By Tiffanie Rodricks
The World Health Organisation has identified burnout due to a continuously fast paced work environment as an occupational concern (Kurado & Yamamoto, 2018).
Jobs often tend to be advertised as giving people the opportunity to ‘thrive under pressure’, or ‘work in a fast paced environment’, as if they are a good thing. Although some amount of stress may be useful for an individual to succeed in the short term (eustress), prolonged stress can have negative effects on the individual. With the likelihood of giving rise to physical and mental issues such as depression, anxiety, heart related issues and can also detoriate a person’s memory.
However a lot of people during the course of the pandemic were faced with the fear of being laid off and as a result had to work an increasing number of hours and start doing multiple people's jobs who had already been let go by the company. Which resulted in burnouts due to contant pressure at work and lack of a work-life balance. Further resulting in a decrease in an individual's productivity.
Companies should instead strive to provide better healthcare facilities for their employees, make available at least one nutritious meal a day to their employees free of cost, flexible working hours, parental leave, recreational areas and employability assistance programs for employees and their dependents (Panigrahi, 2016).