Who suffers more at work – women or men? Of course, it all depends on the scope of activities, and baseline mental health of the person and what we mean by suffering. However, the scientists were able to bring the situation to a common denominator and find the answer to this question.
“Women suffer more from work than men because employers do not give them sufficient powers”, – such conclusion was made during a new study conducted at the University of Montreal (Université de Montréal). In other words, the problem here is that women are less likely to receive leadership positions at work, which leads them to disappointment as work and their own abilities.
Aside from mental exhaustion, burnout can cause physical effects, such as insomnia and headaches, while prolonged stress associated with the work, increases the risk of heart disease. And this, incidentally, is true for both sexes.
“Our results show that in this question there are statistically significant differences between men and women, since the employees have different working conditions depending on their gender”, – quotes the words of the authors of the study the Daily Mail.
Data analysis showed that women burn out at work faster than men, but it has nothing to do with the main parameters of endurance, as one would assume. “Everything happens because of the nature of the work, explains the study’s lead author Nancy Beauregard (Beauregard Nancy). – Despite the fact that many women occupy positions involving a certain freedom in decision-making, their work still provides a low level of authority, and opportunities in General, as well as low involvement of their skills.”
Burnout, note the researchers, leads to lack of motivation, low efficiency and increasing the sense of helplessness. The financial cost of burnable employees is also high. One study, sosredotochena on this issue, shows that excessively tense the employees cost companies 150-300 billion dollars a year.
The study, published in the Annals of Work Exposures and Health, found that low self-esteem and increased family conflicts are the most common causes of burnout.
And what is interesting: the researchers add that the time that a woman spends on household chores, whether it’s washing dishes or buying products that can help her to avoid professional burnout. “This is one of the most surprising results of our study. We observed that many women use housework as a strategy to relax from work and demands that they present it,” says Dr. Beauregard.
However, the expert notes that in the long-term strategy can become a trap and lead to missed opportunities in terms of career advancement.
In men, the researchers found that factors that lead to professional burnout in their case, more complex and mainly related to time management. Frequent processing, mixed schedules or long working hours that often leads to an increase in the number of family conflicts and, consequently, affects the mental health of men.
