Why your employees can love their jobs but still burn out

I recently gave 2 workshops on burnout and valuing the workforce at the British Medical Association’s Junior Members Forum in Bristol.

During the workshops we discussed how you can love your job and still be at risk of burnout.

This can be explained by something called the Motivation-Hygiene Theory, which states that the things that motivate us at work exist completely independently of the things that don’t (the so-called hygiene factors).

The things that motivate us at work include things like the work itself, opportunities for personal and professional growth, responsibility, and job status.

The hygiene factors that dissatisfy employees include things like salary, working conditions, the physical workspace, relationships with colleagues and seniors, and policies and rules.

In the burnout literature, hygiene factors are described as being like pebbles that grind us down over time. Hygiene factors are things that can be tolerated in small doses, but when they are big problems and/or consistent issues then that can lead to employees not feeling valued in the workplace- and this is a direct cause of burnout.

In medicine, without a doubt the job itself is incredibly satisfying and rewarding. Even though I have burnt out as a GP, I have never finished a day of work and thought that I hadn’t made a positive impact to someone’s life as a result of my input. But this alone was not enough to protect me from burnout. Prolonged stress at work caused by huge workload and not feeling valued became so overwhelming that loving the work itself was just not sufficient enough to protect my mental health.

If your organisation has a problem with burnout culture, then it is simply not sufficient to rely on the inherent rewards of the work itself to protect your employees from burnout.

If you would like me to help your organisation, you can email me on drclaireashley@gmail.com, or contact me via LinkedIn to find out more about my services.