The World Health Organization officially recognizes ‘burnout’

The World Health Organization officially recognizes “burn-out”

For years, the term “burnout” has been chalked up to whiny millennials showcasing yet again how lazy and entitled they are. But now, as millennials start to come of age, the stigma is changing.

The World Health Organization officially recognizes ‘burnout’

For the first time, the World Health Organization is giving burnout victims their validation by including what it calls “burn-out” in a new volume of its International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems, a handbook for recognized medical conditions.

Burnout is money

According to business leaders at Harvard, it’s important to recognize the physiological health implications — costing companies an estimated $125B to $190B in health-care spending each year as of 2015.

In 2018, a Gallup study found that about two-thirds of full-time workers experienced burnout on the job, with nearly 23% of the 7.5k full-time employees surveyed reporting they felt burnt out very often or always.

Here are the 3 components that the WHO believes characterize the official new workplace outbreak:

  • Lack of energy or exhaustion
  • Autopilot and cynicism related to the job
  • Poor performance

In other words, I just found an excuse for why I’m so bad at my job.

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