More and more young employees are reporting a feeling of burnout.
A 2021 survey by job site Indeed shows that millennials and millennials report the highest burnout rates at 59 percent and 58 percent, respectively.
Generation Z refers to young people born after 1996.
A 2022 survey by US-based business management platform Asana shows that more Gen Z workers say they feel burned out than any other age group, while a 2021 survey of UK workers found that 73 percent of Gen Z respondents compared to an average of 73 percent across all age groups: 80 of them feel more drained since the pandemic.
Burnout has been a major problem in business for some time; However, it is alarming that so many young people report feelings of burnout in the early stages of their careers.
Understanding why so many young people are overwhelmed by work and what factors are fueling growing feelings of burnout is seen as key to helping the next generation of employees take their first steps in their careers.
RISING PRESSURE
Psychotherapist Kim Hollingdale, who specializes in burnout recovery at Pepperdine University in California, explains that the stress caused by the pandemic is leading to higher burnout rates across generations.
But Hollingdale believes Gen Z has “the worst stressors” among employees right now; These include powerlessness at work, financial instability, the normalization of a culture of hectic and a lack of opportunities to relax.
He attributes the reason for this to the fact that Generation Z has the least “working capital”, i.e. less power to set limits and say no to the tasks assigned to them.
Brittany, 22, who works in the US in the professional services industry, says she feels pressure to perform which leads to feelings of overwork and burnout:
“I will say yes to everything and the later they want me, the later I will… I want to be seen as a hard worker. This makes me exhausted, I’m tired all the time. “
Hollingdale states that Gen Z is also stressed about money.
According to a 2021 survey by Deloitte, one of the world’s largest international accounting, tax and business advisory services, 41 percent of millennials and 46 percent of millennials feel constantly or mostly stressed about their finances.
Older workers face similar financial pressures early in their careers, but those pressures are more severe now, says Hollingdale: “The cost of living continues to rise faster than our salaries.”
For example, analysis of US Census data shows that median home prices increased 121 percent from 1960 to 2017, while median household income increased just 29 percent.
Today, workers’ wages are not increasing at the same pace due to rising inflation, while prices are rising around the world.
According to Hollingdale, Gen Z workers feel the pressure to put in extra work to get closer to milestones like paying their bills and owning a home, increasing the likelihood of burnout.
Microsoft’s latest Business Trend Index, released in March 2022, shows that 70 percent of Gen Z respondents are considering earning extra income through a side project in the next year.
“They quit the job they’re working towards for their aspired career plan and instead of resting, they take on side jobs to make some extra money,” explains Hollingdale.
These extra pursuits like entrepreneurship and content creation are becoming more common and even more attractive to Gen Z. However, the link between overtime and burnout has been documented by research.
Constantly spending time in front of the screen can also make the problem worse. Generation Z is also more likely to use social media during their downtime. Some studies show that this age group spends 4.5 hours a day on social media (almost an hour more than millennials). This can make it even harder to ignore the job alerts that pop up all the time.
Brittany says she is unable to be unavailable outside of business hours. He says he sometimes gets job requests late because he works with clients in different time zones, and that he feels pressured to keep working when he sees his boss is still working:
“I don’t want to look like I’m slacking off, I don’t put a lot of effort into the job.”
PANDEMIC EFFECT
In addition to these general stressors, Generation Z is also facing the challenges associated with the pandemic and the changes in business life that it has brought with it.
According to Peter Caven, a Toronto-based careers coach specializing in young professionals, many Gen Z workers have started work during the pandemic and are limited to remote work or a mix of office and online work trusted.
“It’s very difficult to get people into a new organization and to build and maintain effective relationships within the organization for that person,” says Caven, while everyone else is working from home. This isolation can lead to fatigue and burnout.
While there are homeworkers from every generation, all pre-zen generations have had the experience of spending face-to-face time with co-workers before the pandemic. Caven notes that mid-career professionals, even if they’ve just started a new job in the midst of the pandemic, are more comfortable with starting a new job, making it easier to integrate into a new company remotely.
This experience can also help older professionals draw stricter boundaries between work and personal life. Research by US computer technology company Oracle in 2020 shows that 66 percent of full-time Gen Z workers in the pre-pandemic workforce worked longer hours than other generations compared to pre-Covid-19.
IS optimism POSSIBLE?
There’s not much Gen Z employees can do about factors that increase their sense of burnout, like financial instability or a screen-centric culture.
However, it can be ensured that they are more aware of burnout and willing to talk about it. Compared to older generations, the Asana report shows that Generation Z are more comfortable talking to their bosses about their feelings of burnout.
According to Hollingdale, the growing problem of burnout among Gen Z could lead to improvements in the way we work, “For example, more attention can be paid to workplace health and the work environment can be revolutionized to prevent burnout for these workers and others. “
However, young workers are not so optimistic.
With the widespread use of remote work, quite a few believe that burnout is inevitable for Gen Z.
Brittany plans to take a long break from her busy job and venture into a completely different field.
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