Signs and symptoms of burnout at work

Nick Wignall*

Burnout at work is a growing concern for both individuals and the organizations that employ them. This article has been provided by MAS. It is one section of a three part guide.

In this three part guide, you’ll learn what professional burnout is, what causes it, key statistics, myths about on-the-job burnout, as well as some practical tools and resources for how to deal with it effectively.

What is burnout at work: a definition

The World Health Organization (WHO) defines professional burnout as:

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, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job and

• reduced professional efficacy

While professional burnout isn’t traditionally classified as a formal medical or mental health diagnosis, it can lead to serious negative consequences for individuals and organizations.

Common signs and symptoms of burnout at work

There are many possible signs and symptoms of burnout at work. And while the specifics of how someone experiences job burnout depends on the interaction of their specific biological and psychological makeup with the particulars of their job and work environment, there are some common factors to be aware of:

• Anxiety and worry. An increase in your tendency to worry and/or feel anxious can be an indicator of burnout at work. In particular, if you have trouble “leaving work at work” and continue to worry and feel anxious during non-working hours, it’s possible that job burnout is partly to blame.

• Irritability, resentment, and cynicism. A hallmark of job burnout is that frustrations pile up and are not able to be addressed adequately. When these frustrations become chronic, the result can be increased irritability with other people, resentment of work in general, and even cynicism or hopelessness about things improving.

• Procrastination. Everybody procrastinates sometimes and to some degree. But if you find yourself procrastinating more frequently than usual and to a greater degree, it could be a sign of professional burnout.

• Forgetfulness. You only have so much “mental bandwidth.” And when most of it is being taken up with stress and anxiety, a common result is that important things to remember start falling through the cracks. If you’re overwhelmed at work and burnt out, forgetting things you normally remember is a common symptom.

• Fatigue. We all get depleted when we work hard. But working hard without time for rejuvenation and rest can lead to persistent fatigue that never seems to let up and may be a sign of burnout at work.

• Boredom. Not all signs of professional burnout are extreme. For many people, especially in the early stages, job burnout may manifest as boredom and disinterest in work activities and projects.

• Insomnia and sleep difficulties. A very common sign of burnout at work is trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, or waking up not feeling sufficiently rested or restored. In particular, many people experiencing burnout have a hard time “shutting off their mind” before bed or waking up in the middle of the night worrying.

• Self-doubt. It is normal to doubt ourselves and our work from time to time. But one sign of burnout at work is that self-doubt increases to the point where it’s significantly impacting moods and wellbeing, as well as the quality of work.

• Morning dread. Morning dread is a particular form of anxiety that occurs immediately upon waking up in the morning. While there are a number of causes, one of the most common is that you’re burnt out at work and dreading even thinking about work. Even if the content of the anxiety is non- specific, there’s a good chance work stress is the ultimate cause.

• Social isolation. Many people tend to isolate and withdraw from important relationships when they experience chronic burnout at work. This is unfortunate because positive social support and connection is actually one of our biggest buffers against burnout and feeling overwhelmed.

• Displaced frustrations. One subtle sign of burnout at work can be a tendency to take out work frustrations on other people, including friends, family, or other non-work relationships.

• Hyperarousal. Hyperarousal is a state of being overly vigilant and on-edge, constantly scanning and looking for potential problems or concerns. While it’s normal to become extremely vigilant during moments of acute stress, a sign of chronic burnout is often that it’s difficult to come down from this state and relax when appropriate.

• Stress eating. When stress levels become too high for too long — as in the case of burnout — it often overwhelms our normal strategies for managing it and we turn to more unhelpful coping strategies like overeating to alleviate or distract from the stress.

• Compassion fatigue. Compassion fatigue is a state of emotional exhaustion and frustration that comes about when you spend too much of your time empathizing with and focusing on the needs and concerns of others without addressing your own.

• Difficulty relaxing. Similar to hyperarousal, a common sign of burnout at work is that you have a hard time relaxing. Most often this is experienced in the evenings before bed or on weekends and vacations when you feel like you are still thinking about work despite not wanting or needing to.

Keep in mind that none of these are definitive of burnout at work. And many of them can result from other stressors, conditions, and events in life. However, if you notice a significant and sustained increase in several of these factors, it may well be that the cause is burnout at work.

By the numbers: key statistics about work burnout

There has been an increasing amount of research on burnout at work over the past decade. Here are some of the most important findings and trends when it comes to professional burnout:

• Job burnout is on the rise. Google searches related to burnout have increased by 41% annually between 2017 and 2020, while searches for “occupational burnout” have increased by more than 2,500% since 2015.

• The costs of burnout are high. According to a Harvard Business School report, stress at work is estimated to cost the United States up to US190 billion per year in health care costs, and at least 120,000 deaths in the US each year are attributable to it.

• A majority of employees experience burnout at work. According to a 2019 Gallup survey, 28% of workers reported feeling burned out very often or always, and 48% said they felt burnt out sometimes, meaning over 75% of employees are consistently experiencing burnout at work. What’s more, those employees were almost three times as likely to look for another job.

• Professional burnout has significant consequences. People who report often feeling burned out are 63% more likely to need a sick day and 260% more likely to be actively looking for a new job.

• Millennials are experiencing more burnout than previous generations—and are less tolerant of it. According to a recent Deloitte survey, 84% of millennials said they had experienced burnout in their current job with close to 50% of millennials saying they have quit a job because of burnout specifically, compared to 42% of all survey participants.

*Nick Wignall, Clinical Psychologist. For more information on how to deal with burnout at work, visit his website https://nickwignall.com/burnout-at-work/.

This article has been provided for At The Bar by MAS. It can be found on Aki, the MAS Wellbeing Portal. All Bar Association members have free access to Aki. For more information on how to access Aki, visit our website at www.nzbar.org.nz/resources/mas-wellbeing-portal.