Surveys of medical and health professionals have found over 50% experience burnout or symptoms of burnout.

According to a UK study of 2,000 working adults in 2020, the average age a person will now experience burnout is 32.

The Copenhagen Burnout Inventory measures burnout by asking questions relating to personal, work and patient/client related feelings including:

• How often do you feel tired?
• How often do you feel worn out?
• Are you exhausted in the morning at the thought of another day at work?
• Is your work emotionally exhausting?
• Does it drain your energy to work with patients/clients?
• Do you sometimes wonder how long you will be able to continue working with patients/clients?

Burnout can be caused by a range of factors including personal, social, service or organisational problems. Common causes include:

• Unmanageable workloads
• Unclear job boundaries
• Unreasonable time pressure
• Lack of support from managers
• Inadequate communication
• Unfair treatment including bullying, favouritism and discrimination
• Factors outside work such as parental responsibilities or home stress
• Personality traits such as perfectionism
• Inadequate personal coping mechanisms
• Team atmosphere or distrust
• Micromanagement or lack of autonomy
• Low pay
• Fatiguing rosters
• Traumatic work
• Lack of appreciation from managers or patients/clients
• Not getting enough sleep, nutrition, rest, or time away from work

• Exercise – reduces the level of cortisol the hormone caused by stress.
• ‘Me time’ – setting aside a couple of night a week for time away from work.
• Avoid unhealthy habits – don’t rely on alcohol, sugar, smoking, screen time or caffeine to cope.
• Take control – make a plan for your wellbeing, remaining passive is part of the problem.
• Connect with people – laughing and spending time with friends relieves stress.
• Prioritise – not all your tasks will make a real difference, and your inbox will always be full.

• Rostered recovery days; where appropriate rosters should include days off to compensate for working over nights and weekends.
• Agreed workloads; workloads should be agreed, not imposed. Maximum workloads should be set as guidelines including through the use of staff to patient/client ratios; guidelines on caseloads; and tasks per shift.
• Fair remuneration; salary and allowance rates should be fair, equitable and at a level which values the employees work including degrees of effort, skill, responsibility and risk.
• Protected tea and meal breaks; rest and meal breaks should be protected and if employees are required to work through them because of emergency work, the time should be allowed in lieu.
• Support for taking leave; employees should be encouraged to take annual leave at times when they can have rest and recreation and be supported to take sick leave when unwell.
• Adequate supervision and safe communication; good teams will ensure everyone knows what the challenges and goals are; and employees are safe to discuss concerns and raise questions with their supervisors.
• Structured professional development; Opportunities to learn, carry out research and engage in meaningful high level work is built into the system.
• Employees are empowered; During service planning and decision-making employees are empowered to lead change.
• Change is mapped: The world is not going to stop changing so our workplaces need maps for planned change and everyone’s role within it.