A leading global researcher on burnout speaks

WFH has pros and cons

When I was writing my first book about burnout, I reached out to one of the world’s leading experts to see if he would share his thoughts. I was almost shocked when Dr. Michael P. Leiter responded to my email.

Dr. Leiter has published numerous highly regarded articles and books on the topic. The dimensions of burnout he identified together with his colleague Dr. Christine Maslach now form part of the new World Health Organization definition of burnout. Which is about as expert as it gets.

Dr. Leiter is based in Nova Scotia and we shared a candid conversation about the causes, solutions and implications of burnout.

You’ve described burnout as a breakdown in the relationship between an individual and their work context. How should we view that relationship?

When people enter workplaces, an exchange takes place. Few workplaces will say, “hey, we’re going to hire you, you can do whatever you want and we’ll keep paying you money!” That’d be nice! But that’s very rare. There are expectations on both sides and problems occur when expectations are not met.

Burnout often arises as a result of issues that are not totally within your control, and that’s because it’s a relationship. Say, you have a relationship issue with a significant other. You raise the issue and your partner responds, “sure, go fix yourself and come back when you’re done.” It sounds unfair, yet that’s exactly what happens when an employee burns out — that’s what workplaces are saying to people.

What are the main drivers of the increase in burnout?

Let’s take the example of healthcare workers: they are dealing with increasing demands, especially in the last few months. When we look at the demand/resource balance, it’s inadequate on so many levels. Add to that the meager response at institutional and governmental levels in terms of delivering the resources required.

These individuals are struggling to cope with horrible situations, and it’s this kind of dynamic that leads to burnout: the world is expecting more but not giving more back.

Do you think the expectations of people who are entering the job market have changed?

Yes, for sure. People are much more highly educated, and educated in a different kind of way, and their expectations have shifted as a result. People are expecting more. And that’s entirely reasonable, because the expectations of workplaces have shifted too.

During COVID, we are seeing a lot of layoffs, and people are being expected to cover the workload of their former colleagues, while also taking a pay cut.

Yes, and that reflects the relationship that underlies the arrangement here. There’s not something fundamentally wrong with these people; they’re being expected to be happy to take on more work because hey, it could be worse, you could be unemployed.

The World Health Organization recently defined burnout. Do you think this is a helpful move?

Absolutely. It’s important that they didn’t define burnout as an illness; burnout can make you vulnerable to illness, but it isn’t one itself. The definition also clearly designates burnout as a workplace issue which is helpful, as it pushes it back onto organizations in terms of responsibility. Depression and anxiety are easily categorized as personal problems, so to say burnout is not an illness, it’s a workplace issue, is an important distinction.

How potent is workplace intervention as a means of preventing burnout?

Our controlled studies have shown that intervention can be very effective.

The social context of where you work is incredibly important and can drive you in one direction or the other. If you’re working in a group where everyone’s pretty burned out, it’s hard to avoid that dynamic yourself.

Our approach is almost like doing family therapy with work groups. We find out what the company culture is and look to see when it’s working well and when it isn’t, and get clear on the behavior that leads to things working well. If you do that, firstly, people can learn to interact with each other in a more positive way, and when they do so, their experience of work in terms of how they score on aspects on the burnout scale moves in a positive direction.

"If you’re working in a group where everyone’s pretty burned out, it’s hard to avoid that dynamic yourself."

What do you think of organizational attempts to prevent burnout?

It takes a fairly enlightened kind of leader to address and prevent burnout. Most are reluctant to take it on because it’s too scary. There’s an approach to management that says, “let’s push people as hard as we can and then if they fall apart, we can always get another one.”

The only places they’re really worried about people burning out is things like professional sports. The team will go to lengths to fix their pitcher’s arm because he’s a star; he’s unique and irreplaceable. But in most other fields, people are considered much more disposable. A framework which sets out that you as a leader are responsible for ensuring people don’t burn out sounds too expensive and time-consuming.

Do you think it’ll take government intervention for things to change?

Yes, it takes that kind of framework to shift the way decisions are made and priorities are set. Prior to the Disabilities Act, people with various disabilities were kept out of jobs, even when their disability was irrelevant to the work.

When the law changed, the mindset started to shift too. Those kinds of regulations make a difference. But they also need to be enforced and taken seriously, so policy and implementation are key.

A Gallup poll conducted in the US last month found the lowest levels of employee engagement since 2000, why do you think that might have happened and what might the impact be for burnout?

In my 1997 book with Dr. Maslach, we set out how we view engagement as the opposite of burnout, so the less engaged you are, the higher the risk of burnout. People are expecting more from their work, workplaces are giving less and taking more, and that imbalance is creating a strain.

The math shows that people’s earning potential across the workforce is eroding, not increasing, as time goes on. Wealth is becoming more centralized and a lot of jobs are being hollowed out in terms of benefits and pay, as well as hours. It’s quite logical that engagement would drop in that context.

Several people I’ve spoken to in Europe who’ve been through burnout have used the option of taking time off of work to reflect and recover. There’s a safety net in those countries that doesn’t exist in the U.S.

It makes a big difference when people feel like they have options such as taking time away from work to reevaluate the relationship. They’re more able to make significant choices without paying a huge price for making that choice. In the United States it’s more like, “sure, you can opt to take some time off, but don’t bother coming back.” That’s a high cost to pay just to try to get some rest and perspective.

"It makes a big difference when people feel like they have options such as taking time away from work to reevaluate the relationship."

Do you see therapy as an important part of burnout recovery?

It can have a component. People have emotional baggage as a result of having gone through burnout, and working that out therapy can be helpful. But we also need to be careful because if someone does therapy and is then sent back into the same environment, the same thing is likely to happen again. Situations matter.

Do you think when someone reaches a full burnout it can have an existential aspect to it?

Certainly. Your career is important. And the more you’ve invested in it, the more important it is. When that starts unravelling, people are definitely going to be thinking on a fairly deep level. People are what they do, in so many ways. It’s quite natural for our identity to become interwoven with what we do in our career.

What do you think the impact of COVID will be on burnout?

We’re undergoing an enormous amount of change, which eats up a lot of energy and creativity. People are on edge, there’s a much greater vulnerability for issues such as burnout at this point. If you’re working at home and schooling your children and logistics are more complicated, these additional factors create a lot of anxiety.

People are bearing a heavy load right now and they don’t have the social outlets that they had in the office. Group meetings on zoom are functional, but they’re not delightful.

Organizations aren’t doing enough to lighten this load, which is something to be monitoring as we go forward. Leaders need to take time to try to understand what the impact is on their people and what’s necessary in order to support them. Nothing will ever be the same as it was before — the sooner we acknowledge this and start acting on this basis, the better.

Originally published on Medium in 2020.