CNA Women’s Hidayah Salamat asks a former corporate lawyer and co-founder of an online mental health platform why women appear disproportionately more affected by burnout – and what we can do about it.
When Shilpa Jain was working as a corporate lawyer for a Melbourne firm several years ago, she received an email inviting her to an office party.
She began weeping uncontrollably when she saw yet another email, even one that seemed harmless.
Jain had been working late for months at a time, turning off her computer only around midnight.
Specifically, she was burned out.
She didn’t understand what she was going through at the time.
A SILENT “KILLER”
In medical literature, burnout is defined as a state of physical and emotional exhaustion caused by long-term chronic stress.
In particular, working mothers exhibit more symptoms of burnout than working fathers, according to research.
This year, McKinsey & Company launched the McKinsey Health Institute (MHI) to explore ways to improve life expectancy and quality of life.
According to its first survey of nearly 15,000 professionals and human resource decision makers, women showed more signs of depression than men.
