Sure, you can dismiss that work-related dread as a case of “the Mondays” or the “Sunday scaries,” but the fact is, burnout at work is such a serious problem globally that it’s recognized as an occupational issue by the World Health Organization.
However, what exactly feeling “burned out” is hasn’t always been clear, as symptoms vary from person to person — and in many cases it’s hard to see that proverbial wall coming before you hit it.
That is, until now, according to researchers at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology.
They say they’ve created a tool that can detect when employees are in danger of having it “up to here” with their jobs before it happens.
The Burnout Assessment Tool has been successfully tested in a study involving 500 Norwegian workers, according to a recently published study in the Scandinavian Journal of Psychology.
The tool creates a comprehensive measure of four key burnout risk factors for employees: exhaustion, mental distancing, cognitive impairment and emotional impairment.
The development is being called significant, as the university points out that there is currently no international standard for assessing burnout. This tool has been designed to do just that, across cultural and other spectrums.
Study author Leon De Beer, an associate professor of work and organizational psychology at NTNU’s Department of Psychology, warns of the “long-term consequences” of not addressing worker burnout.
His colleague Marit Christensen warns that even if individual treatment helps a burned-out employee, “it is of little use if people return to a workplace where the demands are too high and there are few resources.”
Christensen advocates for “good working conditions and structures that safeguard the health of employees.”