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How America Created “Burn-out Syndrome”
As of last week, burn-out officially became recognized as a medical condition by the World Health Organization. They define this condition as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” So basically, what happens when work-life balance is no longer balanced and stress accumulates faster than it can be relieved.
One the one hand, it is good news that burn-out now has medical recognition, because companies will take the effect of stress on employees more seriously. On the other hand, it’s bad news that the World Health Organization views burn-out as a medical condition, because that means it’s becoming a serious problem worth addressing in the first place.
Yet the concept of burn-out isn’t new. In fact, the term first came about in 1964, when psychologist Herbert Freundenberger used it to describe his observations of stress in the workplace.
Since that time, stress in the workplace continues to increase globally, but there are three specific reasons why American culture is causing its own burn-out epidemic.
1. In America, working overtime is the norm.
According to a the a Gallup poll from 2014, most Americans work longer than the average 40 hour work week — one of the highest…
