Workplace Burnout Is Officially an “Occupational Phenomenon”—Here’s What You Can Do About It

Image may contain Human Person Accessories Handbag Accessory and Bag
Photographed by Steven Meisel, Vogue, February 2006

We may earn a commission if you buy something from any affiliate links on our site.

Since first entering the cultural lexicon in the mid-1970s, burnout has rapidly become an everyday reality for many—if not the majority—of those working a 9-to-5 job. And now, the term is officially being recognized as an “occupational phenomenon.” According to the World Health Organization, the agency that guides many health providers and organizations, burnout is the direct result of “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Sound familiar?

The WHO says that burnout can be diagnosed if a patient exhibits the following symptoms: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and reduced professional efficacy. While the new definition only begins to explain the complex condition, health experts are hopeful that this acknowledgement will help bring more awareness to the issue, as well as legitimize the feelings of those who suffer from burnout. Plus, it will hopefully inspire companies to look inward and prioritize a healthier work-life balance for employees. After all, the stakes are high.

“Sixty to 90% of doctor visits are due to stress, which evokes a series of genetic and physiological changes that can be tremendously harmful to health if sustained, including increased heart rate, blood pressure, breath rate, and muscle tension,” explains Herbert Benson, M.D., a professor of mind and body medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Benson-Henry Institute at Massachusetts General Hospital, who underlines that work-related stress is further exacerbated by excess screen time. In that sense, the onus is also on individuals who may suffer from burnout to be proactive about unplugging and incorporating stress-relieving activities into their downtime.

To begin tackling chronic work-related stress, Benson recommends building up a “relaxation response,” a term that describes the opposite of the fight-or-flight response that stress causes within the body, which he coined in his pioneering book of the same name. You can start by doing 10 to 20 minutes of a regenerative daily activity, such as exercise or meditation, to break the chain of everyday thinking, he explains. It can feel like a tall order in the age of work addiction—or “the best-dressed mental health problem,” as psychologist Bryan Robinson, Ph.D., likes to call it—but reconsidering stress, much like the medical community’s official recognition of burnout, is an important first step.