Ever felt like you’ve pushed your mind and body to the absolute limit? Chances are, you have. Millennials in particular tend to be prone to this as they try to hold themselves to a standard of “perfection”. In fact, more than 34% of students in the Netherlands have reported to feel this way in 2017. And with close to 15% of the Dutch working population having reportedly struggled with these symptoms as well, it doesn’t just seem to be a millennial thing. Or a Dutch thing for that matter. So what’s causing this, and what can we do about it?
Stress causes burnouts, and water is wet. More news at 11.
As you may have suspected, burnouts are caused by stress. Stress produces cortisol and adrenaline which raises your level of alertness. It’s the fight or flight response your body gives when being pushed into a life or death situation. And as dramatic as this may sound, this is in fact perfectly normal.
It can actually be incredibly helpful when dealing with high pressure situations such as exams, job interviews or playing Street Fighter against your older brother. It becomes a problem however when you retain this state of alertness for prolonged periods of time without releasing it. You are now at risk of burning out: a chronic state of stress that is often characterized by a lack of energy, headaches and a myriad of other inconveniences.
Take a break to recharge? Not quite.
Your gut feeling may tell you to take a break, but is this really the way to go? Organizational psychologist Prof. Killian Wawoe and neuropsychologist Prof. Erik Scherder don’t seem to think so. Even though taking a vacation may help you unwind, they argue that it’s not a long term solution. After all, once you’re back from vacation, the things causing you stress (stressors) will most likely still be there waiting for you at the office. Ducking the problem doesn’t magically make the problem go away.
So what should we do instead? Look for a different job? Perhaps, but maybe there are some less heavy handed solutions available to us as well. Wawoe and Scherder for example claim that doing more may very well be a more viable solution to burnout as well. That’s right, doing more work apparently helps alleviate burnout.
When Wawoe and Scherder refer to doing more work however, they refer to the type of work that doesn’t cause you more stress. More specifically, they refer to the types of activities that bring you joy or are entirely new to you. Activities that tickle your prefrontal cortex basically.
Similar to how eating the same dish over and over again might make you feel nauseous at some point (even if it’s your favourite dish), doing the same thing repeatedly may put you at risk of feeling burned out. A simple change of scenery can apparently work miracles on your sense of mental fatigue. And Wawoe and Scherder aren’t the only ones to make this claim.
Psychology Prof. Adam Grant underscores this approach as well in his book Give & Take (thanks Philip for the recommendation, and Niels for letting me borrow it!). In addition to this claim however, Grant makes another interesting observation that might have deeper implications on how you may want to run your business.
Vacuum Impact a.k.a. Notice Me Senpai
Dale Carnegie once wrote that the thing we crave most as humans is to feel important. And as manipulative as you may find his book “How to Win Friends & Influence People” to be, this claim seems to be somewhat supported by Grant as well. More specifically, Grant posits that people yearn to see the impact of their work — perhaps as a measure of how important their work is, and by extension, how important they themselves are.
When that impact seems to take place in a vacuum however, things tend to go south. Without the person being able to see how their work impacts their audience, there is little to no incentive to become the best you you can be. A lack of appreciation is often reported as being a cause for burnout and depression, but a feeling of having little to no impact through your work may be just as bad. So how do we deal with this? Should we give praise like Oprah gave away cars on her show? No, not quite: praise should be genuine, not superficial (flattery). And most definitely not found hiding underneath chairs or come with a bill of $7000 from your friends at the IRS.
Grant claims that the simple act of having employees be exposed to customer praise can have an incredibly positive effect on their motivation and passion. This effect is amplified when an employee receives praise in person as it allows the employee to connect with the customer more strongly. Grant claims that this small act of kindness helps combat burnout by letting employees reaffirm how important they truly are to their audience. Their work can get a renewed sense of purpose from this and instead of burning out, Grant claims that the employee is now firing up.
An example of how doing more can combat burnout
Grant cites several studies to back this claim. One such study involved a teacher named Conrey Callahan who felt she was at the end of her rope in trying to help kids graduate from Overbrook — a troubled high school with less than stellar graduation rates. A day wouldn’t go by that she wasn’t involved in breaking up fights or spending a significant portion of her day maintaining order in the classroom. Having to deal with distractions like this on a daily basis left her with little time to actually tend to her primary task: educate kids. And as it takes considerable time for teachers to see the fruits of their labour in seeing students graduate, she felt like her work didn’t have any meaningful impact. She started to feel burned out. Rather than quitting however, she decided to double down and do more.
