Neogeneses

What is occupational burnout?

The word ‘burnout’ paints an image of an some kind of empty frame – hollowed by fire.  Profoundly impacting individuals, the sum effects of all individuals suffering burnout transcends international borders. Regardless of culture or creed, the symptoms and presence of burnout are visible through formal psychological assessments and within the day-to-day social interactions. Newer modalities of study correlate that occupational burnout has a distinct progression and is a grossly overlooked mental health concern. An informal definition is synonymous with notions of a person being overworked, overextended, or overly stressed for long periods of time, spanning weeks to years.

Burnout begins with a sense of discord, frustration, which progresses over time to anger and resentment.  Even in cultures which value or impose societal honor systems, the anger is often displaced and externalized. The discord progresses to a third sate, apathy, often associated with detached spaciness or robot behavior. Physical health is often impacted by this stage. After those three phases, occupational burnout occurs, characteristic of emotional, psychological, and physical exhaustion. Symptomologies overlap with depression, anhedonia, anxiety, PTSD, and depending who you ask, still other subsets of symptoms. Frighteningly, occupational burnout can feature a triggered onset of symptoms, much like PTSD, and those triggered events can lead to a full relapse. Some burnout experts are attempting to reclassify burnout accordingly (Puleo 2021).

The WHO doesn’t classify occupational burnout as a medical condition, and relegates the condition to a “workplace phenomenon” (WHO, 2019). Experts in the related fields are working to change this classification and nosology despite being a mental health condition that has a fairly clear etiology.

Burnout can be assessed, prevented, and treated, but is culturally dependent on the presence of willing patients and informed professionals. Unfortunately, this is the rarity on the international scale.

Causes of Burnout

There are many lists of causes readily found via web searches, so I’ve combined and condensed some key components for brevity:

Poor leadership – a lack of a vision, no commonly accepted organizational goals.  Poor leadership is the greatest factor; this models and trains future leaders in a burnout-inducing image.

Lack of organizational caring on a larger scale, beyond the leadership – absence of a code of ethics, illegal or inhumane activities. Corruption can exist across socioeconomic conditions and culture.

Workplace politics, discrimination, toxic coworkers, and workplace sabotage (usually either social or physical), and relational aggression by peers or coworkers.

Over-emphasis on workload itself, an uncaring focus on return of investment. Money unfortunately “talks” in many societies and cultures. This can occur in any business sector.

Poor communication – simple misunderstandings or misconceptions can “butterfly effect” into larger issues, which require more billable hours to fix.

All contributing factors have the potential to antagonize and amplify each other, increasing the  potential for burnout (Puleo, 2021).

Assessment difficulties – Symptoms are Exclusive to Culture

Many assessments exist that can assess forms or aspects of burnout, but some assessments are completely foreign. However, it’s important to consider that some cultures believe in – and report – symptoms that don’t exist in the western world. In those realities, completely different symptoms affect their version of what we would call “mental health,” and to their ears, some of our criteria for mental wellness sound just as absurd or bizarre. For example, I’ve never had an imbalanced chakra reduce the volume of my work (that I know of), and I’ve never experienced writer’s block from having my skin exposed to the light of a solar eclipse. Consider the incredible spectrum of humanity and human beliefs.

Nonetheless, in the English-speaking internet, two assessments caught my interest:

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) – has 22 items that pertain to occupational burnout. It’s the most widely used burnout assessment and draws parallels to depressive and anxiety disorders – a common line of thinking (Maslach 2021).

The Burnout During Organizational Change Model (B-DOC) is an assessment that links burnout as a variation or sibling of PTSD. Dr. Geri Puleo, creator of this assessment, is the burnout specialist who described newer models of the expectations of the progression of burnout (Puleo, G. 2021). These models are more common-sensical.

Transculturally, mental health assessments vary by nation, society, and subculture.  Some countries have no concept of burnout, or of “mental health” altogether. It isn’t just the ultra-competitive, Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Judging Myers-Briggs types: it’s often the impoverished poor. It really comes down to an individual personality’s fit with an individual job. I was expecting to find certain archetypes, but considering the human diaspora, individual burnout prone archetypes were rare.  So it can happen to anyone.

