{"id":47471,"date":"2022-01-07T08:11:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-07T14:11:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stress.org\/?p=47471"},"modified":"2024-04-06T06:31:08","modified_gmt":"2024-04-06T06:31:08","slug":"opinion-american-workplace-culture-is-burning-us-out","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.stress.org\/news\/opinion-american-workplace-culture-is-burning-us-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Opinion: American Workplace Culture is Burning Us Out"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Original post The Columbia Chronicle<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"\"
Vivian Jones<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Not long ago, my education took\u00a0a back seat to my job.\u00a0\u00a0I was working almost full-time as a server at Buffalo Wild Wings and nannying\u00a0on the side to pay my expenses, all while taking nine college credit hours.\u00a0I was lost and behind. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and I lost my\u00a0serving\u00a0job.<\/p>\n

Initially, that was stressful, but fortunately, I received government aid \u2014 and each day, I woke up with relief because I did not have to attend to a job I hated. I found joy in activities that my job and school had not left time for.<\/p>\n

I had finally found what I was yearning for \u2014 time. I had time to cook, read, garden, bike, and learn more about the world. I reconnected with myself. I began to enjoy life.<\/p>\n

All of these experiences\u00a0told me that our country has a problem with work\u2014a problem with being overworked\u00a0and a religion of working endless hours. Weekends\u00a0are not\u00a0really weekends\u00a0when\u00a0we just work through them, and sixty hours of work or more a week is exhausting.<\/p>\n

My mental and physical state was affected as a result of overworking myself over the past four years.\u00a0I felt the effects and developed extreme anxiety and clinical depression. I lost weight and had trouble sleeping.<\/p>\n

According to an article published by\u00a0The American Institute of Stress<\/a>,\u00a0<\/strong>work-related stress causes 120,000 deaths and results in\u00a0$190 billion in health care costs each year. The article also said\u00a0Americans are among the most stressed people in the world, and that stress has started creeping in at younger ages and now\u00a0presents a bigger global problem than it had been two or three decades prior.<\/p>\n

We have a window of tolerance for stress, said Pam Bult, a therapist at Heritage Professionals. There is a positive aspect of\u00a0being exposed to the workforce and its accompanying stress early in life: You are more prepared for long hours later.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have more skin in the game,\u201d Bult said. \u201cBut high stress over a longer period of time can result in a shorter fuse.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meg Quinn is a junior art history major, who works at Cadence Kitchen & Co. as a server.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is important for me to work because the cost of a degree has grown so much,\u201d Quinn said.<\/b>\u00a0\u201cWork-life balance is definitely difficult, and adding schoolwork into the mix adds more stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The COVID-19\u00a0pandemic has only made our stress levels worse. According to a survey done by\u00a0Ohio State\u2019s office of the Chief Wellness Officer<\/a>, burnout among their student body was up to 71% in the spring as opposed to 49% that was reported in the fall of 2020, and in a report published by\u00a0USA Today<\/a>\u00a0on Oct. 13, it was said\u00a04.3 million people quit their jobs in August.<\/p>\n

The report by USA Today\u00a0also noted that Robert Reich, professor at the University of\u00a0California, Berkeley, and a\u00a0former U.S. secretary of labor, wouldn\u2019t call the situation a labor shortage.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a living wage shortage, a hazard pay shortage, a childcare shortage, a paid sick leave shortage, and a health care shortage,\u201d he wrote\u00a0on Twitter<\/a>. \u201cAmerican workers are rising up to demand better treatment.\u201d<\/p>\n

People are fed up.<\/p>\n

At one point, I considered dropping out of college due to the weight of my burnout fatigue. I was\u00a0creating high expectations for myself \u2014 most were unrealistic, and I compared myself to other students, which took a strong toll on my mental health.<\/p>\n

My father, Thomas Tylka, worked downtown as a bike messenger and mailroom clerk when he attended the University of Illinois Chicago 25 years ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made decent money but still struggled doing everything,\u201d Tylka said.\u00a0\u201cBut that is what life is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t work-life balance be part of the American lifestyle?<\/p>\n

Feeling burned out earlier in life seems to be a given, and that is what is most concerning to me.<\/p>\n

How can we stop working so hard? We could start with checking in with our own mental health, and companies and educational institutions can contribute to this by offering more mental health days and having more open discussions on the social aspect of what it means to be \u201csuccessful.\u201d<\/p>\n

We need to stop comparing ourselves to others, setting the bar too high and taking on too much for ourselves to handle. At just 23, I am tired. If we keep working the way we do, we might risk a lot more in our future than just our jobs.<\/p>\n

Original post\u00a0<\/a><\/div>\n
\n

By\u00a0Caitlin Tylka<\/a>, Guest Contributor<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Original post The Columbia Chronicle Vivian Jones Not long ago, my education took\u00a0a back seat to my job.\u00a0\u00a0I was working almost full-time as a server at Buffalo Wild Wings and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":45489,"menu_order":0,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"pmpro_default_level":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false},"categories":[139],"tags":[136,137,143,147,151],"class_list":["post-47471","news","type-news","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-life-blog","tag-ais","tag-american-institute-of-stress","tag-mental-health","tag-stress-management","tag-workplace-stress","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nOpinion: American Workplace Culture is Burning Us Out - The American Institute of Stress<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.stress.org\/news\/opinion-american-workplace-culture-is-burning-us-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Opinion: American Workplace Culture is Burning Us Out - 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