In addition to her teaching position at Overbrook, she also set up a mentor programme called Minds Matter that focussed on helping underprivileged kids prepare for college. As you may have guessed, these kids turned out to be far more receptive to her teaching methods. They were more engaged, and the results were nothing short of impressive: being able to more quickly see the direct impact of her work allowed her to become motivated again in carrying out her mission at Overbrook too. And with great success. Despite effectively working 10 hours per week more, she no longer felt burned out. Instead, she was now on fire.
So what’s the take-away from all this? Is it that all our burnout problems magically turn into rainbows 🌈 and unicorns 🦄 if we just do more things we enjoy? No, not quite.
The biggest take away in my opinion is that burnout is often seen as a problem of the individual. Grant seems to imply however that it may very well be the responsibility of the environment as well. Making sure that everyone is aware of the impact and importance of their work is paramount for staying motivated. It not only helps in combatting and staving off burnout, but it also potentially gives you a team that is fired up and ready to go (or as the cool kids say: lit AF 🔥🔥🔥). This simple act of kindness and appreciation may very well have a compounding effect on your organization’s productivity that cannot be achieved through traditional means alone. Giving material incentives for motivation or appreciation will only get you so far.
Giving a raise to motivate is like giving money to a tired person, and asking them to stop being tired
A common pitfall I’ve witnessed in addressing motivation is when employers are giving employees a raise as a primary means of appreciation and recognition. And even though there may be some merit to this, it’s one that’s arguably short-lived: the happiness gained from a raise is often only temporary.
To get an intuition of why this may be the case, imagine what you’d do with more money: after you’re able to tend to your primary needs, you’ll likely just end up buying more stuff right? Perhaps unsurprisingly, a rise in means tends to go hand in hand with a rise in wants and needs. This moving of goalposts in defining happiness is also known as the Hedonic Treadmill. It does little to nothing to address any gripes you might have with your day to day activities at work.
A raise is said to be a pleasure (a short-term fix) in positive psychology, and should not be confused for long-term happiness. The high you’re experiencing from the former will run out at some point and like an addict, you will most likely need another fix in the near future. That doesn’t sound very enticing, yet it’s an instrument we often turn to in addressing these kinds of problems. Why? Probably because it’s easier to just change some numbers on a payroll sheet rather than actively engaging in finding flaws that might threaten a manager’s ego. To think critically however, is to risk offending people (Dr. Jordan B. Peterson).
So how do we achieve long term happiness? Tony Hsieh of Zappos fame claims long term happiness is established through being part of something bigger: a vision like delivering happiness to customers can be far more effective in engaging your employees to give them purpose and keep them productive (thanks again Philip for the recommendation!).
And if all that doesn’t seem to help…
Seek help
A burnout is a problem that you should not simply brush off as being a minor inconvenience. Or expect to be able to cure by simply reading a medium article by someone who doesn’t even hold the proper credentials for helping people professionally like this. Even though my asian appearance might have led you to believe otherwise, I want to very much assure you: I am not a doctor (sorry mom & dad).
Social stigma might exacerbate the anxiety in taking the first step in seeking help, but this is when Manson’s The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck would be a recommended read (thanks Luuk for reassuring me that judging a book by its cover is indeed a valid strategy in some cases). Not giving a fuck about everybody’s opinion may very well be the first step to recovery. After all, it’s most likely the giving too many fucks part about other people’s opinions that got you in a burned out situation in the first place right?
Spend fucks on things that are within your own reach instead, and accept the status quo where you cannot establish change. Become comfortable with your supposed imperfections — others might not feel the same about them as you do. They may in fact be the things that make you endearing. The things that make you, well, you. Besides, if we’d all be perfect, wouldn’t we by definition all be average? And be special in not being perfect?
So take care of yourself you perfectly imperfect slugger 💖
P.S. If seeking professional help feels like too big a step to take, you may find solace in knowing that Grant thinks that seeking the help of co-workers and friends can be a robust way of dealing with burnouts too. It turns out that this is the result of another response we can give to stressors, i.e. tend and befriend. You can read all about it here.
Special thanks goes out to Dirk, Philip, Tara, Anthony, Niels and Danny Nguyen for their insights and support. I wouldn’t have felt inspired or motivated to write a wall of text like this on burnout without them 😜
