Author: Burnout A Pervasive Problem In The Workplace

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - On Talk Radio 1210 WPHT, Rachel Feintzeig spoke with Chris Stigall about her article in the Wall Street Journal, 'Feeling Burned Out At Work, Join The Club,' saying that work place attitudes are changing in regards to how companies are dealing with burn out from rejecting the complaint to taking it more seriously.

"I had folks tell me, even five years ago, that's kind of the attitude that CEO's had, that it was a problem with the individual, people needed to just suck it up and get over it, but that there's been a bit of a realization that this is a real business problem."

Feintzeig stated burnout progresses through stages until workers are questioning what they're doing.

"A researcher told me that there's three elements to it. The first is just total emotional and physical exhaustion. The second is a cynicism about work. The third is this larger questioning, like 'why am I even doing this? What is the point?' It eventually ends up with you being numb and apathetic."

She makes the case that the issue is omnipresent in most workplaces.

"I think it's really widespread. I think that's the idea. Years ago, there were set, extreme jobs. You were a litigator or you were a medical resident in training to be a doctor and you expected to be on call all the time, super high pressure. These days, someone told me, everyone's job is an extreme job. It's become pervasive."

Feintzeig says businesses will need to find new ways of dealing with burnout because of the cost in turnover.

"It's super expensive because you have to go out and find someone else and that takes a lot of time. In the meantime, there is no one doing the job and you're, potentially, even burning out more people because there's more work to go around. There was a study among HR professionals that showed that burnout is driving a huge share of turnover."