In the western world, I found an anomaly with women who self-identify on assessments as overachievers & “people pleasers.” These traits may also contribute to how severely burnout is personally experienced in addition to being more prone to a case of burnout. These traits could extend to women in affluent/capitalist and neo-individualist Eastern cultures, like South Korea, Hong Kong, or Japan. Studies on these working women are in progress, and it’s still too early to state that these studies correlate transculturally.

Cultural Variations of Overwork

Wage-slave conditions are found in all cultures. Workers can feel motivated to “honor the homeland” through their labor, often a component of political or cultural nationalism. Unsafe physical work conditions can be the norm, amplifying exhaustion.

Hard work in the affluent world can be a social and familial honor in the Far East and Oceania. Taken to extremes, it’s comparable to western notions of success. In the psyche of the affluent worker, the work is a choice instead of a chore. Choice or chore, exhaustive work has the same effect.

According to Yan Mei, “The epidemic of long hours at work is becoming increasingly common in China. According to the 2014 China Labor Market Report by Beijing Normal University, [the] Chinese worked 2,000 to 2,200 hours annually, far more than their counterparts in the United States (1,789 hours), United Kingdom (1,677 hours), Japan (1,729 hours), and Germany (1,366)” (Yan, 2016).

Occupational burnout can occur independent of physical wealth.

Japan – The Stereotype, The Reality

Instead of a socialist government with a collectivist society, like China, Japan displays an emerging degree of individualism that is intrinsically linked to the honor and collectivism of family units.  Honor is inbuilt into society. The classic example, leaving work earlier than co-workers, even if the workday is clearly over, can be an insult. Thus, the entire work group works extra hours.  The same if the company president is visiting the offices until midnight.

Japan’s “Salaryman Laws” have been updated several times in the past few decades (Demetriou 2020) to regulate overwork. Working-day naps, for example, sounded really good in the newspapers, but naps are implemented to increase efficiency. Culturally, it can be an “honorable behavior” for a worker to sleep on the streets at night, and many of them clutch their briefcases while they sleep so that their honor is not mistaken for vagrancy. These, again, are independent of job or personality type.

Hikikomori – a Japanese phenomenon of younger people who reject the rigors of Japanese society. Hikikomori overwhelmingly report anxiety, depression, alienation, and rarely leave home. This rejection of society is usually viewed as a choice instead of what it is: mental illness. In the psychological or psychiatric sense, Japan has little concept of mental health, so Hikikomori also experience a loss of social honor. Recovery and rehabilitation are rare, but anecdotally, some peer-support groups are emerging in larger Japanese cities.

Karoshi – death by overwork: With extremes of 60-80 hour work weeks, if you die at work in Japan, the first thing that a company does is a survey of the work hours. An obituary is written based on the number of hours worked per week, and if 60 or more hours are logged, then the obituary will reflect Karoshi. Suicides caused by work can also be listed as Karoshi.  In a culture that focuses on honor and the respect of ancestors, this is a way to preserve the honor of the deceased.

Western Variations

A cultural shift, Spanish siesta is no longer usually used for naps. Stores still close in the afternoons, and the Spanish simply stay up until midnight, some of the latest averages in Europe. (Jones 2021). Welcome to Southern Europe, where despite supposedly stagnating economies, by true measures life is good.

France – paid vacation days, 35 hour standard work week since 2000.  High emphasis on “Working to live” instead of “living to work.” Joie de vivre is not at the office. Lower burnout through respecting the human condition.

Germany – fewest hours worked of the economic powerhouses (~1,300 per year), and much less burnout. If you ask anyone in German-speaking countries how this is accomplished, they will reply that they ask “How should we work?” before they begin any work. Young people are assessed by the school systems throughout their education to help them find ideal paths in life, and personality assessments are the norm, paired with school performance. This is a Western European feature, most refined in Germany and Switzerland. Job dissatisfaction is uncommon, if not rare. If the work for the week is done early by Friday, Germans will take a Feierabend, a “free evening,” the custom of going home early without needing to ask permission. Less burnout via planning and efficiency.

