What causes burnout? It’s not just workload

Being well rewarded can protect you against burnout.

This video is a snippet from my upcoming course, "Practical Mindfulness: Tools to reduce stress and burnout". To find out more, DM me your email address, or sign up for my newsletter on www.chibs.co, and I'll keep you updated.

So, what causes burnout? Too much workload, too much stress, of course!! Well, kinda…

The following definition of burnout is relevant here.

"Burnout is a state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a cause that failed to produce the expected reward." Herbert Freudenberger.

The 'reward' part of that definition is what's important here. A reward doesn't just mean a financial reward because we can get many different rewards from our efforts. Our efforts could benefit our family or our community. We could be getting recognition for what we're doing or doing something highly aligned with our values. Even if we're not getting money for what we do, we might still be getting well rewarded.

If we're getting a big reward, our workload can be very high, and we're not going to feel burned out; in fact, we're going to feel energised. But if the reward comes down, and we feel unappreciated, we feel undervalued. Suddenly, that workload will feel significant, and we will feel burned out.

It's almost like the reward is the fuel for the workload.

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