Professional Burnout. Illness Or Psychological Problem

2024 Author: Harry Day | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 15:43

The syndrome of professional emotional burnout was described in the 70s of the last century and since then it has become an increasingly urgent problem for society. Relevant both due to the growing prevalence, and due to the fact that such a disorder affects the "cadre elite", the most effective workers - those who are not indifferent to work. Burnout manifests itself, as you know, in the gradual formation of a specialist's negative attitude towards the work performed, then towards people associated with it, and finally towards himself as a representative of the profession.

In our country, according to the established tradition (due to the gap between medicine and psychology), it was still accepted to consider burnout not a disease, but a purely psychological problem. Although in a number of European countries, burnout is viewed differently, for example in Switzerland the diagnosis of "professional burnout" given to a patient is the basis for a thorough treatment, which may take more than one month. Although formally and within the framework of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-10) currently in force in the Russian Federation, a patient can be diagnosed with burnout. can be diagnosed as a disorder under the heading of difficulties in maintaining a normal lifestyle (Z73.8).

In this regard, the recent appeal of the deputy of the State Duma of the Russian Federation O. Mikheev to Prime Minister D. Medvedev about the inclusion of the syndrome of professional burnout in the list of socially significant diseases seems to be quite reasonable. And people suffering from burnout will receive sick leave certificates and offer rehabilitation measures at public expense. That, in fact, may turn out to be quite cost-effective for the state economy, counting on reducing losses.

However, in the domestic working environment, in comparison with the West, there is also a specificity in the course of the burnout syndrome. If in a typical case, as is commonly believed, representatives of professions associated with risk, that is, intense stressful experiences (firefighters, rescuers, test pilots) or contact with other people's negative emotions (doctors, teachers, social workers), are subject to burnout, then in Russian In conditions (especially in metropolitan areas), office employees are increasingly becoming victims of burnout. Moreover, at first glance, they are quite prosperous and very successful, occupying good positions in the Russian branches of large Western firms. This is office burnout, a Russian-Westernized version.

If once, in the 90s and at the beginning of the 2000s, working in a Western company was considered the crown of success in many industries, then today's workers, especially representatives of Generation Z, do not go to the West so massively. Import substitution is becoming more and more fashionable - however, not commodity or technological, but so far only humanitarian.

More and more employees begin to consider themselves victims of "office slavery", when a person feels himself to be only a cog in a rigid corporate machine, on which almost nothing depends and who is engaged in an unproductive business. As a result, he quietly hates his job, but is forced to go to it "through force", because he does not dare to change anything. He suffers from burnout, but often does not realize that something is wrong with him, because “everyone works like this” and lives like that.

The most important factor of such burnout is intercultural contradictions, the contact between Western rational (left hemisphere) and Russian irrational (relatively right hemisphere) culture. People cannot get used to cultural mismatch. It is much more difficult not to study, but to retrain, for example, to break the usual cultural stereotypes learned in childhood.

The main "axes" of the cross-cultural corporate conflict "Russia-West":

1. In Russia there are relatively more people who are not used to planning their lives to the smallest detail, they need spontaneity. Such a corporate way of life, when everything should be ordered, painted in details and details, is not suitable for many employees, and causes strong tension.

2. Corporate etiquette and culture is perceived as a culture of pretense. It is not accepted in our country to pretend like that - people at first perceive it as sincere, and then, when their eyes open, it becomes stressful, experienced as treachery.

3. In general, ethical principles in Western corporate culture are often declarative and decorative. They are on display. Noble truths of not only corporate, but almost global prosperity thanks to the fulfillment of the High Mission of the company. This is the soil from which corporate religion grows. Serving the company should become the goal of life for the employee! But for a person in Russian society, faith is associated with maximalism - if you believe in something, then for real. And when a highly moral story turns out to be just a backdrop for an office performance, he is deeply disappointed.

4. Corporate caste. How Western TOPs relate to Russian employees: first-class employees are expats, and Russian employees are second-class.

Disappointed in their work and want to quit - but cannot. For they find themselves in the grip of an internal conflict, between the hammer of desires (the desire to quit) and the anvil of reality (material needs and the difficulty of getting a high-paying job in a protracted crisis).

The development of office burnout follows several scenarios

1. Scenario "step-by-step disappointment": an employee, disappointed in work, consoles himself with the thought that it is only in this company, but in another one that needs to be looked for … Moves to a new firm and there is also disappointed. Accordingly, each step (level of disappointment) stretches over several years.

2. A radical scenario - downshifting: quit the hateful office work altogether and do something more creative and inspiring

3. The scenario is pessimistic: just endure. Chronic occupational stress has a devastating effect on health and family.

Many offer a "cure" for such problems. They can be conditionally divided into two groups: organizational decisions (changes in communication, work processes, programs to increase motivation) and work with the “victim's personality” (trainings for personal effectiveness, search for meaning and “one's own way” in the company).

More effective approaches that rely on and take into account the natural laws of the human psyche. This problem is effectively solved by Evolutionary coaching - a new direction that has arisen at the intersection of psychophysiology, management and neurosciences.

Questions that are worked out in the course of work will help you understand what is at stake.

How can neurophysiological features and neuropsychology be used in this area?

What to do to get out of the usual behavioral scenario?

How important are social instincts (foundations of corporate behavior)?

How to use the renewable resources of the psyche?

How to increase creativity and drive?

How to deal with stress?

How to fulfill your potential?