Burn baby burn

You know what a burnout is. You work too hard for too long, and at some point you just go pthhhbppppp around the office like a deflating balloon.

As it happens however, that is only one of three kinds of recognised types of burnout in psychology. That one which we’re most familiar with is termed a ‘frenetic’ burnout. It is characterised by working long hours and making sacrifices at the expense of health and personal life.

It mostly affects the highly ambitious, perfectionists, and workers who are too keen to help others and end up overloading themselves with responsibility. They end up developing high levels of stress, which leads them to vent their negative emotions.

A second kind of burnout is the ‘boredom’ burnout. This is where a worker is uninterested in or unchallenged by their work. Without any sense of fulfilment, they create strategies to avoid doing work and become increasingly cynical and detached from it, eventually culminating in dismissal or resignation. Administration and service personnel are most at risk of this kind of burnout.

The third kind is the ‘worn-out’ burnout. This is a slower variety of burnout, and often occurs over a long period of time in a role. An employee who is ground down by inconveniences and stress with a feeling that nothing ever changes.

It is especially a problem for employees who see no tangible reward or difference due to their actions. A study has shown that employees in the same organisation for over 16 years are most at risk of this kind of burnout.

Recognising burnout can be quite easy. Changes in behaviour, a clear shift in work habits (i.e. missing more and more deadlines), or obvious coping mechanisms being deployed, for example drinking excessively or starting up smoking again.

There are a lot of tools at your disposal to prevent burnouts from occurring. Offering emotional support, encouraging employees to take their allotted vacation, offreing incentivisation and training, and ensuring that employees delegate and collaborate well are just a few possible methods.

About the author

Jerome Langford

Jerome is a graduate in Philosophy from St Andrews, who alternately spends time writing about HR and staring wistfully out of windows, thinking about life’s bigger questions: Why are we here? How much lunch is too much lunch? What do you mean exactly by ‘final warning’?