Many are on the verge of burnout at work – “I don’t think my mental health will last”

“Working life has hardened to the point that almost everyone will run out of strength at some point.”

This is how a 50-year-old woman who has held managerial positions answers Helsingin Sanomat’s survey about the exhaustion of working life.

Helsingin Sanomat asked on Monday, readers are asked if they feel stressed at work, if working life has become more stressful than before, and if they have experienced symptoms of burnout at work in recent years.

The Financial Times magazine reported on Monday how mental health problems are more visible in workplaces around the world.

More than 300 readers responded to HS’s survey, many of whom said they had experienced burnout or at least teetered on the edge of it – some of them are currently doing so. According to most respondents, working life has become tougher than before, especially in recent years.

The respondents’ experiences are from very different professions. The group includes both those working in expert positions and, for example, nurses, doctors, social workers and teachers.

We exceptionally use comments without names in the story, because it is about sensitive issues related to the respondents’ health and internal workplace matters.

Numerous the respondents told about bad work anxiety and sleepless nights. Some said the holidays were just for recovery.

A few respondents even dreamed of desperate ways to get some rest.

“I kept dreaming that I would hurt myself badly and have to take a long sick leave so that I wouldn’t have to go to work.” Woman, 39

“I am absolutely sure that the struggle will come to an end within a couple of years. I wish almost every day that the tram would have an accident on the way to work and I would be able to rest on sick leave.” Male, 36

Some of the respondents say that they have already experienced several burnouts in a short period of time. Also, not everyone has had time to fully recover from it before returning to work.

What is exhausting in Finnish working life right now?

According to the respondents, the reason is that working life has become more burdensome than before in recent years. Some draw the line to the corona pandemic.

For example, the Teams meetings that have become more common with it have made the days fuller than before. If before there were two meetings a day, now there are ten of them.

“After the corona virus, it is expected that if you are sick, you will participate, e.g. remotely sick to the meetings anyway. You can’t and won’t get sick. You have to be available all the time.” Woman, 50

Overall, the pace has accelerated in recent years, and the pressures have increased. Efficiency is exhausting when there are too few employees, a lot of meta work and too many meetings, the respondents say.

The employee is required to be more productive while reducing the conditions for it, writes a 47-year-old man who has already experienced burnout several times.

Some of the respondents report wild amounts of overtime. In some fields, overtime is a condition for doing well in the competition. Evenings are spent at work.

Also bad management has increased the load and caused burnout. Some suffer from micromanagement, others from too little management.

In expert positions, some respondents say that they have to bear too heavy a responsibility for their position, because superiors do not necessarily know very precisely what their subordinates do.

“It’s stressful and I’m burnt out. Working life has turned into mere survival. It’s a burden when you can’t get all the work done, but more comes all the time.” Woman, 47

A 30-year-old woman working as an expert, who has experienced three burnouts in less than ten years, also talks about the too hard demands. According to him, competition is so fierce everywhere that managers make unrealistic promises to customers without asking whether the creators will have time to fulfill them. And everything is done with as few resources as possible.

A 29-year-old woman who has experienced two burnouts also has similar experiences.

“I’m young, and I can’t take a stand on what working life used to be like, but the workload seems unreasonable in relation to what kind of productivity a person is really capable of. A person is not a machine, even if artificial intelligence is added to the mix.” Woman, 29

Also, the continuous cooperation and change negotiations have taken away the strength from many.

The 46-year-old man, who is currently suffering from symptoms of exhaustion, says that nowadays change negotiations are held at the workplace at least once a year, and every time you have to fear when the departure will hit you.

“I don’t think my mental health can handle going anywhere near retirement age like this, despite how well I try to take care of my own health,” he writes.

Fixed-term employment also causes exhaustion.

“Workplaces are no longer fun, but fierce competition. Everyone is trying to survive and keep their job, which you are constantly afraid of losing due to numerous organizational changes and union negotiations.” Woman, 50

“In working life, the biggest burden is constant change, often changes do not speed up or make work more efficient, but on the contrary make it more difficult. Often, new systems are introduced unfinished and then they are ‘developed’ along with the work.” Woman, 57

How could you survive working life without being exhausted?

Some of the respondents have received help by changing jobs or even fields. Some have stopped caring about work as much as before and focus on their own lives. Someone, on the other hand, says that they get strength from the meaning of the work, even though the work is heavy.

Of course, not everyone complains, some think that burnout is more about people’s weakness than about the job changing.