What actually is a burnout?

Recently, some discussions were held regarding the act of burning out. Is it good or bad? Does it affect a person’s presence of mind? Is there any way to get cured from it? Why does it usually happen?

An attempt to answer these questions has been made by Schuyler Laparle, Lecturer at Tilburg University. Burnout is considered as a disease all over the world. It is the human tendency of getting sick by working more than your own capacity. The workload in today’s multi national corporations has come to such an extent that a normal human being doesn’t find it able to take out some time for his personal life, family or leisure activities.

Taking an example of a case from India, an IIT-IIM passout committed suicide in March 2024 just because he was not able to cope up with the workload from his company. Social media was flooded with opinions and perspectives that he could have resigned from his post and could have tried his luck in startup. He just ruined his life, even after possessing such a valuable qualification, which is still a dream of many.

Attempts to tackle this cause

Some initiatives that can be taken by the employers for controlling this issue are that – a work environment can be created where every individual is valued, listened and understood properly. The problems of the employees should be addressed with immediate effect, in case they are facing such issues.

Excessive punctuality can sometimes have adverse effects. Those who keep the time prospect on top, even if they are unable to work, can become prone to burning out. In addition to providing breaks to employees, a relaxation should also be given to them that they can take their own time for completing a task so that they can also give their 100% to the work. Meeting deadlines is paramount but in order to reduce the burnout, a balance between both of these aspects is also necessary. Only then can we achieve a healthy and flexible work environment.

Every individual doesn’t work for satisfying their own needs or as a source of livelihood, we often see people working who belong to the rich families, as well. Their motives and aspirations don’t match with a normal job seeker. They work just to become financially independent otherwise they have enough alternatives to meet their demands. So, the employees who belong to higher class families, can sometimes not show seriousness towards their work. This is the reason why the companies have to examine the credibility of all the employees, as a result, the genuine people also have to suffer.