(THIS ARTICLE IS MACHINE TRANSLATED by Google from Norwegian)
Most of us know someone who is affected by burnout. Stress is "one of the most common occupational health problems in EU countries", according to a WHO report from 2010. 20 percent of people in Western European EU countries reported that they experienced stress at work in 2005, and four years later, 30 percent in eastern European countries reported the same, states the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work.
Not everyone who is stressed develops burnout – but there are also many cases of burnout. In fact, as many as 13 percent of Sweden's working population scored high on a burnout survey conducted by BioMed Central in 2010. The number peaked among younger workers, especially among women between 35 and 44 years: A full 21,5 percent of them reported feeling burned out.
Costs expensive. Without exaggeration, it is clear that the costs of stress and burnout amount to millions in treatment, sick pay, lost taxes and reduced productivity. Then we have not even begun to talk about how stressful the stress problem can be for the individual.
An EU-funded survey conducted by Matrix in 2014 showed that 14 percent of stressed employees developed depression. WHO backs up: "Some of the many impacts
The stress of stress includes both physical ailments and mental health problems such as depression and increased rates of suicide, "the 2000 report states. and cost at least 2000 billion euros annually ».
The prevalence of stress-related illnesses, especially among young people, is alarming to say the least. One factor that contributes to the situation is that the large post-war cohorts are about to retire, and that younger generations are already struggling to pay for the party. At present, there are four employees who pay for one pensioner in developed countries. This is expected to be halved by 2050, as only two pay for each pensioner, writes Vladimir I. Yakunin in the book Problems of Contemporary World Futurology (2011). This trend is worrying, even if one ignores the incidence of burnout.
Lacks healthy balance. Why are there so many burnt out nowadays? Why are so many people affected by stress at a relatively young age (between 18 and 44 years)? A new book by sociologist Thierry Venin at the Université de Pau et des Pays de l'Adour on "information overload" sheds new light on this development. According to Venin's recent book, which has the title A Better World?, new technology contributes greatly to burnout – our phones, laptops, apps and email. In the documentary Brain Overload he also notes that the amount of information we have to deal with on a daily basis is far greater than ever before. In addition, the information flow is constant. This society's expectation of being connected and receptive at all times provides few opportunities for "downtime" for employees.
I give my approval: As I write this, I also visit email, Slack, Skype, Asana, Upwork, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and can be reached via text and phone. If you think this is more than enough, I have two other businessmail accounts that I am not logged in to, and one of two phones is in silent mode.
A common belief is that young people cope better with this constant connection because they have grown up with this technology, but Venin claims that young people actually suffer more from cognitive overload. A study of 30 employees conducted by GFK Institute, which is included in the documentary, shows that 000 percent of employees under 39 had difficulty finding a healthy balance between work and private life.
As I write this, I also visit email, Slack, Skype, Asana, Upwork, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and can be reached via text and phone.
Brain Overload also examines possible ways to reduce the load. Not surprisingly, the solution is to be less connected and not respond immediately to every beep, every ping and every vibration. You may think you are a master of multitasking, but you are not, we should believe the documentary.
The ability to concentrate decreases. I never really thought about answering an email or checking my phone as multitasking, but every shift of attention of this kind er a form of multitasking that requires significant brain power. Jumping between several different tasks is one of the causes of cognitive overload and stress.
Reducing response pressure can be done by clearly communicating your availability to employees and customers. There are people who check their email twice a day. An automated response notifies others when you can actually be reached again. This is not only in the interest of the individual as it can prevent burnout – it actually increases productivity as well. One of the consequences of constant interruptions is that attention
the periods will be very short, says Professor Gloria Mark in the documentary. She has found that we maintain focus on a computer screen for only one minute and 15 seconds on average. In 2004, we were able to focus on an activity for an average of three minutes. For young people born between 1980 and 2000, this average is reduced to just 45 seconds.
Become unavailable. Additional consequences of cognitive overload may be reduced memory capacity. It can also cause marital problems due to disputes that the job eats into the private sphere. Concentrating on one task at a time and reducing availability can be a good start to reducing the amount of information that can reach us. Then demand the right to be disconnected, as it is called in the documentary Brain Overload – and avoid burnout as a result of our constant need to be online.
