Burnout is a specific work-related stress characterized by feelings of exhaustion both physically and mentally—even those passionate about their jobs can feel drained due to seemingly endless tasks. Once this sense of burnout sets in, it’s not easily shaken off.
Research shows that in 2021, about three out of five employees experienced symptoms of burnout, and the COVID-19 pandemic has made this feeling more widespread as it has made work-life more challenging to manage.
Christina Maslach, Professor Emerita of the Interdisciplinary Center for Healthy Workplaces at the University of California, Berkeley, is a pioneer of burnout research, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) is one of the primary measurement tools for occupational burnout, named after her.
In the early to mid-1970s, Maslach’s research focused on how to deal with intense emotions. When she interviewed people in stressful work environments, such as emergency room doctors or police officers, they often wanted to share more personal feelings at the end of the interviews— they felt immense pressure, exhaustion, and a disconnection from the world around them.
She did not initially have a precise term to describe this feeling until she met a woman working in the poverty law sector who referred to this feeling as “burnout”. This term struck a chord with interviewees—it was indeed the state they were experiencing.
Meanwhile, Herbert Freudenberger, an American psychologist, described in a paper published in 1974 how he and his colleagues at a free clinic coped with excessive workloads and stress. He noticed that these diligent people began to make mistakes and suffer from fatigue.
As Maslach compiled these stories and published an article on occupational burnout in Human Behavior magazine, she received a massive response. The article spread quickly, making many who felt burnout realize they were not alone.
Burnout is a widespread phenomenon that has drawn attention for quite some time. In 2019, Anne Helen Petersen’s article about millennial burnout published on BuzzFeed News received widespread attention and sparked a strong response. In describing her state, Petersen revealed that she felt numb, lacking in interest and ideas, and cried during discussions with her editor, which was unusual for her.
Burnout is a complex feeling that starts with a sense of ineffectiveness and exhaustion, escalates to feelings of cynicism, and eventually turns into inefficiency and powerlessness. It is neither a medical diagnosis nor solely an individual issue but closely related to the interaction between an individual and the environment. Overworking leading to chronic fatigue makes one feel a lack of accomplishment or progress.
Professor Anthony Montgomery of Northumbria University emphasizes that job burnout needs to be addressed by rearranging work instead of just relying on personal effort.
But if burnout stems from the interaction between the individual and the external world, and the external world cannot be changed, must we then always remain in a state of job burnout? Montgomery believes that although increasing salary and vacation time may be difficult, changing the way operations are managed is possible, which offers a glimmer of hope in solving job burnout.
