“As a starting employee, I feel extra pressure to prove that I am worth the money.” “We try to protect our borders. If we succeed, we will be judged negatively. If it doesn’t work, then we’re working too much – that’s not good either.”
These are statements that employees between the ages of 18 and 34 make in a recent research from TNO and the Central Bureau of Statistics. This shows that the number of young workers with burnout complaints is increasing: one in four young workers said they suffered from this last year. The severity of the complaints is also increasing. In 2015, young employees stayed home on average six days a week due to work-related burnout complaints, in 2018 this was already 7.4 and last year 9.1.
Complaints increased especially among middle and highly educated people and young women. TNO and CBS, which have conducted the survey annually since 2015 at the request of the Ministry of Social Affairs, point to performance pressure, constant accessibility and financial uncertainty as the causes.
A nuance is that the research consists of a survey – so it concerns self-reported complaints, and not diagnoses established by a doctor. But the number of diagnoses is also increasing, from 1.1 percent of all workers between the ages of 18 and 34 in 2014 to 1.5 percent in 2020.
How do employers deal with this? Do they notice that their young employees are more susceptible to burnouts, and what do they do to prevent this? A tour of employers, burnout experts and a labor sociologist.
High ambition level
For Marjolein Heijstraten, HR director at Deloitte (eight thousand employees, average age 33 years), the results of the research do not come as a surprise. Deloitte is one of the four companies in the so-called Big Four: consultancy firms Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG. “Many young people work in our industry and their ambition level is high,” says Heijstraten. Mental complaints are not new, but she does see that the age at which these complaints occur is changing. “What would have been older employees four or five years ago are now younger employees with mental complaints.”
Danielle van Alewijn, head of human resources at Swapfiets (1,200 employees, average age 28 years), is also not surprised by the results of the research. “I have been around for a few years and now see burnout complaints more often in young people.” This is especially the case at the head office, she says, where mainly theoretically trained people work. And less so at bicycle workshops, where people work with their hands.
Labor sociologist Fabian Dekker is not surprised by the increase in the number of mental work-related complaints. “We live in a meritocratic society: what you have achieved individually is considered especially important. In a work culture where the focus is not only on the team but also on the individual, there is automatically more competition and comparison.”
Moreover, he says, the labor market is intensifying. “Everything has to be just that little bit more efficient in a globally competitive world. As a result, we are creating a tired labor market. This is partly due to staff shortages, meaning the same work has to be done by fewer people, and partly due to company policy.”
Flexibility of the labor market also plays a role, he thinks. This creates financial uncertainty, and employees do not always feel valued. Four out of ten workers are flexible workers, according to it CBS. Compared to 2013, the number of flex workers has increased by more than 498,000 people. Dekker refers to one report from the Verwey-Jonker Institute, which conducts scientific research into social themes. “It is sometimes thought that young people like to work flexibly, but they still prefer a permanent contract, according to that study. Just a house-plant-animal.”
The developments he describes apply to the entire labor market – not just to young people. Why do they have burnout complaints more often? “You can’t really say whether this is due to their age or generation, as long-term research is lacking,” he says. “In the 1980s there was the highest youth unemployment we have ever had, around 20 percent. That was also accompanied by a lot of stress. Every generation has its own vulnerable group. However, the differences within generations are still greater than between generations.”
Also read
Get rid of your burnout in thirty days? ‘Ridiculous’
According to Dekker, the fact that highly educated people are more at risk is because they “enjoy their work so much that it becomes part of their identity. Burnout is more likely to occur there.” In his research into and with factory workers and pre-vocational secondary education students, he notices that these groups can separate work and private life much better.
And why are women more at risk? “Women,” he says, “have a stigma that they are not serious entrepreneurial workers. To compensate for this, they focus on constant accessibility and work extra hours. The uncertainty about whether you will be considered full is more important for women.”
