I don’t wish to alarm you, but we are living through a deep crisis right now. It’s a crisis which is plaguing the daily lives of millions across the globe, and comes with profound economic and social costs. I am talking of course, about the burnout pandemic.  

Burnout describes the long term build up of chronic, energy sapping, efficiently depleting, mood crushing workplace related stress, and unlike Covid-19, it has been part of our lives for years. 

Let’s be in no doubt - recent events have clearly exacerbated its effects. As a collective we are more stressed, unhappy, fearful, frustrated, bored and unhealthy than we were six months ago. 

In May 2020, 75% of finance professionals and 73% of tech industry counterparts confessed to feeling burnt out in a poll conducted by anonymous professional networking platform Blind. Those are staggering figures.

What’s even more alarming though, is that in those same professional groups - 58% of financiers and 61% of techies, reported to feeling burnt out in February of this year - several weeks before the first European countries and US states enacted lockdown measures.

What that means is, even in relatively normal times, well over half the workforce in key economic sectors are suffering prolonged, habitual and damaging mental distress at work on a daily basis.   

The reasons for this are not straightforward. Respondents cited factors such as unmanageable workloads, insufficient rewards, lack of control over work, unsupportive management and unfair treatment to explain their burnout. 

We are not talking employees of small companies on tight budgets either. Taking the no.1 spot for the most burnt out organisation in February 2020 was Oracle, with 78% of its workers seriously stressed out. 

The tech giant was closely followed in the top 10 by such globally recognised brands as T-Mobile, Apple, PayPal, Groupon and JPMorgan Chase & Co. Even amongst the workforce at Bloomberg, statistically the least burnt out of those surveyed, 38% are still struggling. 

Behind these figures there are real consequences. Burnt out employees are significantly more likely to become disengaged, poorly organised, unproductive, absent and quit their jobs. A recent Gallup poll found ineffectiveness among such workers is costing their employers 34% of their annual salaries. So bad is the problem that the World Economic Forum estimates the global economy is footing a burnout bill of at least $280bn a year.     

The effects of workplace stress on the individual are also stark. Studies have consistently linked burnout to a plethora of physical and psychological diagnoses - including cardiovascular disease, musculoskeletal pain, depressive symptoms, anxiety and insomnia. In the US, burnout is responsible for up to 8% of national spending on healthcare, and contributes to 120,000 deaths per year.

Whichever way you slice it, we are creating huge socio-economic problems for ourselves because of the way we work and live. We exist within culture beset by an all encompassing pressure to be seen to achieve, to demonstrate supposed productivity by working long hours, all in the name of improving a company’s bottom line. It’s making us unhappy, it’s making us sick, and its costing our healthcare systems and economies billions.  

As with Covid-19, there are no easy answers. The start of the solution to the burnout pandemic, however, perhaps comes from the bottom up.  Employees can take responsibility for their own health by demanding more from their working environment. Managers can create the space for honest and open conversations with their team members on a personal, as opposed to a solely professional basis. And companies can create cultures where individuals are treated as people rather than profit making machines. Not only does it make business sense - it's also the right thing to do.  

This article is based on data gathered in surveys to over 6,000 professionals conducted by anonymous professional networking platform Blind between February and July 2020. Read the full report on the impact of Covid-19 on workplace burnout here.

About the Author:

Robi O’Cleirigh is a writer, keen traveller and long time journaler based in London, UK. When not keyboard bashing or jet lagged he can be found pounding the tarmac in the futile pursuit of running PB’s and exploring a passion for history.

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