Job Burnout Is Officially Labeled As An Occupational Phenomenon

More And More People Are Experiencing Job Burnout

Working a 9 to 5 job is all fun and games when you are fresh out of college, but after a few years in or even a decade, sometimes it may feel like things can be overwhelming. As a result, people sometimes find themselves way too focused on work, leaving other aspects of their lives such as socializing and relaxing in the dark.

Recently, working too hard is now recognized as an occupational phenomenon, according to the World Health Organization, which has now included “burnout” in its International Classification of Diseases Handbook.

“Burnout,” as described by WHO, is a syndrome resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

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If a patient exhibit three symptoms: feeling depleted of energy or exhausted; feeling mentally distanced from or cynical about one’s job; and problems getting one’s job done successfully, doctors can issue a diagnosis.

Although burnout can apply to other areas in a person’s life, the WHO notes that it is to be used specifically “in the occupational context.”

The term “burnout” was first used in the mid-1970s by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger as a way to describe cases of “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress.”

By: Maytinee Kramer