Home office has caused an increase in burnout syndrome, especially among teachers

According to the World Health Organization, burnout affects 10% of the world’s population. It will be included on the list of diseases recognized by the entity in 2022. According to Anna Fornés, pedagogue from Barcelona who since 2006 directs the Human Factor Foundation, which works to disseminate good talent management practices, “This is a serious problem and it seems we are not sufficiently aware of it.”

“In general, I think that aspects of mental health and psychosocial risks in the workplace, such as professional burnout, are very little taken into account in the preventive task of organizations, which until now has been very focused on physical risks. and their legal compliance, ”he thought.

With the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, companies have rushed to implement a series of measures to stay operational. One of them was the transition of employees to working from home. As productivity tools streamlined virtual operations processes and Zoom calls became the norm for meetings, workers quickly tried to adjust to the new one, though some quickly began to feel too tired and miserable. , exhausted by the same tools and processes meant to help them, and the stress of the job has finally taken its toll.

Indicators of burnout syndrome have increased dramatically at some higher education institutions over the past year, according to surveys in the United States and Europe. In a survey of 1,122 American teachers focusing on the effects of the pandemic, nearly 70% of those surveyed said they felt stressed, more than double the 2019 figure of 32%.

The survey, conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education and financial services firm Fidelity Investments in Boston, Massachusetts, also found that more than two-thirds of respondents felt tired, up from less than a third in 2019. In 2020, 35% felt angry, while that only 12% said that in 2019. The results were released last month.

More than half of those polled said they are seriously considering changing careers or retiring early. The emotional and other effects of burnout from the pandemic were worse for female teachers: 75% of women said they felt stressed, compared to 59% of men. In contrast, in 2019, this number was 34% for the women surveyed. About eight in 10 women also said their workloads had increased due to the pandemic, compared to seven in 10 men. Almost three-quarters of female teachers said their work-life balance had deteriorated in 2020, compared with just under two-thirds of men surveyed.

A similar survey in Europe provides an equally grim snapshot, showing a drastic increase in the rates of stress and mental health problems in the academic scientific workforce. The death toll from the pandemic now also includes widespread uncertainty in the race.

Is it just work?

Recent research shows that depression and anxiety have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. Even more alarming, the study of Life Works Mental Health Index, an entity that has specialized in recording this value from Toronto year after year for the world’s population, has found a consistent negative mental health score.

One of the elements mentioned for this dissatisfaction focuses on how employees remain very aware of job uncertainties, some tend to work without worrying about physical or mental health just to make sure they feel safe. in their work. All of these fit into poor mental health and burnout, which hurts both employees and businesses.

Fornés assures that it is necessary to “face a reassessment, recognizing the challenges of remote working in the era of COVID”.

The teacher Deirdre O’Shea, head of work and organizational psychology at the University of Limerick, says that “burnout is a process.. We don’t wake up one morning saying, “I’m exhausted. For her, the pandemic has exacerbated this picture. “This is a circumstance that has exaggerated the number of reasons people burn.”

For many, the pandemic environment presented enormous challenges. “We had to learn a whole new way not only to live, but also to work,” said O’Shea. “We had a lot less autonomy. We had an increased workload because we had to learn new ways of doing our homework. We have reduced social support, increased isolation, reduced physical resources. In addition, we had a lot of worry and anxiety. It is literally the classification of what causes depletion: increased demand and decreased resources, ”he explained.

Options for dealing with fire

One of your professionally recommended bad days coping mechanisms is to reduce daily obligations. Pick three things for today’s to-do list, and that’s the index to treat in an acceptable way. “If the expectations are at 10, at the end of the day you will have a feeling of failure,” says Fornés. O’Shea also recommends this strategy. “A to-do list gives your brain a little dopamine boost. Sometimes small changes in the environment are needed to make that feeling of exhaustion go away, ”he suggests. “Even though I only have this email that I don’t want to write, but it does, I choose to do it in the nicest or most honest way possible,” he adds.

Another symptom of burnout is inefficiency which can be heightened by remote working for those who rely on the scaffolding of office life to structure their day. “When you’re at home, there aren’t the same signs, reminders and rewards. So you depend on the structure of your own brain to create them. And the risk then is that it goes between writing emails, writing this report, making that call and checking social media, ”O’Shea said. “But our brains aren’t designed to multitask and the result is severe fatigue.”

Psychotherapist Siobhan Murray, author of “The Burnout Solution”says many organizations are well aware of the pressure on employees and try to help them set limits at work. “The word ‘limit’ has been greatly exaggerated, but ultimately we have to have these limits to ourselves. Employers can help, but we have to put them into practice, ”he says.

Murray and O’Shea are both fans of planning five-minute breaks in their day. “Even if it’s just a practice of canned breathing while the kettle is boiling,” says Murray. Exercise is “incredibly important. A few push-ups or a little walk are the key “, adds O’Shea. In fact, Murray implemented the idea of ​​a “fake trip”: a 20-minute walk at the start and end of the workday.

“He brings his own meaning to work. Set frequent, achievable, but slightly ambitious goals. Schedule a moment for deep focus and turn off notifications and try to get a good night’s sleep, with no screens on the bedside table. “Deirdre O’Shea concludes.

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