Burnout is taking the world by a storm: are you caught in it?

Students and professionals alike feel trapped by their inability to cope with burnout. What is burnout? What are the different types? How are they managed?

Oftentimes, students find themselves burnt out, but don’t know how to manage it. Illustration by Katelyn Lemon

By Josie Burnette

Oct. 7, 2024

Everybody has heard seniors announce their bad cases of “senioritis” and adults saying, “my job is burning me out.” The word "burnout" has become common in both professional and academic settings. Teachers use it, peers use it, and society uses it, warning you to be careful or you’ll “burn out before you graduate college.” The word is being overused and has started to lose its meaning. So, what is burnout? Is it avoidable, or an inevitable product of academic, athletic, occupational and societal pressures? 

Burnout is not a medical condition and should not be classified as so. The World Health Organization defines it as, “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The term "burnout" is exclusive to occupation, meaning work: whether it be academic, athletic or professional. Burnout is commonly confused with depression, as they can have similar symptoms; but while depression appears regardless of environment, burnout is strictly situational. 

There are four subtypes that fall under the term burnout: frenetic, under-challenged, worn-out, and misaligned. Each is determined by how you view your occupation and the causes of a negative mental shift towards that occupation.

Frenetic burnout can be identified by extreme “over-achievement” in academic, athletic or professional settings, but “underachievement” in other areas of life. People who acquire this type of burnout struggle with a lack of work-life balance. Those more prone to frenetic style burnout consider themselves to be highly ambitious, and as the person who regularly overwhelms themselves with work to do. Finding a life balance and embracing “quantity of quality” can help facilitate recovery, or prevent this kind of burnout.   

Under-challenged burnout is the only subtype that can be blamed on a person’s environment. Lack of challenge and absence of stimulation within one’s occupation result in mundane work and disinterest, causing unexpected exhaustion. This type of burnout is primarily career based, meaning that resolving it entails looking for different professional avenues.

Worn out burnout, also referred to as neglect burnout, occurs when a person is presented with disorganized, unstructured tasks that they struggle to approach resulting in a negative, "I can't do it" mentality. Tracing the causes of worn-out burnout can be difficult because its causes can range from flaws in occupational structure to environments that produce learned helplessness.

Misaligned burnout is directly related to a person’s occupation. Professionals who experience this type of burnout often find themselves engaging in career paths that don’t align with their values and passions. This explains why certain highly intelligent and talented people are unmotivated to complete certain tasks that they are capable of doing. The answer to this burnout is rather simple: ask yourself whether or not you are truly passionate about what you are doing. Your response should guide you to recovery.

Each of these types, however, can manifest similarly through emotions of exhaustion, the adoption of more cynical attitudes towards work, and decreases in productivity or efficiency, which is why identifying what type you have can be difficult. Even if you don’t currently believe yourself to have burnout, knowing your own personality and the different types of burnout can be helpful in preventing its development. Treating burnout is rather difficult due to its situational nature, and especially when, as a student, you are obligated to continue attending classes by law.

Burnout is avoidable to a certain extent. Taking measures to know yourself and the types of burnout your personality might be prone to is the first step to recovery. Is it an inevitable product of academic, athletic, occupational and societal pressures? Academic, athletic, occupational and societal pressures do produce certain types of burnout, and oftentimes these pressures are inevitable. By assessing exactly what those pressures are in your own life and addressing them in a way that works for you can help you evade burnout or respond to it.