Van Alewijn from Swapfiets sees that women put more pressure on themselves, also in the personal sphere. “I notice that women in their thirties think a lot about a permanent relationship and about who their best life partner is. Single women who want to have children enter a critical phase that can cause a lot of stress.” And then starting employees are also encouraged by those around them. “Others around you get promotions, do cool traineeships and work at successful companies. And there is also travel to be done. Everything has to be done and you see on social media that everyone’s life is perfect.”
Working from home
Van Alewijn also points out the new development surrounding working from home. She sees “too many” examples of people who have just left university and work from home four days a week. “It’s not a popular opinion, but it’s so important to come to the office.” Lack of support from colleagues and social contacts can make young homeworkers more vulnerable. Van Alewijn believes that the employer should make this a topic of discussion, otherwise this generation will miss everything that generations before it received. “Just ask a senior something quickly, someone who can look over your shoulder, that’s exactly where you grow in the first few years.”
Experienced employees therefore also have a role in this. “It is important that experienced employees realize that you are doing a disservice to young employees by choosing to work from home a lot,” says Van Alewijn.
“Today’s young employees look at work in a different way,” says Caroline Tervoort, HR director of KPMG Netherlands (4,000 employees, average age 34 years). Although many younger employees strongly link their identity to their job, she also sees a group that believes: there is more to life than work. And that also causes them more stress. “Sometimes they also have parallel careers, so they not only work at KPMG but also have their own company or do volunteer work.”
Rogier Thewessen, co-founder of youth employment agency YoungCapital (15,000 affiliated employees, average age 27 years) and flexible work platform YoungOnes, also sees a generational difference. Someone aged 25 and someone aged 55 will react differently to the idea of an entry-level position four days a week, he suspects. “The older generation thinks of work as long days and spending a lot of time in the office. Young people want to organize their own time and do other things in their lives.”
But young people also lack skills, he sees. According to him, there is a “Whatsapp generation”, which prefers to send a text message rather than pick up the phone. “But you must politely cancel your employer’s notice when you are ill.”
Co-founder of YoungCapital Hugo de Koning wrote LinkedIn: “Soft stuff doesn’t help with burnout. We need to educate young people better.” Work can actually be a remedy for searching young people instead of making them overstressed, he wrote. “Work is a place to build self-esteem. Where you can rise above yourself. To gain human knowledge. It is a place where you discover potential you never knew you possessed.” According to him, parents and employers must raise young people better. He writes: “I see parents handing out free gap years to twenty-somethings, who could also have been behind the counter thinking about their next step. Managers who do not dare to put limits on working from home.”
Therapist Pieter van Breevoort late on LinkedIn actually hear a different voice: that people often think in terms of what the younger generation still has to learn, “not what older colleagues may have to do themselves.” “Young professionals were often raised by parents who communicated more with their children than older generations. Talking about feelings and reflecting is more normal,” he writes. Yes, that “can indeed become navel-gazing.” But: “Questions from young employees are an opportunity to work more meaningfully and effectively. But then older people must be open to the idea that they themselves have something to learn.”
Coaching programs
Employers are dealing with burnouts among employees, the tour shows. KPMG’s Tervoort sees that this is also increasingly being asked of employers. KPMG has started offering workshops to employees on topics including good sleep and healthy nutrition. There is a fitness center in the main office. “We also offer accessible coaching programs outside the organization via the OpenUp platform, where employees can talk to a psychologist about, for example, private-work balance.”
Managers are also trained to recognize signals of stress. Tervoort: “When you are young you often do not have the life experience to be able to put things into perspective. Employers cannot expect people with little experience to recognize risk signals in themselves.”
Heijstraten from Deloitte says that the company offers many programs to employees regarding mental well-being, including yoga classes. At Deloitte they also work with the OpenUp platform. Yet it is difficult for employers to deal with burnout complaints, Van Alewijn from Swapfiets outlines. “You don’t know whether someone in the workplace is wearing a mask and pretending to be.” Social media, which are widely used by young people, sometimes makes things extra complicated. “If an employee is at home with a burnout, but shows on social media that they are having coffee with a friend, this can cause misunderstanding among colleagues who are at work. As an employer, you suddenly have to explain to the team that this may be part of the recovery.”