Pay closer attention to the language we’ve all agreed on

Gallup’s recent study of over seven thousand full time employees found about two thirds of workers experience burnout on the job.

They claim organizations are facing an employee burnout crisis.

Do you agree with that number? Or are you more like me, in that you question whether people understand what the term burnout really means?

The official diagnosis of professional burnout, according to the international classification of diseases, is this:

Syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by 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.

Okay, glad we got that straight.

But here’s the next challenge.

Since we have entire generations of people who rely exclusively on hyperbole to convey their feelings, it’s important to tease out things like nuance and proportion within the burnout spectrum.

Because maybe people aren’t languaging their experience accurately. Maybe burnout is a convenient and dramatic term to use in as placeholder for a specific and complicated experience.

Here is a short questionnaire to help narrow down the diagnosis.

*Are you really burned out, or are you just tired of bullshit?

*Are you really burned out, or are you just losing your ability to tolerate ordinary misery?

*Are you really burned out, or do you just not believe in what you’re fighting for anymore?

*Are you really burned out, or is this a natural part of the ebb and flow of your emotional state?

*Are you really burned out, or have you not mastered the basic adult habit of doing things you don’t want to do?

*Are you really burned out, or is your motivation a slave to the tyranny of mood and desire?

That’s one way to think about burnout.

Of course, this whole questionnaire might be blaming the wrong party. Because what if it’s possible that people are not burned out, they are being abused?

Wible, the physician and medical care advocate, has done some amazing work in helping her colleagues be doctors not slaves. Here’s an excerpt from her manifesto that will make you think different about the word burnout.

Let’s get the diagnosis right. We enter medicine as inspired, intelligent, compassionate humanitarians. Soon we’re cynical and exhausted. How did all these totally amazing and high functioning people get so fucked up so fast? Attention medical students and doctors, it’s not your fault. Burnout is physical and mental collapse caused by overwork. Why blame the victims? Medical students and physicians are collapsing because they are suffering from acute on chronic abuse. Docs, stop playing nice in the sandbox. You are being abused. You can’t be a victim and healer at the same time. Your goal should not be to cope with abuse. Your goal should be to stop it. Physician burnout is a diagnosis that blames the victim, not the perpetrator.

Wow, just what the doctor ordered, huh?

Maybe we should pay closer attention to the language we’ve all agreed on.

LET ME ASK YA THIS…
What does burnout mean to you?