Scandinavia & Western Europe – months to years of paid maternal/paternal leave are normal. Scandinavian “Hygge,” the value of cozy time spent at home with loved ones, can be medically prescribed by therapists. “Joie de vivre” is not at the office. Work to live, don’t live to work.

USA

According to a cover article in Psychology Today, three factors drive American working exceptionalism. The first, Workism is a mindset in which work is the center of a person’s life. Toxic masculinity, the second, then acts as motivator. Disconnectedness, the third, is caused by the state of society, integrations of technology, and old-fashioned greed (Jaffe 2019). The article was published several months before Covid-19 struck, and we’ve all experienced school and working shifting to remote or decentralized forms, so the added factors of work or school being at home amplify the potential for burnout. American exceptionalism is a little illogical, but still in the spotlight internationally.

Scandinavian Anomaly | Globalist shift

Sweden – burnout used to be the exception in the so-called land of work-life balance. It is now on the rise. Extra hours can mean extra returns on products or services completed sooner (Savage, 2019).

In Poland, game developer CD Projekt Red created a perfect example of “Developer Crunch.” Crunch is the industry’s term for coerced labor to meet product release dates. 80+ hour work weeks for months on end. In late 2020, international headlines estimated hundreds of millions of dollars in game sales will be lost for a single title. Exhausted workers created inferior computer code. Investor lawsuits target unethical management. Traumatized, former workers reportedly refuse the use of digital technologies for anything aside from basic communication, even in their private lives. The workers of video game development studios are well known to employ creatives, new media artists who willing to sacrifice their hours for their art. Traumatized, former workers reportedly refuse the use of digital technologies for anything aside from basic communications. Smaller companies now commonly post disclaimers that denouncing crunch. Aurochdigital provides a clearly written example of such statements on their website. (Willington, 2021). Almost any “about the company” page will have a similar, public-facing value statement.

Preventing Burnout:

Quick fixes always fail (e.g. alcohol, workaholism, substance). Maladaptive coping includes high-risk behaviors, gambling, sex, crime, extreme sports – thrill-seeking behavior to blow off steam. Workaholism seems logical, but ironically makes things worse.

Ethics, oversight, policy, leadership – behavioral analysts and industrial psychology firms cannot cure a company overnight. Be weary of hearing that “things will change” within any given workplace vs. unfavorable or unhealthy conditions.

Residual burnout – healing takes the form of a reverse bell curve, sometimes taking years from which to recover.

It is never worth sacrificing years of health and recovery through willfully allowing oneself to experience occupational burnout (Tagle 2021). Burnout can occur within any personality type and in any occupation or professional position – a sobering take away.

Works Cited

Demetriou, D. (2020). How the Japanese are putting an end to extreme work weeks. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20200114-how-the-japanese-are-putting-an-end-to-death-from-overwork

Jaffe, A. (2019). Burnout Generation? Redefining Success and Work Culture. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/all-about-addiction/201905/burnout-generation-redefining-success-and-work-culture

Jones, J. (2021). It’s time to put the tired Spanish siesta stereotype to bed. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20170609-its-time-to-put-the-tired-spanish-siesta-stereotype-to-bed

Maslach, C. (2021). Christina Maslach | UC Psych. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://psychology.berkeley.edu/people/christina-maslach

Puleo, G. (2021). A New Way to Work. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://a-new-way-to-work.com/

Savage, M. (2019). Burnout is rising in the land of work-life balance. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190719-why-is-burnout-rising-in-the-land-of-work-life-balance

Tagle, A. (2021). Burnout Isn’t Just Exhaustion. Here’s How To Deal With It. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.npr.org/2021/03/08/974787023/burnout-isnt-just-exhaustion-heres-how-to-deal-with-it

WHO. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases

Willington, P., & Willington, P. (2021). Video game crunch: What is it and is it a problem? — Auroch Digital. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://www.aurochdigital.com/blog/2020/7/20/what-is-crunch-in-the-video-games-industry

Yan, M. (2016). The People’s Republic of Burnout. Retrieved 21 March 2021, from https://medium.com/thrive-global/the-peoples-republic-of-burnout-ed65af03dbc6