Burnout: the Hidden Corporate Pandemic
Burnout is Costing Corporations $322 billion Annually
By: Ela Hunter
A hidden malaise is growing across corporations, intentionally silent with its victims remaining oblivious and even complacent in the name of productivity.
At the core is a cocktail of trends converging which is impacting our personal health, our teams and the medium and long-term profitability of companies:
- The COVID outbreak and impact of remote working on building stable and trusting working relationships
- The impact of the looming recession on cost saving (“transformation” programs) resulting in doing more with less, personal financial pressures and increased risk aversion to leave unfulfilling jobs
- The impact of great resignation
- Gen-Z non-conformist view towards conventional professional norms
The World Health Organization has included burn-out in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon.
It defines burn-out as:
“a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
It is characterized by three dimensions:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
- reduced professional efficacy
Deloitte conducted a survey of 1,000 full-time US professionals exploring the drivers and impact of employee burnout. The key highlights of the survey are:
- 91% said they are having an unmanageable amount of stress or frustration which is having a negative impact on the quality of their work
- 77% of respondents say they have experienced employee burnout at their current job
- 51% have experienced it more than once
- 87% are passionate about their job but 64% of these say they are frequently stressed, suggesting passion does create immunity to burnout
- 70% feel their employees are not doing enough to prevent or alleviate burnout in their organization
The Toll of Burnout on Corporations
Burnout is taking a toll on employees’ professional and personal lives but also on corporate profits. If your team is impacted, particularly over a long term, there are inevitable consequences on business performance.
The World Economic Forum estimates burnout’s global price tag is $322 billion including health care costs, turnover and loss of productivity.
Stanford researchers looked into how workplace stress impacts mortality and health in the United States and they found that it led to nearly 120,000 deaths each year, $1 trillion lost in productivity.
An API study claims that burned-out employees are 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job, 63% more likely to take a sick day and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.
Corporate Antidotes to Burnout
Christina Maslach, social psychologist and professor emerita of psychology at the University of California Berkeley and foremost expert on burnout, argues that the WHO classification as a disease provides a lens on what is wrong with people instead of what is wrong with companies.
Burnout is a growing problem but it can be prevented and it can be managed. Happy and healthy employees are best for business. Managers, HR leaders and executives have the choice and resources to promote the right solutions to prevent and manage burnout.
The prevention and mitigation is informed by understanding the top five reasons for burnout from a survey of 7,500 employees by Gallup:
- Unfair treatment at work
- Unmanageable workload
- Lack of role clarity
- Lack of communication and support from their manager
- Unreasonable time pressure
Leaders have a call to action reviewing company culture, management practices, incentive structures and 1:1 communication to develop a deeper understanding of the issues and possible solutions.
Articulating the value and meaning of each job is also critical. The Mayo Clinic found that physicians who spend about 20 percent of their time doing work they find most meaningful are at dramatically lower risk for burnout.
Leaders are encouraged to develop a sustainable company-wide program to help create awareness and equip managers to learn about the root causes, prevention and mitigation strategies.
About the author
Ela Hunter is an experienced operator with more than 15 years executing transformative growth programs across various technologies, financial services and renewable energy.
