31/05/2019
WORKPLACE RELATED BURNOUT
I came across a real life account of a woman who had exprienced burnout, had a divorce, went through a mentally imbalanced episode, lost her children to her ex-husband due to inability to cope, ended up in a mental unit for a season, was now on the road to recovery and looking foward to returning to work.
It set me thinking on what would drive anyone to burnout and end up with such catastrophic set of circumstances. I was pleased to read that she was bouncing back but then my thoughts turned to those who don't bounce back; what happens to them?
Do they stay depressed forever or stay mentally imbalanced forever? It is a grave concern.
One does not dress up and turn up for work everyday in the hope of achieving burnout and having the world collapse around them; all expect more from the workplace.
A healthy and reasonable expectation that one can have of their workplace is...
●to have a safe environment
●to be assigned the correct level of duties
●to be remunerated at the right level
●to be given the right equipment
The additional expectation that all must have of each other is...
☆to show each other mutual respect
☆to be committed to creating positivity
☆to maintain genuine rapport
☆not to be bullied
☆not to be harrassed
☆not to be undermined
☆not to be maligned
☆to be team-oriented
This is not exhaustive; different workplaces will have other expectations that i have not mentioned.
I have left out job satisfaction because that is not a feeling that is directly given by employers or fellow colleagues; it is an internal feeling arising out of the individuals perception of all the factors listed above in relation to self and that varies from person to person.
The fact that the World Health Organisation has added burnout to the International Classification of Diseases is an indication of the scale of the problem.
What is the cause of burnout? I would put fellow colleagues as the number one cause but others might put the job itself, the level of responsibility, level of remuneration or even a combination of two or more factors. Whatever the cause is; it is important that we take steps to stop ourselves from getting burnout.
Changing jobs and getting a good worklife balance helps. Turning to senior management or HR usually compounds the problem for certain people in some circumstances so do weigh all aspects and take everything into consideration before trusting HR or senior management to help address the problem.
READ MORE ON THE LINK BELOW...
It's common in any work environment to hear people toss around the word "burnout" when they are feeling stressed, but what does burnout really mean? The World Health Organization has weighed in by taking the significant step of adding burnout to its International Classification of Diseases.
