We’re well aware of what job burnout means, but now it’s officially a medical term used to describe a harmful condition.
Described as a feeling of extreme work stress, burnout is now a legitimate medical diagnosis, according to the International Classification of Diseases, or the ICD-11, the World Health Organization’s handbook that guides medical providers in diagnosing diseases.
It now appears in the ICD-11’s section on problems related to employment or unemployment. According to the handbook, doctors can diagnose someone with burnout if they experience the following symptoms:
1. feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
2. increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of
negativism or cynicism related to one’s job
3. reduced professional efficacy
Before making the call, the document says doctors should first rule out adjustment disorder as well as anxiety and mood disorders. The diagnosis is limited to work environments, and shouldn’t be applied to other life situations.
Despite studying burnout for decades, researchers have long found burnout to be a blurry cultural concept that has defied attempts to create a specific consensus definition scientists can all agree on. Now, the focus has narrowed.
According to CNN.com, psychologist Herbert Freudenberger is credited with inaugurating the formal study of the state of burnout with a scientific article published in 1974. This information is accredited to a 2017 review of literature published in the journal SAGE Open.
The authors of that review, Linda and Torsten Heinemann, say that over the next four decades, hundreds of studies appeared on the subject. During that time, they claimed that burnout was not
considered an actual mental disorder even though it is “one of the most widely discussed mental health problems in today’s society.”
So what does that mean for black millennials, one of the most overworked and underpaid generations in recent decades?
In journalist Reniqua Allen’s new book, It Was All a Dream: A New Generation Confronts the Broken Promise to Black America, she explains, “I wanted to explore what the world looks like to young Black Americans and what aspiration and mobility means to us. I decided to focus on Black millennials because our experiences are different, the stakes higher, and the challenges unique. Yet so many don’t understand our plight.”
Allen adds that “43 percent of all American millennials are non-White. But the discussion about millennials and their ideas of ‘success’ are often deeply rooted in the experiences of privileged White men and women — think more Lena Dunham than Issa Rae.”
Often, we have to live up to the adage, “we have to work twice as hard to get half as much.”
Therapists who see patients of color with reported feelings attributed to
burnout recommend managing through self-care techniques. Regular physical exercise, self-help podcasts, and traditional therapy do wonders for managing feelings of job-related stress.
For more information about job burnout and its official prognosis, visit www.who.int.
Jasmine Browley holds an MA in journalism from Columbia College Chicago, and has contributed to Ebony, Jet and MADE Magazine among others. So, clearly, she knows some stuff. Follow her digital journey @JasmineBrowley.
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