The Burnout Epidemic

The Burnout Epidemic:  The Rise of Chronic Stress And How We Can Fix It, by Jennifer Moss, Harvard Business Review Press, 2021

               Does self-care cure burnout?  NO!!! 

Maybe it was the years-long Covid isolation that made us crazy, or the chaos introduced by school closures in working families, or the missing pieces suddenly dropped from our lives - no group church services, the lonely holidays, the frantic push to sign up for limited vaccinations.  Or it could have been the world's re-opening as we stepped out and tried to rediscover our friends and necessary routines.  There was definitely stress there, although relief as well.

Now, despite the appearance of not-dead-yet-Covid, the stress is still there.  We still have to balance work, commutes, and working at home with corporate requirements.  

Did we trade one epidemic for another?

   We are stuck wondering how to reduce the stress, how to take it down.  Author Jennifer Moss believes we have chronic stress, a condition that has quietly taken over entire     chunks of our lives.  But, she says, its fixable - but not with widely pitched self-care routines, or corporate happiness perks.  At its roots, Moss takes apart the six root causes of burnout and recommends workable solutions to take back our lives:

1.  Workload

We know, indeed many of us feel, that workloads and deadlines, in addition to craziness in arms-length web systems, have increased stress, all while things were supposed to be getting easier!  

2.  Perceived lack of control 

Tied in with workload and deadline pressures, lack of control or an inability to manage systems responses takes time and - you guessed it -  creates elevated stress. 

   3.  Lack of reward or recognition

   More than the major contributor to burnout, a lack of reward or recognition causes strange things to happen among supposedly civilized workers.  Think of WWII General George Patton's desire to beat British rival General Montgomery across Sicily.  Despite the expected slow and inevitable retreat of the German army under Kesselring, Patton pushed hard to make it to the capital, Messina, first. As a life-long warrior general, Patton expected recognition.

   4.  Poor relationships

Covid taught us the danger of prolonged isolation and the loss of meaning in our individual lives.  Moss cites examples of how important it is to retain meaning in our daily lives, and as a contributor to burnout, she emphasizes how good relationships enrich our daily lives.

   5.  Lack of fairness

Specifically lack of fairness where we work - abuse, favoritism, corporate greed and unfair compensation - hit the news as whistleblowers and ordinary workers in healthcare and manufacturing call attention to organizational misdeeds.  Although we may not be surprised by public testimony, we'd like to think these problems are long-dead issues, that our corporate mindset should be fixed on moving ahead in fair and just growth.  But as various corporate and medical  systems have shown, we aren't there yet, and these power issues of course continue to create deadly corporate stress

   6.  Values mismatch 

The knowledge that workers and corporate managers are working toward differing goals can be destructive as the force of opposing values pulls operations in opposing directions.  The end of Steward healthcare in Massachusetts, for example,  illustrates this as remaining hospital facilities watched their existence end.  Sadly, medical personnel who saw and endured the decline were shocked when management compensation and million-dollar life styles - extreme and hidden -  bankrupted essential services. 

The fixes for the burnout epidemic are many, with some solutions faster-acting than others.  Readers will value Moss' Chapter 6, Becoming an Empathetic Leader, particularly Table 6 -1, because the author identifies and clarifies concepts that for many organizations are untried and unclear.  

Patricia E. Moody

FORTUNE magazine  "Pioneering Woman in Mfg" 

IndustryWeek IdeaXchange Xpert

A Mill Girl at Blue Heron Journal, on-line resource for business thought-leaders and decision-makers,  patriciaemoody@gmail.com