Outmoded workplace design is being blamed for figures showing almost half of employees worldwide believe they are burnt out.
A paper, published today by researchers in Denmark and the UK, says that, for many people, work is a “machine-like focus on producing, performing and optimizing”.
“The system keeps moving – often with little concern for the human energy, attention and resilience required to keep it running,” the paper says.
“Over time, this can lead to stress, ill-health, disengagement and burnout.”
Authors Christine Ipsen from the Technical University of Denmark and Maria Karanika-Murray from the University of Leicester are proposing a new approach to work, known as “circular work”.
They say that almost half of employees worldwide believe they are currently suffering burn out. Nearly three-quarters of US workers report that workplace stress affects their mental health.
“Exhaustion isn’t a personal failing – it’s built into the system,” the paper says.
“Indeed, this way of organising work is not accidental. It has deep roots in how modern workplaces were designed.”
Professors Ipsen and Karanika-Murray say much of the thinking driving contemporary workplaces dates back to the 1800s when workplaces developed a strict focus on performance and goals.
“While organisational psychology highlights motivation, engagement and well-being as drivers of performance, it often overlooks a crucial issue: what happens to people’s time, energy, skills and relationships once they are spent at work?,” the authors write.
“Many models of work assume these human resources are limitless, focusing on outputs rather than what is left behind.
“But without opportunities to recover and regenerate, this way of working leads to depletion, disengagement and ultimately burnout.”
The authors are proposing a new approach to work, known as circular work.
“Circular work flips the usual logic,” the paper says.
“Instead of treating people’s time, energy and skills as resources to be consumed, it sees work as a cycle – where effort is matched with recovery, learning and renewal.”
Circulate work is built around four ideas.
- All human work resources are connected – energy, skills, knowledge and relationships affect each other
- It is possible to recover and regenerate spent work resources – rest, support, and learning help employees bounce back
- Work can build or drain resources – how work is designed determines whether people thrive or are thwarted
- Sustainable work grows from protected and renewed resources – investing in well-being and development helps to sustain people and organisations.
“The idea of renewing people’s energy and skills can sound radical in today’s target-driven work culture,” the authors say.
“But renewal isn’t a luxury. It starts with a simple truth: people are not infinite or endlessly replaceable. Put simply, human needs and well-being have to sit at the centre of how work is organised.”
Professors Ipsen and Karanika-Murray say organisations need to ask hard questions about the true impact of management practices.
They believe rewarding managers and teams who protect well-being reduces stress, retains talent and makes organisations places people want to work.
The full paper is available here.
