“Well, look, bad.” If we were honest, this would be the standard answer to the most frequently asked question these days in offices across half of Spain. We are doing badly, perhaps because yesterday we were doing very well. We have exchanged the mystery novel for hundreds of mails without reading, the paella in place of the Tupperware, and the beach chair in place of the ergonomic office chair. We return with a good colour and a bad face. Tanned but sunburned.
Psychologists describe the burnout Burnout syndrome is a persistent feeling of exhaustion and alienation from work. The WHO considers it a work-related phenomenon, not a mental illness. This does not mean that it is less important, but that it is not due to an internal condition of the person suffering from it. It is not you, it is your boss. Reports from this same organization It is estimated that 12 billion days of work are lost each year due to depression and anxiety, costing the global economy nearly a trillion dollars. Not all cases are so extreme; there are people who are not burned out, who are not depressed, who simply do not want to work. And that is normal.
It is often said that we return from vacation with our batteries charged, but stress management does not work that way. And if we were to accept the analogy as valid, we should emphasize that the battery runs out quite quickly. A meta-analysis published in the magazine Journal of Occupational Health The study found that vacations slightly reduced burnout and work-related ailments. But the effects of vacations eroded as soon as people set foot in the office, disappearing completely within two to four weeks. The study also found that the benefits of vacation time are not related to its duration. “This finding makes it clear that the quality of vacation time may be more important than the quantity of vacation time,” she explains. Oliver Weigeltpsychologist and professor at the University of Groningen (Netherlands).
Weigelt, who was not involved in the study, says there is a minimum number of days before we notice a change, as “the benefits of the first week of vacation are more pronounced.” The perfect dose also depends on what we focus on. A recent study with teachers found that symptoms of anxiety and depression decreased during the first week and even the second. They then remained stable. In contrast, emotional exhaustion continued to decrease until the fourth week.
Given this evidence, many experts say that it is best to space out holidays in blocks of about ten days throughout the year. They believe that… “I would take a slightly different position,” Weigelt interrupts. “A long summer holiday can have unique benefits, giving the possibility of doing extraordinary activities that we cannot do in a few days, for example, crossing the Alps by bike.”
Weigelt participated in a recent holiday rehearsal with an eloquent title: All I want for Christmas is Recovery. In it, he analysed the mood of 145 employees from five weeks before Christmas until mid-March. And he found that the results were not the same for everyone. “The decline in well-being after the holidays was less pronounced for some people than for others,” he explains. So his team began to investigate, to find the formula for routine happiness. “We saw that it is about adopting a series of adaptive recovery habits or routines. These were people who relaxed more during the weekends. Incorporating the quality of the holidays into daily work life is key. Micro-breaks, socialising, taking walks in the park after lunch…”
The health benefits of vacation go beyond the psychological. A study linked taking few holidays with the long-term risk of cardiovascular disease and premature mortality. The same direction was pointed out Another study from the University of Helsinki who began following the lives and habits of 2,700 businessmen (no women) in 1974. They were 47 years old on average. During the 26-year follow-up period, 778 men died. Analyzing their lifestyle habits, the scientists concluded that “shorter vacations were associated with longer work hours, higher body mass index, increased coffee consumption, and poorer sexual health.” And finally, as a consequence of all this, with a higher mortality rate.
Kira Schabram, a professor at the University of Washington, has the solution to this problem. Don’t work. Schabram is the author of a Research published in 2023 on the benefits of sabbaticalsIt is not surprising to find that all 50 interviewees described the experience as positive and life-changing. The study shows some diversity in terms of gender, age and race, but when looking at the CVs of the participants, something stands out. They all have university degrees, they all have middle or managerial positions. They are all privileged.
“First of all, yes, you are right,” Schabram said in an exchange of messages. “Not everyone can afford to take a year off work. But the conclusions of her study, she argues, are valid for any worker. It is interesting to know what would happen, even in a hypothetical world, if we stopped working for a year. After three months, the changes in the health and mood of the former worker are much more powerful than those of a simple vacation, she explains. In some cases, she points out, they are changes that define a life, that reorient a career.
Schabram has been studying workplace health and psychology for decades, and for those who can’t afford to just walk away from their jobs, she has some advice, too. The first is to try to never get into a situation of burnout or burnoutbecause in this case, he explains, prevention works better than correction. “The good news is that even small things seem to help.”
But how do you know if you are suffering from a situation of burnout? One of the promoters of the term, Christina Maslach, Professor at the University of Berkley, explains in a telephone conversation: “It is an experience that responds to chronic stressors in the workplace. It is not necessarily a dramatic thing, but it is annoying and constant. It is like having stones in your shoe, and day after day they hurt until you can no longer walk.” During the holidays, says the expert, we can enjoy and relax, but when we return, when we put our shoes back on, the stones are still there. “These days off do not solve the problem. They are nice because they serve to catch up on other things, pay the bills, enjoy free time, fix the house, go visit your parents… To get your life back,” she says. But when you return to your routine, the problem is still there.
Maslach began to see that there was something wrong with wo
rk in the 1970s. He conducted a series of interviews with workers who seemed alienated, exhausted and angry. He always ended the questions by trying to put a name to what was happening to them. Was it dehumanization and self-defense? No. Detachment from work? Not exactly…Burnout“Yes, yes, that’s exactly it,” all the patients told him. That was what he called his study. Maslach tried to publish it in the scientific journals of the time, but the topic was not interesting, they rejected it. A journalist friend told him to try a commercial magazine. “This happens to ordinary workers, I’m sure that if ordinary people read it, someone will identify with it,” she told him. That’s exactly what happened. Maslach’s phone did not stop ringing in the following days. The television channels echoed this idea. burnout It was pop. “There was no internet back then, but it was the equivalent of going viral,” the psychologist explains with a smile.
Maslach was aware that the term became popular because many people were in the same situation. He thought that this awareness would serve to stop it. But it did not happen. In recent years, despite advances in labor rights, the situation has not improved. “One of the main obstacles is that we raise the issue of burnout “We see it as an individual problem,” the expert reflects. “And so we look for individual solutions. Why don’t you rest? Why can’t you endure it more? Why don’t you take it in another way? And so we are not dealing with the problem. We are not detecting the cause. The question we should be asking is not who is suffering from it, but why is it suffered.”
In recent years there has been less talk about burnout labor. But this is good news. In the conversation it has been replaced by another more global concept, the great exhaustion. It was given the name by journalist Carl Newport when he emerged from the pandemic, when he discovered a society in which everyone is tired, burned out, and feeling like they don’t have enough time to live. In this context, people are looking to reestablish their relationship with work and prioritize their personal life. It doesn’t seem like a vacation can stop this trend. But at least it provides a happy break from routine.
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