The condition, which goes beyond mere fatigue, presents with physical and psychological symptoms and manifests itself differently in men and women. Those who have a profession that foresees a continuous relationship with others, such as health professionals and teachers, are more at risk
Boiled. But not for the heat, or at least not only: many today are drained by the stress working and I’m in full swing syndrome burnout, literally “burned” by an excessive commitment that sucks up all the physical and emotional energies. No doubt i am medici they nurses, tested by a year and a half of the pandemic: in recent weeks an international survey of over 3500 health workers reported that 2 out of 3 now have symptoms of exhaustion from work stress, after months of endless shifts to deal with the emergency, while a study presented at the last American Society of Cardiology congress pointed out that the burnout rate among cardiologists has doubled compared to before Covid-19. There pandemic gave the coup de grace not only to those who work in the health sector, but has worsened a situation that was not the best from the start: the overwork and the resulting exhaustion were already widespread in the past and, as Andrea Fiorillo, president of the Italian Society of Social Psychiatry explains: “The existence of a health condition related to the work environment has already been described from the industrial revolution, defined as work stress in the 1950s and subsequent decades as chronic exhaustion syndrome. The burnout syndrome, however, is more complex, it is not a simple lack of motivation or a generic stress: in this case, starting from excessive requests and in the face of poor professional recognition, work-related stress is established with a true emotional exhaustion “.
I sintomi
There are three key symptoms and the first is precisely theexhaustion, as Alessandro Lo Presti, labor psychologist of the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli specifies: «The person has the feeling of not having physical and psychological resources to engage in work; then there is the cynicism o de-personalization, or treating those we meet at work not as people but as if they were numbers or cases, acting as automatons; the third sign is the reduced professional achievement, which makes us feel we cannot give our best and not exploit our skills, as if we were facing a rubber wall that holds back our potential. There seem to be slight differences between the two sexes in presentation methods: women suffer more from emotional exhaustion, men show a greater degree of de-personalization; in general, however, those in burnout are no longer sure of operating effectively and feel cynicism towards the value of their work ».
Slow erosion
You feel like a rag, physically and emotionally, as a result of a sort of slow erosion of the positive mental state that should ideally accompany every worker: “It’s called engagement and leads to a desire and enthusiasm to work, to be enthusiastic about what you are doing and not even notice the time that passes. Quite the opposite of burnout precisely, which develops by slowly undermining this positive attitude and transforming it into its opposite, ”says Lo Presti. «Those who are facing burnout see progressively worse performance work, often fails in assigned tasks, arrives late or leaves work early, has unusual behavior during meetings: all signs that should not be underestimated », Andrea Fiorillo observes. “The emotional detachment, the tendency to criticize and denigrate everything and everyone, theapathy. Physical symptoms may also appear, from generalized malaise to gastrointestinal disorders, from widespread and unspecified pain to the tendency to abuse alcohol “.
Jobs at risk
The type of profession, duties and organization related to employment, the environment where one works influence the likelihood of burnout, as well as some personality and temperament characteristics ». The risk of burnout is higher in all professions that involve a relationship with others and therefore it is greater, for example, in the health sector but also in the school sector: in short, it is not only the excessive workload or a low degree of autonomy that influence the likelihood of the syndrome, but also the need to constantly regulate one’s emotional state towards the people with whom one must deal, such as patients and students. “For some, a profession in which it is necessary to have relationships with others may be less manageable than a simplified one from an emotional point of view, such as an assembly line job,” resumes Lo Presti. “The elements of the personality therefore affect the likelihood of burnout: for example, optimistic people who have good self-esteem and think they can adequately intervene on events, who are emotionally stable, extroverted and conscientious are at lower risk. On the other hand, those who are perfectionists and for this reason tend to be more often disillusioned with their work are more likely, as are those who are younger or have less seniority of service, probably because they are a little more idealistic or have fewer psychological resources available than to the most “experienced” workers.
Immunitary defense
However, it must be said that these risk or protective factors come into play only when the organizational and working conditions are critical, because for example there is little autonomy and little support from colleagues and superiors, there is a heavy workload but the rewards they are limited, there is no safe use. In other words, the question is the ability of everyone to cope with the often inevitable environmental stresses, such as deadlines or pressing work rhythms, thanks to the resources available such as skills, energy, motivation: under the same working conditions, therefore , some thanks to their protective personality factors will have the antibodies not to develop a burnout, others instead having less personal resources will develop stress and in some cases the actual syndrome ». It is possible to prevent it, to intervene when the symptoms have already manifested necessary: the burnout syndrome in fact, in addition to being an obstacle to a peaceful working life, can have serious consequences on health because as Fiorillo explains “Insomnia, headaches, gastrointestinal disorders often appear , tachycardia, general malaise. Above all, however, prolonged stress causes a reduction in the body’s immune defenses, therefore it plays an important role in the emergence of many acute and chronic diseases ». One example among many? Recently, a group of researchers from the University of South Australia has shown that “toxic” workplaces, in which the general climate does not take into account the mental well-being of workers but rather facilitates their emotional exhaustion and burnout because excessive commitment loads are imposed and people’s autonomy is not promoted, the probability of experiencing depression triples.
August 28, 2021 (change August 28, 2021 | 18:25)
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