We’ve Talked About Burnout for Decades. Here’s How to Finally Solve It

What can you do to reduce burnout in your own life, and in your organization? The World Health Organization defined burnout as a workplace syndrome more than six years ago. It first included burnout in its catalog of workplace ills more than 30 years ago. Yet after all this time, we’re no closer to solving it.

“If we’re all having the same problem, why has no one figured it out yet?” An HR leader put that question to stress expert Paula Davis at a recent event, she writes in a piece for Psychology Today. In the piece, she takes a fascinating deep dive into what causes burnout and how to prevent it. Burnout isn’t a wellness problem to be solved with meditation and exercise classes, she explains, it’s a structural issue. Management needs to address it a strategic level. Her whole article is well worth reading. But in particular, she calls out one primary cause that she says is the most common.

An unsustainable workload

“You consistently have too much to do, and you feel like you’re treading water and at any moment you might sink,” Davis writes. “This is by far the biggest driver of burnout I see across industries.”

I think there’s a very simple, very deep-rooted reason. It’s how we define our jobs. We think of the parameters of a job in terms of the work that must be done. For example, a northeastern sales director might define that job as being responsible for all sales in that region. But what if you defined it instead as being responsible for as much of the northeastern sales as you can manage during a 40-hour work week?

It’s a radical concept, I realize. It runs counter to how jobs are defined pretty much everywhere. That’s especially true for startups, where both founders and employees routinely work extra-long hours, especially during the earliest days. But while that may be normal, it’s ultimately not sustainable. This may be why most startup employees report that working at their job is bad for their mental health.

Company founders are often happy to work extra-long hours in the startups that they love. But ultimately, that isn’t great for them either. Research shows that if you push yourself beyond the boundaries of a normal workload, your productivity and effectiveness will suffer. Worse, your judgment will too, because burnout can actually damage your brain. It can affect your cognitive function and your judgment. That may explain why we often see very smart, high-profile entrepreneurs from Travis Kalanick to Elon Musk make some bone-headed moves.

Limiting time at work will make you more productive

I’ve learned from interviews with thousands of high-powered founders and other executives, as well as from my own work life, that setting limits on how much you work will actually make you more successful, not less. That’s because it forces you to be ruthless in eliminating anything that takes up your time but doesn’t move you toward your goals. You become much more efficient during your work hours, in part because you’re less exhausted and better able to focus. Working reasonable hours allows for things like better sleep, better nutrition, more exercise, and more time with loved ones. Research shows that all these things will make you healthier and happier, which in turn will make you a better boss and generally better at your job.

This is why I propose the 1-2-48 Rule, a simple method to put reasonable boundaries around your work time. To follow the rule, make sure to take at least one day completely away from work out of every week, at least two weeks’ vacation every year, and avoid working more than 48 hours in any week. Research supports setting these limits as a way to preserve your productivity, as well as your happiness and health.

In these days of widespread layoffs, everyone is supposed to “do more with less.” Managers who are stretched thin themselves pile work that would have been done by laid-off employees onto their remaining work force. Those remaining employees, fearful of losing their own jobs, may feel they have no choice but to accept the extra work.

But it ultimately doesn’t work to expect your employees, or yourself, to complete more and more tasks just because there’s no one else to do them, and they seem to need doing. Putting guardrails around your work time won’t just help you avoid burnout before it happens, it will also help you see what’s truly essential and what isn’t.