Burnout and the tipping point for retirement
Last updated on 3 April 2024
Key points:
- The 2023 State of the Future of Work report released by the University of Melbourne identified that 40 percent of all young and middle-aged workers are less motivated about their work compared to just one-third of older workers
- Young and middle-aged workers are also three times more likely than their older counterparts to report that they are experiencing difficulty concentrating at work because of responsibilities outside of work
- Prime-aged workers are twice as likely to feel like they don’t have enough time at work to do everything they need to do compared to older workers and 40 percent of prime-aged workers reported fewer opportunities for advancement
Burnout is rarely acknowledged in the workplace and is even harder to gauge on a sliding scale. However, a new metric has been established and published in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology to identify people at risk of burnout.
If you have faced demands and stress at work that seem hard to control and you have frequently experienced the following symptoms in recent weeks, it might be a sign that you are on the verge of burning out:
- you felt mentally exhausted at work;
- you struggled to feel enthusiastic about your job;
- you had trouble concentrating when working;
- you sometimes overreact at work without meaning to.
Associate Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology Leon De Beer said it is important to identify the early signs of burnout to offset the harmful effects.
“Not addressing the risk of employee burnout in time can have long-term consequences,” De Beer said.
The physical and psychological effects of burnout include cardiovascular disease, pain related to musculoskeletal injuries, sleeping problems and depression.
De Beer’s research group has trialled a new measurement tool to identify the early warning signs of burnout. In the past, it has not always been that easy to determine who was at risk of overworking themselves.
“Previously, we have not had a detailed enough measurement tool for use in both the field of practice and research that identifies workers who are at risk of burnout,” De Beer said.
There is currently no international standard for assessing burnout, although the new tool — the ‘Burnout Assessment Tool,’ also known as BAT among researchers — is now being tested in over 30 countries.
BAT measures four main groups of risk factors: exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment.
Burnout is not an illness, but a feeling of being mentally or physically exhausted — the body’s response to a lasting, demanding situation.
Burnout is normally defined as a work-related syndrome, but there is evidence that work-life balance also plays a role. Stress and burnout don’t necessarily stop when you go home at the end of the day, as these effects often extend into other areas of life and vice versa.
For some people, burnout can be stopped in its tracks and solutions found to improve their situation. For others, however, burnout can last for years if the problem isn’t addressed.
Solutions for mitigating burnout include:
- flexible working conditions — hours, location, shifts;
- taking annual leave;
- mutual trust with sick leave — ie. no doctor’s note required;
- replacing staff when exiting a position;
- taking stress and wellness leave.
“We can deal with burnout through individual treatment, but it is of little use if people return to a workplace where the demands are too high and there are few resources,” Professor Marit Christensen, at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, said.
“It is then highly likely that the employee will become ill again. Therefore, it is important to create good working conditions and structures that safeguard the health of employees.
“Using a recognised method, we found that around 13 percent of the 500 surveyed workers were at high risk of burnout.
“For entertainment and educational purposes, interested parties can use our online tool to test if they are at risk of burnout.
“Please note that the tool only gives an indication of risk and does not provide any type of formal diagnosis or medical advice. If you are concerned about your levels of work-related stress, we encourage you to visit a healthcare provider to discuss the matter.”
Data from the University of Melbourne found that one potential way for employers to reduce the risk of burnout and prevent employees from retiring or quitting could be to improve flexible working conditions.
The 2023 State of the Future of Work report found that three out of every four prime-aged workers under the age of 54 reported that a lack of flexible work options in their workplace would motivate them to leave or look for another job.
This sentiment is not only reserved for the prime-aged workforce. Researchers found a significant proportion of older workers also want access to flexible working options albeit less so than the prime-aged workforce with six in every 10 mature-aged workers reporting that a lack of access to flexible work would motivate them to leave their current jobs.
Access to flexible work provided workers with a range of positive workplace benefits. Over half of the workers without access to flexible work reported feeling exhausted compared to 45 percent of workers with access to flexible work.
Forty-one percent of those without flexible work also reported less motivation at work than those with flexible work — 34 percent — and that they have less time to complete tasks — 31 percent of non-flexible workers compared to 27 percent of flexible workers.
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