What causes burnout? Seven unexpected factors that can lead to burnout

Burnout and Shame

“I think I may be experiencing burnout.” It was a reluctant confession, coming from a front line worker who had spent several years working with marginalized women in an urban drug treatment program. I had known her to be a caring person, devoted to her clients and their recovery journeys. So I knew it wasn’t an easy thing to admit. Perhaps especially to herself. Burnout can feel like failure. It can feel like weakness.  

This wasn’t the first person in an emotionally intense social service job that I had heard such a confession from. My experience as a staff supervisor in the context of an impoverished urban community has made me painfully aware that burnout is a widespread problem among front line workers. But admitting to being burned out is nearly always hard for people with strong ideals and high aspirations. It strikes at their very identity. And it very often is enveloped in a cloud of shame and self-reproach.

Common Responses to Burnout

The first response of most people experiencing burnout is to try to browbeat or shame themselves back into normal functioning. But they quickly discover that this is not at all effective and usually makes things worse. Burnout can feel like a mysterious and paralyzing collapse of one’s inner agency. 

When simply willing oneself back to productivity doesn’t work, many people are tempted to just quit and look for a different job. Sometimes job change makes sense, but this option can come with high costs in terms of retraining and lost seniority. It also may fail to provide a lasting solution if the root causes of the current experience of burnout have not been identified and addressed. 

Another common response is to take a medical leave from work for a period of time. This step is often helpful and recommended, but by itself may only press pause on the experience of burnout rather then actually resulting in sustained recovery. A leave of absence is usually only helpful if we use the time to identify and address the sources of our burnout, to build resiliency. 

Understanding Burnout

I believe burnout can only really be adequately addressed if we take the time to understand it. That means, as a first step, setting aside any shame and self-reproach and instead adopting an posture of non-judgemental curiosity. 

Burnout is not as simple as it seems. For starters, what even is burnout? What are it’s symptoms? What factors contribute to burnout? How can you recover from burnout? Are there steps you can take to prevent burnout? These are all important questions, and the answers to at least some of them may be surprising.

Burnout can be defined as a state of physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion resulting from long-term or excessive stress. Usually we think of burnout in relation to our paid work, but it can also arise in the context of long term caregiving roles like parenthood or elder care. 

The characteristic symptoms of burnout are chronic feelings of tiredness and depleted energy, feelings of detachment from or apathy related to work, cynical thought patterns, a low sense of accomplishment or effectiveness, irritability and inflexibility with coworkers, and an emerging pattern of isolation and “numbing out” in off-work time.

Burnout can also have a existential or spiritual dimension. For those who were drawn to their work out of a sense of idealism or calling, burnout can include a sense of moral disorientation and can strike at one’s sense of identity. Feelings of resentment can even emerge when you have devoted your heart and soul to something that now feels devoid of value for you.

What Causes Burnout?

There is a common assumption that burnout is the result of working too much, too hard, or under conditions with too many stressors. We imagine a person carrying a very heavy load to the point where they collapse. But this understanding and this metaphor are too simple, and can lead us astray. 

Certainly being overworked can contribute to burnout. But workload is rarely the only or even the most important factor. In fact, how heavy our workload feels is more likely a product of other factors than “volume” of work. 

Work difficulty can also contribute to burnout, but complex and challenging work can also energize us. The question is: why does the work feel difficult?

Stressful work conditions is certainly an important factor in burnout but, by itself, that tells us very little. When talking about “stress,” psychologists distinguish between the “stress response” people have and the things or situations that trigger and stress response — i.e. the “stressors.” Here’s the thing though: there is no thing or situation that is inherently a stressor. There are people who handle venomous snakes without breaking a sweat, and there are people who can’t walk out the front door of their home without having a panic attack. What makes for a stressful work environment is bound to be different for different people. It can even be different for the same person at different times. 

So what does cause burnout? There’s not a simple, once-size-fits-all answer. The question we should be asking is what factors contributed to my burnout? When we are ready to ask this question, and really investigate our experience from a curious rather than judgemental posture, we might to surprised at what we find out. 

Seven contributors to burnout (that you might not have considered)

Here are seven key contributors to burnout that have little to do with the volume or difficulty of the work itself, and that might not have occurred to you as impacting your own experience:

1. Disconnect between our work and our values and identity: 

Work can be an extremely meaningful and life-giving part of our lives. Yet when it is disconnected from our sense of what matters to us, of who we are and what we value, it isn’t just less enjoyable, it actually requires more of our mental and emotional resources. 

2. Lack of agency:

Even when doing the kind of work we enjoy, work can become a source of frustration when we don’t have effective influence over how the work is done. Seeing persistent and solvable problems in our workplace, but not having power or permission to address them saps energy and motivation. Not being able to contribute our ideas for how to do things better makes work feel more like, well… work.

3. Lack of Appreciation and Acknowledgement: 

When we do good work, especially when we go above and beyond, but it never gets acknowledged, we can feel unseen and unappreciated. Even when we care out our work for its own sake, all of us feel better about and more motivated to do it when our contributions are valued.

4. Feeling ineffective:

Even when our job is mostly just about the pay check, when the work we are doing is ineffective or poorly managed for the intended outcomes, most of can’t help but feel a sense of futility, frustration, and distress. When we actually care about the outcomes, this experience is amplified exponentially. 

5. Inadequate Boundaries on work:

Humans need to rest. When our work intrudes on our off duty time, we aren’t able to get the deep rest we need to restore our capacities. Burnout can often result when we lack boundaries on work, either because we don’t set boundaries or because our workplace doesn’t respect our boundaries. A real boundary on work means unplugging from not just doing the work, but also thinking about it. Rest is something many of us have to work at and intentionally figure out how to do well. Simply not being on the clock is often not real rest.

6. Difficult co-workers, toxic workplace environment:

Even if we feel good about the kind fo work we do and are well compensated, if there is a lot of conflict, bullying, or unfairness in the workplace burnout becomes much more likely. In fact, interpersonal conflict and systemic mistreatment in the workplace is probably the more significant contributor to burnout. 

7. Workplace trauma

Some people work in contexts where they experience traumatic events. First responders, front line health and social workers, and military personnel, to name a few. If we have experienced a traumatizing incident at work, we may find that our running stress level is higher at work, that we are on alert for dangers, and more easily get into a state of panic or overwhelm. Whether the experience has resulted in full fledged PTSD, or something milder, this kind of hyper vigilance makes work more tiring, and can make us more prone to burnout.  

Getting help with burnout

Because the caused of burnout can be complex, often simply taking some time off work or reducing workload isn’t adequate. If you or someone you know is experiencing burnout, reaching out to a registered counsellor or other helping professional can make a big difference in helping you to understand the sources of your burnout and the interventions that can help you recover.

Even if you aren’t feeling you have hit burnout, but are worried you are at risk, taking steps now to address the issues involved can help prevent it getting to a point where you are no longer able to function and thrive in your work.

Ready to Recover from Burnout?

If this article resonated with you, you don't have to navigate burnout alone.

At Emotion Wise Counselling, we specialize in helping Vancouver professionals, caregivers, and front-line workers understand and recover from burnout -- with compassionate, evidence-based support tailored to your unique experience.

Serving clients throughout Vancouver, BC and across British Columbia via online counselling.

■ Vancouver, BC

■ www.emotionwise.ca

■ 236-412-2539

✉ info@emotionwise.ca

Whether you're a front-line worker, social worker, nurse, teacher, parent, or anyone running on empty -- we're here to help you find your way back to yourself.

Written by Jamie Hellewell (MEd, RCC) Associate Counsellor at Emotion Wise Counselling.