Wellbeing | Does taking annual leave cure burnout?

Earlier this year burnout was recognised as a medical condition by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and from 2020 it will officially be identified in the International Classification of Diseases. While this has been classified as a growing issue among the workplace, employers may simply believe that increasing holiday allowances or urging staff to take time off can cure fatigue and corporate burnout. But this simply isn’t the case.

A number of factors all come into play when it comes to addressing employees’ wellbeing. From an organisation’s culture and workload to company perks and a lack of support and communication, all of which require specific attention from an HR department to ensure staff members are not on the verge of feeling burnt out.

Burnout is a specific workplace issue described as "a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed,” and in a Quartz article this year, writer Sarah Todd referred to a 2018 study by the American Psychological Association, which found that two-thirds of 1,500 US workers believed that the mental benefits of a holiday disappeared within a few days.

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Feeling exhausted? | This is the shocking truth about burnout

Leaving your job behind for a week or two can cause stress for a number of reasons; concerns that employees will miss emails and that work will pile up in their absence are just a few factors. This rings true with statistics from The Institute of Leadership & Management. In 2015, a survey of over 1,000 UK workers and managers found that almost one in five workers return from a holiday feeling more stressed than when they left. Meanwhile, shockingly it also found that 61% also work during their time off. It’s clear that encouraging staff members to take a well-earned break isn’t always the solution to combat burnout.