Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions…
— from 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), published by the World Health Organization.
Not actually a disease, though. Even though it has three dimensions.
According to WHO, ‘burn-out’ is an ‘occupational phenomenon’. A ‘factor influencing health status, or contact with health services’.
But not a ‘medical condition’.
You might feel sick, exhausted, depleted. But it’s just a ‘phenomenon’. Do not call your doctor.
The three official dimensions are:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
- increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and
- reduced professional efficacy.
WHO makes it clear that ‘burn-out’ is now a scientific term that applies only to occupations. Not to other aspects of normal life. Like, you are not suffering ‘burn-out’ if your energy depletion or exhaustion is resulting from, say, a romantic relationship. That might be a problem — maybe even a mental health problem — but it’s not ‘burn-out’.
WHO was already hot on the trail of the ‘burn-out’ question, so to speak, when they published the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases in 2019, prior to the arrival of the COVID crisis.
COVID was a real medical condition. Apparently.
‘Burn-out’ was not. Apparently.
I was one of the lucky people who got a mild case of COVID. Had a slight cough. Spent a couple of days in bed. No big deal.
At least, I am assuming I had COVID. The inexpensive at-home testing kit I picked up at Walmart told me I had COVID. But I don’t know if we should be trusting medical testing kits that cost less that a bottle of whiskey.
There are no testing kits for ‘burn-out’, however. Not at Walmart, anyway.
Meanwhile, I do have an occupation, and if we’re going to be honest, I’ve had feelings of negativism or cynicism about my job for at least the past ten years.
Except that I’ve also had feelings of negativism or cynicism about life in general, for the past ten years. And according to WHO, “life in general” is not an occupation.
So the central question might be, am I suffering from “reduced professional efficacy”?
That’s a hard one to answer. It assumes that I exhibited “professional efficacy” at some point in my career, and that it’s been reduced.
When you write a humor column for a small town, online news magazine, you don’t always have a clear sense of your professional efficacy. I would have a much more precise picture of my efficacy if I were cutting up chickens in a Tyson Foods meat plant, for example. How many chickens did I cut up today? And am I feeling more cynical about it lately?
But writing an online humor column that a few hundred people read? I can’t tell if anyone is laughing. Or, if they’re not laughing. How funny is that?
So I have to judge things from a personal, mental health perspective.
“Am I myself laughing?”
and also…
“Am I laughing just to keep from crying?”
I almost wish I did have a job with Tyson Foods. Then I could really be suffering from ‘burn-out’ the way WHO wants to see it done.
We could also consider the perspective of reporter Lauren Valenti, writing in Vogue magazine earlier this year.
According to a new American Psychological Association report, burnout is at an all-time high across professions. 79% of employees had experienced work-related stress in the month prior to their survey, and nearly 3 in 5 employees reported negative impacts of work-related stress, including lack of interest, motivation, or energy at work. 36% reported cognitive weariness, 32% reported emotional exhaustion, and 44% reported physical fatigue, which is a 38% increase since 2019.
Is anyone else — besides me — burned out on statistics?
Underrated writer Louis Cannon grew up in the vast American West, although his ex-wife, given the slightest opportunity, will deny that he ever grew up at all.