Burnout it literally means "Burned", "melted", is a reaction of psycho-emotional exhaustion to excessive workloads, physical but above all psychological.
It is a disease that mainly affects those working categories in which there is a very high relational investment such as, for example, the welfare professions.
What are the symptoms?
The symptoms encountered are both psychic and physical. People affected by Burnout lose interest in work and the people they work with, suffer a strong fall in self-esteem and a collapse of physical energies, becoming apathetic and pouring out their dissatisfaction even in the emotional sphere.
Physically there is loss of sleep and appetite, gastrointestinal disturbances, central nervous system and loss of sexual desire. The causes of this syndrome can be many and not always easily identifiable to non-expert eyes.
What is the main cause?
Surely the main cause is the excessive workload, followed by the lack of autonomy, the difficulty in relating with colleagues, insufficient work resources and a status of work isolation with prolonged working hours. Alongside these purely organizational factors, there are others of an individual nature which vary from person to person.
Who are the people most prone to Burnout?
The most prone to Burnout are the sensitive, empathic, idealistic and anxious people, those who have great initial aspirations often due to an idealization of work and those who are committed to responding strongly to people's needs. All this translates into a perhaps of social and occupational destruction, people are no longer motivated to go to work and even their personal life loses its importance, sometimes resulting in destructive behavior towards themselves and others.
What solutions?
The solution is fundamentally linked to the company system that must take care of the worker by involving him in the work organization. It is important that employers develop one strong empathy towards its employees, in order to understand their personalities, their inconveniences and their difficulties.
