2023-09-25 16:12:05
Updated Monday, September 25, 2023 – 16:12
The imbalance between the high demand for work and the difficult ability to respond within the working day causes workers to have a pathological feeling of not being sufficiently productive., despite carrying out a high performance activity
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The sisifemia It is a new work disorder. It occurs when the worker suffers from a excessive workload, which causes great physical and mental exhaustion, and a pathological feeling of not being productive enough, despite the fact that it objectively carries out a high-performance activity.
These sensations are repeated day after day, always with the frustration of not achieving everything they “should”, even though they are doing the most possible. Among the dysfunctions of this “syndrome” or psychosocial disorder is the notorious inability of the person to disconnect from worknot just on a day-to-day basis, but even on vacation.
Characteristics and causes
It usually affects people perfectionistswith a high sense of responsibility, meticulous and compliant. They don’t usually restr during their work day due to the required objectives, which cause long hours or the need to extend it to be able to attend to the daily task. The development of sisifemia occurs when, in addition to this work with excessive load, there is an abnormal distribution of the daywith an unbalanced dedication to rest, leisure and human relationships outside of work.
This disorder is related to job insecurity, with high mental load due to insufficient staff. The cause of sisifemia is in the imbalance between the high demand for work and the difficult capacity to respond within the working day and under normal conditions.
Another characteristic is suffering from a “productivity dysmorphia“, which is the fact of feeling that you are not being productive enough, even though you are.
In what professions is it usually provoked?
The “seismic” works will be those with high mental load, with high responsibility, and with high urgency in its execution.
Las activities Where the appearance of sisifemia is encouraged are health, financial, consulting, auditing, press and communication, law firms, universities, research, high levels of administration, commercial, artificial intelligence, machine learning, freelance or autonomous activities.
He Laboratory-Observatory of Psychosocial Risks of Andaluca (Larpsico) explains that previously they located this fundamental disorder in the sector of self-employmentbut the most recent analyzes emphasize that it affects the working population in general.
What is the origin and name?
It is due to myth of Sisyphusthe mythological character who had to push a giant stone up the mountain to the top, so that it would roll back down to the valley, from where he had to pick it up and push it again to the summit, the worker who suffers from sisyphemia, is thus condemned daily, to an excessive mental load to be able to carry out their work.
Sisyphemia was named for the first time in an article “Sisyphemia or mental fatigue of the tireless worker, prevention of productivity dysmorphia and its high psychosocial risk” in 2022 by Araceli Lpez-Guilln and Jose Manuel Vicente, chairs in evaluative and expert medicine (UCAM) and members of the disability assessment team of the National Social Security Institute.
What are the consequences of this new work disorder?
The self demand derived from the high level of responsibility and perfectionism(a typical feature of this disorder that would distinguish it from others such as burnout syndrome) lasts over time, causing reduced confidence, self-esteem, and health problems, both mental, such as chronic stress and symptoms of depressionto physical conditions, such as hypertension and cardiac conditions.
They usually have to take stimulants, such as caffeine, and/or anxiolytics to overcome long work hours. Others also appear disorders such as sleep and/or eating disorders (you eat more and you are at risk of obesity).
In short, far from establishing a positive, happy relationship with work, a toxic, unhealthy, becoming more present in teleworking situationsdue to the tendency in these forms of work to extend working days, without time registration and without due digital disconnection.
Other consequences are the quit job. Although phenomena such as the “great resignation” do not exist as much in Spain as in others, due to the different employment situation and market opportunities, which do not allow leaving the sisyphean job out of pure economic necessity.
How can we prevent the onset of sisyphemia?
One of the forms of prevention is detection of symptomsmainly anxiety and obsession with work, as well as a change in ordinary life behavior.
At the company level it would be the adequacy of the volume of work and the excessive mental load. As well as implementing changes in the organization of work to minimize them. At the political level, implement prevention strategiespromotion and health care of the worker’s mental health, as well as management and control of working time.
From the Andalusian Institute for Occupational Risk Prevention They invite caution, due to the danger that over-labeling psychological problems with normal personality traits can entail, potentially causing unnecessary pathologization.
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