We’ve all heard about burnout at work. Most of us can identify with it on a personal level, even if we’ve never truly experienced it ourselves. When we think of burnout at work, we typically think of people in high-pressure jobs burning the midnight oil: tech engineers, lawyers, or businesspeople staying late to finish a report or perfect a presentation for an upcoming meeting. Or we think of people in healthcare, like doctors and nurses on long, stressful shifts in the emergency room, handling one crisis after another.
Frontline healthcare workers experienced burnout during 2020 and 2021, but they weren’t the only people who reported feeling overwhelmed. Employees around the country who switched to virtual work experienced burnout at work, as well. That’s something many of us did not expect. To be honest, we worried about other things related to remote work: isolation, interruption of routine, uncertainty – mental health professionals like me warned about the potential for an increase in mental health diagnoses like depression and anxiety, or an increase in alcohol and substance use.
However, one thing happened we didn’t anticipate. Many people who worked from home worked too much and completely lost their work/home balance. Why? Because their work was at home – and they never left. Add to that the additional pressures of having school age kids at home, being around spouses more than usual, social distancing, wearing masks – it all created a perfect storm for work burnout.
What is Work Burnout?
The 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) – the international version of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, Volume 5 (DSM-5) indicates that work burnout is an identifiable occupational phenomenon, but not a medical condition.
Here’s how the World Health Organization (WHO) summarizes the ICD-11 classification:
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
- Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
- Increased mental distance from one’s job
- Increased feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
- Reduced professional efficacy.
Burn-out refers specifically to phenomena in the occupational context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.”
Research into work burnout shows six primary causes:
- Unsustainable workload
- Perceived lack of control
- Insufficient rewards for effort
- Lack of a supportive community
- Lack of fairness
- Mismatched values and skills
That’s what work burnout is and its main causes, as identified by experts on the topic. Now we’ll share the latest statistics how many people experience burnout at work in any given year.
Burnout at Work: Facts and Figures
The best – and most recent – data we have on the specific topic of stress-related burnout comes from research conducted and published in 2021, which examined work burnout during the pandemic of 2020-2021.
Looking back, we can all agree that 2020 was a challenging year for our workforce. Across the board, workers in the U.S. reported heightened rates of work dissatisfaction and frustration, i.e. burnout at work. The challenges continued into 2021. According to the research we mention above – a poll of over 1,500 workers conducted by the American Psychological Association (APA) called APA’s 2021 Work and Well-being Survey – on worker stress, burnout, and wellbeing, workers around the country were stressed, and many were on the way to burnout.
Stress and Negative Workplace Experience: 2020 and 2021
- 79% of employees reported work-related stress
- 71% said they felt tense or stressed out at work
- 60% of employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including:
- Physical fatigue: 47% – a 41% increase from 2019
- Cognitive weariness: 38%
- Emotional exhaustion: 35%
- Lack of interest, motivation, or energy: 26%
- Lack of effort at work: 19%
- Lower productivity: 18%
- Negative thoughts: 17%
- Irritability/anger toward coworkers and/or customers: 15%
- 40% said they wanted to change jobs
- 40% reported work-related mental health problems
Another study from the Harvard Business Review showed the following results. Here’s what workers reported.
Workplace Dynamics, 2020-2021
- Work life got worse: 89%
- Wellbeing got worse: 85%
- Job demand increased: 56%
- Experienced burnout often: 62%
- Pandemic completely dominated work: 57%
- Did not do a good job balancing home and work life: 55%
- 53% said helping kids with school at home contributed
- Decreased connection with family: 25%
- Decreased connection with colleagues: 39%
- Unable to maintain strong connection to friends: 50%
- Overall wellbeing:
- Good: 21%
- Excellent: 2%
In addition, research from Gallup on the topic of work burnout shows:
- Risk of occupational burnout increases when employees work 50 hours per week or more
- Increases further when employees work 60 hours per week or more
We want to point out two things from that data. First, from the Harvard Survey, we were surprised to learn that only 21 percent of respondents reported good overall work-related wellbeing, and only 2 percent reported excellent overall work-related wellbeing. Clearly, we need to do a better job keeping our workforce feeling well. The second thing is obvious, but some people think it doesn’t apply to them. The data from Gallup says when you work over 50 or over 60 hours a week, you increase your chances of burnout: if you regularly work overtime and long hours and aren’t concerned about burnout, please rethink that position – and consider the data.
