Have you ever felt just… done? Overwhelmed, utterly exhausted and detached or unmotivated at work? If that feeling persists for longer than a day or two, you may well be suffering from burnout as a result of chronic stress (often tied to your job).
In fact, the World Health Organization recently categorized burnout as an official health condition — and it’s not one to be taken lightly. In a systematic review of studies, burnout was found to be a significant predictor of numerous health problems including Type 2 diabetes, heart disease, fatigue, respiratory issues, insomnia and depressive symptoms, among others. And companies with burned-out employees don’t fare well, either. According to a Gallup study, employees suffering from burnout are 2.6 times as likely to be actively seeking a different job, 63% more likely to take a sick day and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room. That’s in addition to the expected nose dive in productivity and engagement.
But there are many things businesses can do to help reduce burnout. (They cannot, of course, always prevent it. Family stress, financial problems or illness can all contribute to burnout, even if your job is fantastic.)
To keep reading, click here: What Can HR Do to Help Prevent Burnout?
The reason those tech companies have all those perks is because they are Petri dishes for burnout. Several of them are notorious for working employees 80-hour high-stress weeks, resulting in individual employee burnout and high turnover. In the meantime, the employers have to provide all those perks: free meals, well-equipped employee lounges and gyms, etc., because the employees have zero life outside of work and are — virtually — living at their workplaces.