One survey I read recently said that 91% of respondents felt burned out, working through the pandemic. Another survey said that more than half the respondents were either making a job change or considering it, with burnout being the main reason. What, exactly, is “burnout”?
I think there are two reasonable definitions. One is exhaustion, simply reaching the end of one’s physical and mental abilities to continue to exert effort. If you’ve ever pushed your body beyond its abilities, you’ve experienced this. You can’t get enough oxygen to the hard-working cells, creating the condition of hypoxia, using the body’s own tissue for energy, literally eating oneself alive. Working long hours, not getting enough sleep, not enough exercise, taking care of the kids first–all of these things create exhaustion.
Another definition of burnout that makes sense is chronic stress, when the sympathetic nervous system (the one that causes fight-flight-freeze responses in a condition of perceived threats) dominates for too long. Deadlines, urgent messages, last-minute requests, demands for response, long lists of action items and the uncertainty in which we all now live cause our sympathetic nervous system to run hot, all the time. Chronic stress is a well-known cause of many physiological problems.
