Do you have burnout from your job?

With the WHO recognising burnout as an occupational phenomenon, we speak to a psychiatrist about its prevalance in India

Ever felt exhausted even before starting the weekly grind at your workplace? It may not just be Monday Blues. Over the past week, the World Health Organization recognised ‘burnout from work’ as a legitimate occupational phenomenon.

It’s not a medical diagnosis or a disorder yet; it is however, a hazard that many employees who work under chronic stress-filled atmospheres, relate to. “People these days are increasingly facing burnout as they work longer hours under the constant need to prove themselves,” says psychiatrist Dr Lakshmi Vijayakumar, founder of Chennai-based Sneha, a suicide prevention centre.

“The body learns to cope with stress and adapt until a new stress comes along, when the process is repeated. But in workplaces, there is no interval given for rest and recuperation. You have to constantly keep catching up,” she says. Plus, employees are expected to have access to work through laptops even during holidays.

“In Japan, young people withdraw from the so-called rat race to live in a virtual world, isolating themselves, never stepping out of their rooms. The condition is called ‘hikikomori’,” she says, adding that stress causes hypertension and diabetes too.

Check if you are facing burnout:

Do you feel constant exhaustion at work?

Are you becoming increasingly cynical of, or negative towards, your job?

Do you see your professional efficacy lowered?

This recognition from WHO may spark thought within offices. Counselling and a helpline, offering healthy food in canteens, and more ergonomic working conditions may help change the work-hard-party-harder company culture to a space that offers support.

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