Nearly 50% of us feel burnout; here’s how to manage it

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3 min readOct 21, 2024

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By
Scott Lamb

Burnout is a word with multiple identities. Since first appearing in the cultural lexicon in the ’80s with Herbert Freudenberger’s “Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement,” it’s been a word we use casually to refer to stress and exhaustion related to work. But it has a clinical definition, too; the World Health Organization’s International Classification of Diseases defines it as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Some research says 48% of workers globally experience burnout at some point in their careers.

For people who’ve suffered the clinical version, recovery can be a long, fraught process. As Devon Price writes on Medium, some people never fully recover from an episode of clinical burnout. Looking at multiple studies, there’s evidence that recovery can take years, and many never return to the same levels of energy and cognitive capacity they previously had. “It’s as if burnout sufferers have fallen off their previous life trajectory, and cannot ever climb fully back up,” Price writes.

Workplace burnout is especially challenging because even if you’re noticing symptoms, it’s not always easy to just take time off. Some approaches for heading off burnout while still working are also just good advice for maintaining your health:

  • Start with your body: As always, exercise, diet, and sleep play a huge role. Tend to those needs first.
  • Restructure your work: Look for places where you can make accommodations with your schedule, tasks, or workload
  • Get away: Take a mental health day, some OOO time or consider taking a leave of absence

If you’re feeling burnt out, remember: It’s not just a passing phase, and it’s not a sign of weakness. Burnout is a structural issue that demands a structural response.

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