Is it burnout or something else?
2023.11.08
How often have you witnessed or experienced ...
... hypocrisy at work?
- Being told something is a priority but having to execute it in a chronically under-resourced manner.
- Hearing a “family first” refrain but being expected to meet deadlines no matter what.
- "Wellness" is promoted but workloads aren’t adjusted to be realistic.
- DEI is proclaimed as being important but diverse, dissenting, and other perspectives aren’t actually welcomed or taken into account.
- Being asked for your candid feedback but in an environment that objectively doesn’t have psychological safety or via surveys with results that are routinely ignored.
... unfairness at work?
- Managers tolerating an individual’s poor performance.
- Not having a systematic approach to promotions and bonuses so “favorites” advance while others have little chance.
- Job offers being rescinded or having the terms changed at the last minute.
- Promotions or other opportunities being intentionally dangled but never coming to fruition.
... downright hostility at work?
- Bad behavior like bullying or harassment that goes unchecked or receives only a token reprimand.
- Retaliation or ostracizing for whistleblowing, bringing up an unpopular or inconvenient fact, or raising the issue of hypocrisy or unfairness.
And maybe some readers have even been in a situation where they found themselves being pressured to behave in a way that crossed their own line, was fully fraudulent, or legal but very questionable.
The Consequences
If you’re working in an organization that routinely tolerates hypocrisy, unfairness, or hostility – or if you’ve been pushed over and over to cross ethical lines – you might start to feel burned out.
Except it might not really be burnout in the classic sense.
You see, there is a commonality in the above examples. They each illustrate a violation or betrayal of trust, a person’s core values, conscience, or morals.
And on a one-off basis, those examples bother us, but we move on.
But when we witness or experience even “small” violations or betrayals over and over and over, we experience actual psychological harm. And unchecked psychological harm can have impacts on our physical well-being over time.
If not burnout, what?
The term for this is moral distress or moral injury and it might apply to at least 25% of people reporting work-related burnout1.
Disambiguating burnout from moral distress/injury is important because you don’t overcome them in the same manner. Becoming well-rested or learning to proactively manage stress doesn’t cut it when it comes to healing from moral distress/injury.
A very brief history of Moral Distresss/Injury
- In the eighties, moral distress was discussed in the context of healthcare, specifically with nurses and ethical dilemmas.
- In the mid-1990s, moral injury was coined to refer to high-stakes military situations where someone in authority takes action or makes orders that “cross a line” or “just aren’t right”.
- Outside of the military context, the term continued to be applied in the healthcare sector and was also applied in social work, first responders, and other occupations with high-stakes situations where people were at risk of being harmed (including passively by withholding needed assistance) physically, psychologically, or economically.
- In the last several years (i.e., 2020+), moral injury has been increasingly evident in everyday-stakes workplace situations. There are many conjectures that the pandemic made the phenomenon more widespread, outside of the traditional sectors.
Note: If it were up to Burnout Proof Leaders, we’d use moral injury for life-and-death stakes situations (like war and healthcare) and moral distress for transgressions in a more “corporate” setting. However there doesn’t seem to be consensus at this time out in the wild so use the term that suits you; moral injury seems a bit more popular at the moment.
Treatment of “Corporate” Moral Distress
Healing moral distress from witnessing/perpetuating transgressions in the regular workplace typically requires either the violations/betrayals stop happening (i.e., the organization makes some changes) or the individual proactively removes themselves from that environment (i.e., quitting their job). Time often does the rest, but sometimes therapy is beneficial.
Healing moral injury from witnessing/perpetuating frontline trauma often requires holistic mental health treatment that addresses PTSD as well. It is well outside the scope of Burnout Proof's expertise to comment on.
Gut Check for Leaders
Which of the example hypocrisies, unfairnesses, or hostilities have you been complicit in perpetuating either yourself or have happened on your watch? How have you justified them to yourself?
If you are certain that moral distress isn’t a part of your team or organizational domain, what makes you certain? What evidence do you have?
For Coaches
It can be beneficial to probe clients’ situations to understand whether it is regular burnout, moral distress/injury, or a combo. The path forward is different if moral distress/injury is in play.
And at the very least, sometimes it helps for your clients to know that there is a term for what they are experiencing. Naming things often gives a sense of control.
1According to researcher Ludmila Praslova,Ph.D. in “Feeling distressed at work? It might be more than burnout.” Fast Company. January 14, 2022.
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