Burnout as a social pathology of self-realization

Abstract

This article understands the growing problem of work-related mental fatigue in relation to the normative demand for self-realization that confronts contemporary Western individuals. The empirical basis of the study is in-depth interviews with individuals on long-term sick-leave with various mental fatigue diagnoses. The analysis of the interviews indicates that a common denominator was the search for being authentic at work by exploring and demonstrating one's capacities and skills to fulfill personal values in a working environment characterized by reorganizations and/or downsizing that the employees had little influence upon. The article shows how the consequences of these changes prevented an enduring authentic self-realization, giving rise to an escalating conflict between a standardized and unconditional self-realization. A discussion is then taken up on how this discrepancy was connected to a growing exhaustion, coupled with increased feelings of emptiness and low self-esteem. Finally, the fatigue symptoms are comprehended as the development of a social pathology in response to experiences of insufficient recognition where the effects of reorganizations and/or cutbacks tend to decrease common meaning. The conclusion is that the expectation of self-realization together with a boundaryless work and work organization may be comprehended as a stress factor for the individual, who is liable to develop fatigue symptoms such as burnout.

Keywords:

• authenticity
• boundaryless work
• fatigue diagnoses
• recognition
• self-esteem
• self-realization
• social pathology

Notes

1. There are no singular definitions of burnout, mental fatigue, and stress. In compliance with Schaufeli, Leiter, and Maslach (2009), I regard these symptoms as intertwined. The article focuses on how the symptoms are developed in relation to work, even if burnout may occur among those who do not work, such as young people, the unemployed, retired people, and housewives as well (Kristensen et al. 2005).

2. Less efficient illness insurance policies in comparison to the other European member states is regarded as one possible explanation of the high and increasing sickness absence rates since the 1990s in Sweden. Since 2001 there has been a decrease in the Swedish sickness absence rates. The more restrictive social insurance policies are probably one contributing factor. Still, the level is alarmingly high, not least in comparison to the rates before the 1990s. In spite of the decrease in sickness absence during the recent years, the absence rate among employees aged 20–64 still was 3% in 2007, which is 36% higher than in the investigated countries on average (The Swedish Social Insurance Administration 2009).

3. In Sweden there is no officially recognized definition of long-term sick-leave. The study conforms to The Swedish Social Insurance Administration's (2007) definition: a sick-leave that has lasted more than 60 days.

4. There is little specific information about the number of Swedish workers troubled by mental fatigue symptoms. However, data from the two largest Swedish insurance companies indicate that the diagnosis ‘reaction to mental stress’ increased from being the cause of slightly less than every sixth long-term sick-leave among persons in private employments in 2001 to by 2007 causing every fifth long-term sick-leave (Alecta 2008). Among municipality and council workers psychic illness and syndromes and behavior disorders are the most common sick-leave reasons today, where about every sixth sick-leave was due to reaction to mental stress. Among industrial workers, sick-leaves because of physical problems such as backache still dominate, but among this group there is an increase in psychiatric diagnoses as well (about every eighteenth sick-leave is due to reaction to mental stress) (AFA 2009). The gender difference is apparent. Among the industrial workers nearly a quarter of the women on long-term sick-leave are on sick-leave because of psychic illnesses and syndromes and behavior disorders, compared to a sixth of the men. Of them almost twice as many women are on long-term sick-leave because of ‘reaction to severe stress’ in comparison to the men. Among municipality and council workers the proportion of women on sick-leave because of psychic illnesses and syndromes and behavior disorders is even higher, one-third. Also in this group, women dominate the long-term sick-leaves due to ‘reaction to severe stress’ (AFA 2009).

5. The names of the interviewed are fictitious. The reported age is their age at the time of the interview.

6. My reasoning is inspired by Emile Durkheim's ([1952] 2002) notion of ‘altruistic suicides’, motivated by solidarity and conformity to the community.

7. The respondents highlighted various physical symptoms in the interviews. Together they cover the National Board of Health and Welfare's (2003, 9) diagnostic criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome. The symptoms they displayed were primarily a lack of mental energy, sleep problems, a substantial physical disability (such as numbness or enormous fatigue), physical symptoms (such as headache, chestpain, palpitations, high blood pressure, stomach problems, dizziness, loss ofmenstruation, respiratory distress, and persistent infections), concentration difficulties, reduced ability to cope with demands or doing things under time pressure, and emotional imbalance.

8. One explanation of Swedish women's dominance concerning sick-leave for stress-related mental illness is that many women, in the highly gender-segregated Swedish working life (Alexanderson and Östlin 2001; Gonäs and Karlsson 2006), are engaged in caring professions, where the caring relation has become more strained because of the public sector's reorganizations and downsizing during recent decades (Falkenberg, Näswall, and Sverke 2008; Gustafsson 2005; Hertting et al. 2005). There are indications that health care workers’ situation easily gives rise to a ‘stress of conscience’, often followed by symptoms of burnout, since accelerating demands of a personal relationship and responsibility-taking at work are obstructed by continuous reorganizations and cutbacks (Glasberg 2007; Gustafsson, Norberg, and Strandberg 2008). A possible conclusion is that this sector generally offers fewer opportunities for the development of common meaning and, consequently, the realization of oneself and one's values, which might contribute to stress-related illness. In order to establish that one explication of women's dominance is different conditions for self-realization at work, more research in this area is required.