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Worldwide, 615 million suffer from depression and anxiety and, according to a recent WHO study, which costs the global workforce an estimated $1 trillion in lost productivity each year. When Stanford researchers looked into how workplace stress affects health costs and mortality in the United States (pdf), they found that it led to spending of nearly $190 billion - roughly 8% of national healthcare outlays - and nearly 120,000 deaths each year.
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Since it was explicitly not classified as a medical condition, the case is less about liability for employers and more about the impact on employee well-being and the massive associated costs.
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The WHO then put out an urgent clarification stating, “Burn-out is included in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) as an occupational phenomenon, not a medical condition… reasons for which people contact health services but that are not classed as illnesses or health conditions.” You and Your Team Series StressĪlthough the WHO is now working on guidelines to help organizations with prevention strategies, most still have no idea what to do about burnout. In May, the WHO included burnout in its International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11) and immediately the public assumed that burnout would now be considered a medical condition. As the debate grows increasingly contentious, the most recent WHO announcement may have caused more confusion than clarity.
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The term “burnout” originated in the 1970s, and for the past 50 years, the medical community has argued about how to define it. Leaders take note: It’s now on you to build a burnout strategy. With “burnout” now officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO), the responsibility for managing it has shifted away from the individual and towards the organization. But evidence is mounting that applying personal, band-aid solutions to an epic and rapidly evolving workplace phenomenon may be harming, not helping, the battle. We tend to think of burnout as an individual problem, solvable by “learning to say no,” more yoga, better breathing techniques, practicing resilience - the self-help list goes on.
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