Employees’ Burnout – Presentation, Incidence – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #923

Employees’ Burnout – Presentation, Incidence – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #923

Dear Colleagues!  This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #923 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans  aims to share knowledge and wisdom from Veterans for the benefit of Community at large. Pharma Veterans Blog is published by Asrar Qureshi on  WordPress, the top blog site. Please email to asrar@asrarqureshi.com for publishing your contributions here.

Credit: Mikhail Nilov

Credit: Nataliya Vaitkevich

Credit: Tara Winstead

This blogpost is based on research by McKinsey Health Institute, published in August 2023. MHI is a non-profit-generating entity within McKinsey & Co. Its mission is to catalyze the actions needed across continents, sectors, and communities to add quality to life which is already seeing relative longevity across the world. Additional material is used from Mental Health UK, Burnout Report 2024.

What is Employee Burnout?

Burnout is a state of physical and emotional exhaustion. It can occur when you experience long term stress, for example, doing a stressful job.

Burnout is recognized by the World Health Organization – WHO – as an occupational phenomenon. While it is not a medical condition, it has been classified as a syndrome, meaning a collection of symptoms or signs associated with a specific health-related cause. 

Burnout is characterized by three dimensions.

1. Feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion

2. Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feeling of negativism, or cycnicism related to one’s job

3. Reduced professional output, quality, and efficacy

How Does Burnout Present?

Chances are that many of you have experienced the feeling at some point in your work life. You feel tired from the moment you wake up in the morning. As you think about the coming long day at work, you feel dreaded because you do not have physical energy and mental strength to cope with another stressful day.

Common symptoms of burnout include:

Mental burnout

• Dreading work

• Lack of interest or motivation

• Decreased sense of accomplishment

• Uncontrollable procrastination

• Feeling incapable of coping with new challenges

Physical burnout

• Exhaustion

• Chronic stress

• Inconsistent sleep habits

• Sudden, frequent health problems, ranging from headaches and colds to mental health illnesses like depression and anxiety

Emotional burnout

• Cynicism at work 

• Irritability or anger at work

• Suddenly and intensely disliking your job

• Feelings of hopelessness at work

• Feeling like you should isolate yourself from others

Burnout is also associated with negative brain health sysmptoms such as anxiety and depression, which in turn can lead to more severe mental health conditions.

What is the Extent of Problem?

Burnout can happen to anyone. And it is not limited to workplace only; new parents, and caregivers often report experiencing burnout. Our focus, however, is on workplace related burnout.

Mental Health UK reports that 9 out of 10 UK adults experienced high or extreme stress during the past year. Almost 25% of UK adults feel unable to manage stress and pressure levels in their lives. And almost 20% workers hit the burning out point.

MHI research was conducted in 2022 and 2023, and the global survey included about 30,000 employees and 1,000 HR decision makers in 30 countries in Asia-Pacific, Africa & Middle East, Europe, North America, and South America. Global level of burnout is 20% as reported in case of UK, however, countries and regions present variable picture.

In Asia-Pacific, the highest level of cumulative burnout is reported from India 59%, followed by Singapore 29%, Japan 27%, Australia & New Zealand 24%, while China, South Korea, Türkiye, and Indonesia are below 20%. It seems that the employers and employees are overstretching themselves to achieve more in India.

In Africa & Middle East, highest level is reported from Saudi Arabia 36%, followed by Egypt 33%, and UAE 26%. Cameroon, though a poor country with huge problems with unemployment and unrest, reported the least percentage, 9%, while South Africa and Nigeria had similar levels, 16% & 17%.

In South America, Chile reported the highest level 33%; Argentina and Colombia reported the lowest, 12%; Brazil rprorted 16%.

In North America, Canada has the highest number, 25%; Mexico had the lowest, 13%; US was at 16%.

In Europe, Sweden reported the highest incidence, 25%; followed by Switzerland 23%; Polsnd 21%; UK 20%; Germany 20%, France 15%, and Netherlands 13%.

COVID-19 affected nearly everyone’s wellbeing in various ways, and we are still trying to understand the extent of damage. What we do know is that the pandemic worsened the already prevailing signs of mental health crisis. Research during the pandemic indcated that nine out of ten employers knew that COVID-19 was having an impact on their employees by creating unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression.

Everyone has the potential to become burned out. But McKinsey’s annual Women in the Workplace report indicates that women experience burnout symptoms at higher rates than men, and that it’s only getting worse: the 2022 report shows that the burnout gap between women and men is almost double what it was the previous year. Forty-two percent of women report feeling burned out—but at the same time, productivity across corporate America is at an all-time high. This means that many of the women who are experiencing burnout symptoms may be in work environments where they are struggling.

Burnout Assessment Tool – BAT

Wilmar Schaufeli, Hans De Witte & Steffie Desart have developed a tool for assessing burnout level. For detailed information, please visit the website http://www.burnoutassessmenttool.be/ and download comprehensive, scientific test manual.

Concluded.

Disclaimers: Pictures in these blogs are taken from free resources at Pexels, Pixabay, and Google. Credit is given where available. If a copyright claim is lodged, we shall remove the picture with appropriate regrets.

For most blogs, I research from several sources which are open to public. Their links are mentioned under references. There is no intention to infringe upon anyone’s copyrights. If, however, it happens unintentionally, I offer my sincere regrets.

References:

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-burnout

https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/mckinsey-explainers/what-is-burnout 

https://www.mckinsey.com/mhi/overview 

https://mentalhealth-uk.org/burnout/ 

https://asana.com/pt/resources/what-is-burnout?utm_campaign=&utm_source=&utm_medium=&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiArrCvBhCNARIsAOkAGcXNuywdeTzsrlXn-MppTbHF8MMc3nl0N_-Y_3eS4AoiUe6ZTOe7_DYaAmtyEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds