Nearly 3.2 million working people, salaried or not, present a major risk of making a burnout, this work-related emotional and psychic exhaustion syndrome. The drama is that it can lead to the worst: wanting to end life to silence the suffering felt.
“This inner burn takes one by one the forces, the desires of life and gradually transforms people into ghostly beings”, reports Dr. François Baumann, author of “Burn-out, when work makes you sick (ed. J. Lyon).
Among the top jobs at risk, according to a study by Technologia (2014): farmers (23.5%), craftsmen, traders, business leaders and executives (19.7%), teachers, caregivers (nurses, doctors), sales representatives (hotline, counter), and workers (13.2%).
In question, the pressures to produce more and faster, the lack of personnel, the fear of unemployment which pushes to hold on at all costs and the constant porosity between the office and the private sphere, because of new technologies.
Depression and burnout are different
“Burn-out has depressive elements, associated with three dimensions: an emotional exhaustion which leads to a feeling of inner emptiness, where you no longer feel anything pleasant, explains Professor Charles-Siegfried Peretti, head of the psychiatry department of the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris. The previous professional motivation disappears. Then, a kind of depersonalization takes place. People no longer have the same affects as before towards their colleagues: they put themselves in a bubble, as if at a distance from their environment, while they are immersed in it.”
Finally, the lack of accomplishment at work is compounded by frustration, a feeling of injustice and a drop in self-esteem.
Warning signs not to be overlooked
tiredness, anxiety, sleeping troublesincreased heart rate at rest, digestive disorders, physical pain, irritability with, in parallel, a deterioration in relations with colleagues, family tensions, a tendency to isolation and/or a poor lifestyle (alcohol, junk food).
“Some personalities are more vulnerable: the fighters, perfectionists, loving challenges, giving themselves body and soul in their work, as well as people dependent on what others think and the worried, nervous, emotional, specifies Professor Charles-Siegfried Peretti Their Achilles’ heel is to become exhausted at work, when the imagined return on investment does not meet their expectations (recognition, job development, ideal image of themselves, etc.).”
The ways to get out
So as not to be totally exhausted, the work is long and complex. We start by getting away from the stressful world via a work stoppage. Then, on a case-by-case basis, it goes either through behavioral and cognitive therapy to get out of erroneous work-related thought patterns, or through psychotherapy.
It is essential to learn to control stress (yogamindfulness meditation), personal activities, exercise.
Medication is sometimes necessary (anxiolytic, antidepressant, etc.). And also change his working conditions.
The occupational physician. Contacting him is the first instinct to have. It is subject to professional secrecy and does not transmit anything to the employer.
Hospital stress relief services. At the Sainte-Anne hospital in Paris, a consultation dedicated to suffering at work for women was created by Dr. Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve.
Corporate stress management courses. They are part of the professional training of employees and are therefore financed. Contact its human resources department (HRD). The French Institute for Action on Stress offers several courses of this type (www.ifas.net).
