Ever have someone tell you that you’re suffering from “burnout”?
Well, Joel did. A primary care physician in a busy outpatient clinic, like many of his colleagues, he found himself increasingly exhausted, both mentally and emotionally. But he felt the burnout label misleading and, at some level, offensive.
By definition, burnout consists of feelings of energy depletion, mental distancing from one’s work, negativity or cynicism about one’s job and diminished effectiveness. Not only does it undermine one’s satisfaction with work, but it also spills over into an individual’s personal life and relationships. Bad as that can be, for Joel, his malady was more than burnout.
“It’s part of the whole industrial medicine thing where you end up dealing more with the logistics of patient care than the patients themselves, and that’s not why we got into this profession,” he maintained. “So, it’s not just about too much to do and not enough time. It’s more than that.”
His healthcare organization did not turn a blind eye to his distress or that of his co-workers. They listened, consulted with experts, and then developed a program to address what they and their consultants labeled as “burnout.” This initiative focused on providing staff with self-care techniques to help them better manage their stress.
“It’s good stuff in its own right,” Joel explained. “But it misses the target. The problem isn’t just with us, the people. It’s the messed-up system of care, and how it sucks the life out of your spirit.”
If you toil in a high-stress environment like health care, customer service, competitive sales or the like, the term “burnout” gets bantered about frequently. In fact, in many organizations, there are programs and services designed to address this affliction among employees. Usually, the underlying message is that burned-out workers need to learn new ways to enhance personal resilience so they can better handle stress, frustration, task overload and disappointment.
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However, too often, these approaches, while well-meaning and sometimes palliative, are a disservice to folks like Joel. Why? Because they place too much—sometimes all—responsibility on the employees themselves while ignoring the workplace conditions and processes that contribute to or, in some instances, create the problem. Some mental health professionals have labeled this deflection “gaslighting,” which occurs when we characterize someone or their situation in a way that leaves them questioning their sanity. And that’s how Joel felt.
“I know the powers that be don’t mean it this way, but it feels like they’re saying it’s all about us, our coping skills or lack thereof. The idea is that, if we were better at self-care, this wouldn’t be a problem,” he explained.
Granted, some of us handle stress better than others. But even individuals who demonstrate considerable resilience can fall victim to a condition beyond burnout, one called “moral injury.” This type of wounding resides in the spiritual realm as much or more than the psychological one.
Moral injury occurs when one’s work diminishes or violates one’s basic values or sense of purpose. In Joel’s case, he believed strongly in understanding his patients, developing empathetic relationships with them and serving as a partner in their health challenges. The more the logistics of his work situation removed him from serving this purpose, the greater the moral injury he sustained.
“The time allotted to patient visits shrinks. It feels more like a transaction than a relationship. Mostly, the patients take a backseat to the logistics,” he explained.
Regardless of the nature of the work in question, when it leaves one feeling disingenuous, lacking in integrity or disloyal to one’s core beliefs and sense of purpose, then what is “burning out” is not one’s psyche, but one’s soul. Regarding this condition simply as a deficit in one’s resilience and self-care acumen is a disservice.
Doing so inflicts one more moral injury on top of another.
For more, visit philipchard.com.
