few resources, and no words of encouragement or gratitude.

Some of us have bosses with unrealistic expectations for performance or berate us when we don’t meet deadlines. No wonder this leaves us miserable and drained. This can result in us not wanting to go to work, even though we may like our jobs. Burnout can also occur when we’ve been at the same job or company for too long without advancing, and we’ve grown tired of the routine. 

It may be obvious to say, but burnout can have individual, organizational and social implications. Irregular work hours, heavy work pressure, substantial workloads, being asked to do more with less, hostile workplace conversations, and lack of personal fulfillment at work can understandably take a toll. Not only on an individual’s psyche, but also on their physical health, and relationships with families and friends.

Mental toughness should not be the gold-standard requirement for on-the-job success. As a trauma psychologist who has worked for 20 years helping combat veterans heal from the ravages of extreme stress from the war-zone, I can tell you that the John Wayne “suck it up, push it down, get the job done” attitude does not work in the long-run.              

Feeling the effects of workplace stress is a normal, human reaction. Maybe some of us can’t say “ouch” for fear that we’ll be seen as less than, or not able to handle it. We might have concerns that seeking help could impact our careers and elicit rejection by peers. 

So, what do we do, and how do we create and sustain meaningful and satisfying work lives?

Chris Gardner, a communications officer at Yale’s School of Medicine, believes that “the key is to not get stagnant, and to look for opportunities both internally and externally to move around, grow, sharpen your skills, and challenge yourself. No one likes change, but often it is just the spark someone needs to stay motivated and happy at work.”

I agree. We can absolutely empower ourselves and look for ways to grow on the job. We can also learn more effective psychological coping strategies, including self-care. But, self-care works best when it’s practiced proactively, as a preemptive measure, reducing stress along the way.  

There’s also some research to suggest that we can change our perceptions or appraisals of a job, and that can impact how we feel. For example, if we see our job, including time urgency, role conflict, and emotional demands, as a challenge as opposed to a burden, we are less likely to experience burnout. Appraisal matters, for sure. But, job stress is not all in our heads. Self-care strategies and reappraisal are both well and good, but if the organization is toxic, unyielding in its demands, that objective reality can’t be ignored. The onus isn’t just on the individual.

As adults, we can absolutely commit to restructuring our lives to improve work-life balance and engage in good coping. But, if the organizations we work for don’t support and promote that, our chances of succeeding are slim. Individual interventions to improve resilience and develop skills are important. But for those strategies to work and have sustainable effects, it’s essential that they are paired with organizational efforts to improve working conditions and support for employees. It should be a no-brainer that organizations work to prevent the conditions that fuel feelings of exhaustion in the first place.

A number of organizations have been trying. For example, one workplace intervention used a physical activity tracker along with an online coach to help employees cope with excessive job stress.  Although this program helped employees improve their physical health over time, it was not effective in enhancing work-related well-being. Other places have tried instituting mindfulness-based interventions to mixed effects. This may, in part, be because the largest reported hindrance to self-care is a perceived lack of time. 

So, asking folks to carve out time from their already over packed work schedules and demands to focus on their breathing and watch their thoughts go by misses the point, and creates more stress. Not that mindfulness is a bad thing. It’s an effective and promising intervention for a number of things. But, what we really need to combat burnout is deep, broad workplace culture change. 

The kicker is how many workplaces not just tolerate, but actually incentivize unhealthy work-life balance and highly stressful, competitive environments — by rewarding top salespeople who work ridiculous hours, or implicitly or explicitly encouraging employees to work over time or try to top each others’ performance.

The American Psychological Association’s Center for Organizational Excellence has a host of free resources for employers to use to create psychological healthy workplaces. What does such a workplace look like? At its core, it’s a place that fosters employee well being, while enhancing job performance.

Psychologically healthy workplaces have a number of commonalities, including employee engagement and recognition, promotion of employee growth and development, work-life balance, and health and safety. And, these organizations need leaders who can promote and sustain such high-quality climates, demonstrate care, foster feelings of support and optimism, inspire employees’ emotional commitment, and stimulate motivation and performance. 

We all want to have long and fulfilling careers. Of course, as adults, it’s our job to put skin in the game and make that happen. We must care for ourselves through individual awareness of our feelings and boundaries, reflection, self-care and healthy coping strategies. But, it’s also essential that organizations take care of their employees — to increase awareness of burnout, build capacity, and drive change in creating good, psychologically healthy work cultures.

Together, we can create thriving work environments, where unhealthy stress is reduced, engagement is high, and productivity is strong.

Joan Cook is a psychologist and associate professor at Yale University who researches traumatic stress and clinically treats combat veterans, interpersonal violence survivors and people who escaped the former World Trade Center towers on 9/11.