No matter what time I get to bed, every weekday morning my alarm blares music loudly at 3 AM. I set my alarm loud to make sure I jumped out of bed. As I go down to the kitchen to make the coffee, realization that I simply feel tired all the time sets in. My days are long because I have to take care of farm animals and dogs when I get home and I do not get a chance to take naps during the day. I am beginning to, wonder if what I’m experiencing is simply fatigue or a deeper issue of burnout. Is it exhaustion and the demands of my daily tasks or perhaps it’s the demands of my job.
What is Burnout?
Dismissed as just another case of “the Mondays” or the dreaded “Sunday scaries,” the reality is that burnout in the workplace is a real issue is recognized by the World Health Organization. We have all heard that phrase but, defining what “burned out” actually means has always been difficult to describe. Symptoms often vary, leaving us to unexpectedly hit a wall before realizing we hit it!
Courtesy of researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, they came out with a Burnout Assessment Tool which promises to detect the warning signs of burnout before it fully happens. If you are wondering how accurate this breakthrough is, fear not. It was successfully tested on 500 Norwegian workers and the results were detailed in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology. Somehow this tool is smarter than we are.
This tool is designed to measure four critical burnout risk factors—exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment, and emotional impairment. Leon De Beer, one of the study authors, says the long-term ramifications of neglecting worker burnout leads into broader issues within the workforce. His colleague, Marit Christensen believes we need to stress the importance of addressing the factors that contributing to burnout, such as high demands and inadequate resources.
As I think about with the daily struggle between fatigue and burnout, I strongly believe that we need to cultivate environments that prioritize employee well-being. It’s not just about individual treatment according to the position you hold at the company, but fostering working conditions and structures that safeguard the health and vitality of every member of the workforce.