Jaclyn Margolis Describes Day-to-Day and Enduring Burnout in Psychology Today

Some people believe the defining characteristic of being successful is wearing exhaustion like a badge of honor. However, research demonstrates burnout and fatigue accumulate over time. In Psychology Today, contributing author and Pepperdine Graziadio Business School faculty member Jaclyn Margolis explains the difference between daily and enduring burnout. 

According to Margolis, recent research shows employees’ feelings of exhaustion, burnout, and engagement fluctuate around 30 percent from day to day. Long-term, stable, and systematic factors, including organizational policies and societal norms, represent much of the rest. In other words, daily actions have an impact, but factors that take longer to change do too. Exhaustion is not always an individual problem, but resides in society’s glorification of long work hours, especially here in the United States. To manage, Margolis recommends a toolbox of potential options (e.g., mindfulness exercises and goal setting). She also writes there are many times that some tools won’t work -- thriving and surviving may require different tools from the toolbox.

The full article is available on Psychology Today.