The negative impacts of chronic stress and how to help

Studies have shown that more than half of illnesses are caused by stress. In our latest post, we have reviewed the phenomenon of stress, and determined some factors that contribute to chronic stress. In this post, we will go over the effects of stress, focusing on burnout. If you’re interested in the latter, check out our workshop presentation for more information.

Let’s look at phenomenons related to stress:

Burnout – There are several factors that can contribute to feeling burnt out. This includes social structure, interpersonal relationships, individual factors, tasks (the work itself), and organizational environment. Individual factors involve emotional instability (neuroticism), low self-esteem, external control mindset, A-type personality. Organizational factors can be work overload, unresolved conflicts, unclear responsibility, long-lasting stress, lack of recognition or unfair punishment. Burnout can be treated after being recognized; warning signs can be: chronic fatigue (emotional, physical, cognitive), depersonalization (a feeling of disconnection from physical and mental processes), and diminution of efficiency.

“I feel empty inside”, “I have to go on a holiday”, “I don’t have enough energy” – these are the sentences that fill the burnt-out person’s mind.

The process has 3 stages: the first one is activity. This part comes with a feeling of irreplaceability and impatience, which results in hyperactivity. The next stage is withdrawal, which evokes disillusion, frustration and fear of failure. These feelings contribute to unproductivity and social distancing. The third part is isolation, passivity, which presents itself in the feelings of helplessness, emptiness, hopelessness, and behaviors of apathy and disinterest. Burnout also makes the worker lose commitment to the organization, and they are also prone to be absent more.

So, what can we do as leaders, to help our workers who find themselves in this situation or if we struggle as well? SHL offers opportunities for both diagnoses and treatment. Diagnosing can be done with personality tests, motivation-, and burnout questionnaires.

Personality tests can show us what the worker finds stressful (attitude to isolation, negotiations, lack of intellectual challenge or support). It can also reveal information about the person’s coping mechanisms (for example how avoidant, responsible, or disciplined they are on a scale of 1-10). 

Motivation questionnaires include aspects like activity level, competitivity, involvement, autonomy and present individual results compared to a normative group.

The Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and Mini Oldenburg Burnout Inventory (MOLBI) burnout questionnaires use statements like “There are days when I’m tired even before getting to work” (fatigue), “I do my job more and more mechanically” (disillusion), “When doing my job, I treat people like objects” (depersonalization). MBI tests have shown that men are more likely to experience depersonalization and unproductivity. MOLBI have found that men are more disillusioned, while women are more exhausted.

Treating burnout can be done by our “Keep the flame” development programme. This programeoffers 12 1,5-hour sessions, which deal with topics like the joy of entering, successes, failures, work-life integrity and stress-management techniques.

It is our responsibility to treat burnout as best as we can, because in the long run, it can have effects like addictions, anxiety, insomnia, physical pain, and mental illnesses.

Negative attitude and behavior – Counterproductive work behavior affects the organization and the worker equally. The negative events enhance negative attitude and vica versa. Here, we are thinking of actions like stealing, vandalism, harassment, alcohol consumption and unjustified absence. We can say chronic stress can also contribute to violence in the workplace.

A responsible organization does everything to stop these phenomenon from accruing, and if they do present themselves somehow, tries to help with the appropriate interventions.

The post is based on Chapter 9 of Dr. Sandor Klein's book, "Occupational Psychology" and the presentation by Julianna Kiss and Marcell Rajna, "The phenomenon of burnout", which can be accessed here.