Career stress: the average age of burnout is now 32 –

and home working is making it worse

theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/21/career-stress-the-average-age-of-burnout-is-now-32-and-home-working-
is-making-it-worse

21 septembrie 2020

Name: Burnout.

Age: First named in 1974.

Appearance: Tired, sleepless, short-tempered, unfocused.

Sounds a bit like depression. It looks a bit like depression, but

it’s entirely work-related.

Actually, it just sounds like work. The term was defined by the
psychologist Herbert Freudenberger, who described it as a “state of
mental and physical exhaustion caused by one’s professional life”.

It’s hardly surprising – a lifetime of stress and overwork

will do that to a person. Or rather less than a lifetime these days.

How so? According to a new survey, the average worker is

experiencing career burnout at the age of 32.

I barely had a career to burn out at 32. Nevertheless, a full

third of respondents overall claimed they have suffered from
burnout.

What is the cause of all this crashing and burning? Basically,

working too hard and working too long.

How are they managing that under lockdown? Actually, a

third of respondents cited the pandemic as the cause of their
burnout.

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But so many people are working from home. Exactly.

And working from home means eating pizza and watching

TV in your jim-jams. Maybe for you, but a lot of employees
obliged to work from home find themselves working harder than
ever.

Then they are doing it wrong. In fact, more than half of

respondents say they have worked more hours since the coronavirus
restrictions have been in place. On average, home workers have done
an extra seven days of work over the past five months.

What has happened to this generation? They feel all the

obligations of the office at home, but they are not getting the stress-
alleviating social interaction of traditional employment.

What can be done about this? Some young burnouts use

meditation or yoga to combat stress. Almost a quarter of those
surveyed said they wanted employers to offer mindfulness or
wellness classes.

Huh. I might teach a class in skiving off. You’d be good at that.

You know being underworked can be even more stressful

than being overworked. I don’t think it can, actually.

It’s true. I read about it. You might be thinking of “bore-out”,

wherein employees suffer depression from not having enough to do.

That’s the one. I’ve had it for months. That only happens when
workers are intentionally sidelined by bosses in a bid to get them to
quit.

Oh my God, is that what they’re doing? It could be time to get

dressed.

Do say: “I need to take a day off because of illness caused by

overwork stemming from coronavirus.”

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Don’t say: “Actually, I think I just have coronavirus.”

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