The Three Types Of Burnout, And How They Differ

Burnout is real, and you’ve probably experienced it before (if you aren’t experiencing it now). The Association for Psychological Science points out that there are three main varieties of burnout — each with different symptoms and different solutions.

Photo by John Lambert Pearson

They describe the three types of burnout:

Overall, the results indicated that overload burnout — the frenetic employee who works toward success until exhaustion — is most closely related to emotional venting. These individuals might try to cope with their stress by complaining about the organizational hierarchy at work, feeling as though it imposes limits on their goals and ambitions. That coping strategy, unsurprisingly, seems to lead to a stress overload and a tendency to throw in the towel.

Burnout that stems from boredom and lack of personal development, on the other hand, is most closely associated with an avoidance coping strategy. These under-challenged workers tend to manage stress by distancing themselves from work, a strategy that leads to depersonalization and cynicism — a harbinger for burning out and packing up shop.

The final type of burnout — the worn-out subtype — seems to stem from a coping strategy based on giving up in the face of stress. Even though these individuals want to achieve a certain goal, they lack the motivation to plow through barriers to get to it.

Identifying which kind of burnout you feel can help you cope with it better. Our guide to burnout is a good start, but depending on which type of burnout you’re suffering from can help you target the solution a bit better. Hit the link to read more.

Burnout Comes in Three Varieties [Association for Psychological Science via 99u]