What Can Employers Do?
The APA Work and Wellbeing Survey asked employees what their employers could do to create an emotionally and psychologically healthy workplace that promotes positive mental health and prevents burnout. Here’s what the surveyed workers said:
- 87% said they think their employer could take specific actions that would improve their mental health and psychological/emotional wellbeing
- 37% think employers should mental health resources/support
- 36% think employers should regularly recognize good work and contributions
- 34% think flexible hours would improve mental health
- 33% of workers said if they could improve only one thing at work, they’d want more money
- 32% think management should encourage workers to engage in self-care
- 30% think management should encourag4 workers to use paid time off
- 30% think should encourage workers to take breaks during shift
In addition, to improve employee morale, boost a sense of belonging, and decrease resentment that can lead to burnout, workers made the following suggestions:
- 76% want more people of color in senior leadership
- 61% said their companies do not have people of color in senior leadership
- 74% want more women in senior leadership
- 61% said their companies do not have women in senior leadership
- 31% want an overall increase in diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in their workplace
That’s what employees say their employer can do to create an emotionally and psychologically healthy workplace and prevent burnout.
But what can workers do to prevent burnout?
What You Can Do to Prevent Burnout at Work
Here are our top tips for preventing work burnout.
Five Tips to Beat Burnout at Work
1. Leave work at work.
This goes for weeknights, but it’s important for weekends, too. Finish your tasks and leave them where they are. If at all possible, don’t answer work texts, phone calls, or emails when you’re not at work. Yes, sometimes you have to, but it’s best to set an expectation early in your employment with any employer: your time at home is yours, your time at work is theirs.
2. Don’t skip lunch.
Take your break and eat a healthy, fulfilling, and satisfying lunch. Failure to lunch can ruin your whole day. Also, don’t eat lunch at your desk. Go to a break room, go outside, go to the lobby/atrium if you’re in a big office building – go anywhere but where you spend your entire workday. Trust me: this makes a difference.
3. Take a walk or do a workout.
If you have a flexible boss and a good work environment, you can probably find a way to take a break and go for a walk, or even take a long enough break to get a group workout class in. A tough spin class before going back to the office? Yes, please.
4. Establish clear boundaries.
Most of us hate saying “no” to anything at work. We want to make a good impression, and we want our bosses to know were committed to doing a good job. However, it’s important to set boundaries, and, if at all possible, avoid taking on responsibilities that aren’t in your job description. We know – when a boss says, “Just this once,” it’s very hard to say no – but be careful with your time and your energy, or that “just once” may become something you do regularly, which can breed resentment and lead to burnout.
5. Talk to friends or seek professional support.
In some cases, simply venting to a friend can do the trick. In other cases, if work burnout leads to extended levels of stress and includes symptoms like anger, irritability, sadness, hopelessness, and frustration, we recommend seeking an evaluation with a mental health provider: professional support with an experienced therapist might be exactly what you need.
How to Find Support
Our last tip, above, is to either talk to friends or find professional support. When we say talk to friends, what we really mean is find a good friend you can really let loose with: when you vent, you want to get it all out. Therefore, it’s best to find someone you know well, who knows you well, who doesn’t mind you telling them exactly how you feel and why. Don’t hold back: the purpose is to get it all out. Then, when it’s their turn, you might realize they’re going through similar challenges at work, and you both end up snort-laughing about it.
That’s the kind of friend you want to vent to: one you can snort-laugh with!
If you think you need professional support, consider these online resources:
- The American Psychological Association (APA) maintains an excellent therapist finder
- The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) maintains this helpful page: Finding a Mental Health Professional
- And the National Institute on Mental Health (NIMH) hosts this page: Help for Mental Illness
Don’t forget you can reach out to use here at Crownview. Give us a call, or fill out one of our online information forms, and we’ll get back to you quickly.
Gianna Melendez
Jodie Dahl, CpHT