Work From Home Burnout Is Making You More Stressed And Exhausted, As Per Study
Researchers have discovered that when both these come together, the effect of burnout intensifies with a much stronger effect.
COVID-19 has forced most of us to work from home. And even though there are some who have gotten back to their desks at work, there are many who continue working from home.
And while it might sound like a good thing, for many, it means that the lines between their work and home have almost disappeared with people working longer hours while also juggling household chores.
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This spike in workload has been causing employees to feel burnt out with their work. And stress at home and at work is only making matters worse for people. However, researchers have discovered that when both these come together, the effect of burnout intensifies with a much stronger effect.
Researchers from the University of Mainz looked at 48 studies, involving a total of 26,319 participants about stress and burnout. The studies ranged from years 1986 to 2019 with the average age of participants around 42 years, with 44 percent of people including men.
Respondents in the study showed how stress and burnout was in-turn affecting their performance.
Work stress during Covid-19 pandemic
Dr Christina Guthier, one of the authors of the study explained, ¡°When exhausted, the ability to cope with stress usually decreases. As a result, even smaller tasks can be perceived as significantly more strenuous. We expected an effect of burnout on work stress; the strength of the effect was very surprising.¡±
According to researchers, the biggest symptom that you¡¯re experiencing burnout is the feeling of total exhaustion, where the damage is so much that even a weekend or a vacation cannot help it recover.
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Researchers, however, emphasized that this effect can be reduced if employees have support from their colleagues and supervisors in these difficult times while also have some control over their work.
They added that employees should be offered the opportunity to give feedback around how stressed they¡¯re feeling at work as well as receive appreciation for their colleagues and managers.
