Burnout is an occupational phenomenon resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”
of the workers surveyed show a high risk of burnout
Techman loves what they do, but they feel pressured to work long hours, which leaves little time for personal life and creates work-life conflicts.
Often, techman turns to anti-patterns: short-term fixes to get the job done. When this happens day after day, with no space to recover mentally or physically, stress piles up.
Let's see what we found
Let's meet our enemies: Exhaustion, Self-Inefficacy, Cynicism, and Depersonalization. These are the 4 ghosts of Burnout and they are lurking on every corner, and techman must avoid them to get through unscathed.
The ghost of Exhaustion is usually the first to go after Tech-Man.
Once it catches Tech-Man, they feel emotional, creative, or physical exhaustion and are unable to unwind, and restore energy for the next day.
If exhaustion is sustained for long periods of time, Tech-Man can develop depression, cardiovascular problems, and other stress-related illnesses.
Self-inefficacy is a conman and it makes Tech-Man doubt their abilities to accomplish to-dos.
Once the ghost of Self-Inefficacy strikes, Tech-Man is overcome with a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. Eventually, they become unproductive and develop low morale.
Over time, they develop an emotional crisis that leads to procrastination and may end in "Imposter Syndrome".
Cynicism is the trickiest ghost Tech-Man has to face.
When it strikes, Tech-Man may act coldly towards people and no longer find satisfaction in finishing tasks or accomplishing goals. So they move slowly, carelessly, and are unproductive.
Once it strikes, it's the likeliest ghost to drive Tech-Man out of the job. In fact, Cynicism is the best predictor of turnover.
This ghost's signature attack is exploiting an emotional defense mechanism where Tech-Man shuts down emotions in order to cope and continue working.
After Tech-Man is struck by Depersonalization, they become cold and distant towards colleagues, clients and superiors.
Lacking a sense of community, they may even compromise the working environment with a bad and callous attitude.
Work-related stress is produced when there is an imbalance between the job's demands and its resources:
When demands exceed resources, the techman experiences tension and this can lead to distress. If this persists, the techman exhausts their resources and falls into a state of burnout.
When there is an equilibrium between high job demands and resources, the techman feels challenged and empowered and this leads to the feeling of flow. This, in time, leads to high work-engagement and productivity.
But don't assume that given a set of JD-R, every techman will react the same way. Personality traits, their history and career path will influence how they perceive their situation:
Someone with less social skills may perceive a meeting as a stressor; while someone with a lot of ability may feel they don't perform at the level their role requires, falling into feelings of self-inefficacy.
Tech-Man is very committed when it comes to their job and also really likes what they do. They always tackle any difficulties that come up because they value the sense of challenge it brings them. Often, Tech-Man will find themselves in productive flow states :)
Tech-Man feels exhausted, without any strength or will to work. They don’t feel like they are contributing, and they’re unsatisfied with their tasks. Usually, they’re also feeling low levels of perceived self-efficacy and may feel stress from relationships with managers, peers, customers, etc.
The Tech-Man's job feels mundate, but they do it to make a living. They don't necessarily enjoy the work, but don't resent it either. They just do what they have to without looking for any kind of extra engagement.
Tech-Man feels low motivation, and doesn't want to do their job as it feels tedious and a waste of time. There's no real interest in completing any task as they're not challenging, thus it doesn't seem like the best use of the Tech-Man's time and skills.
