Why is Burnout so prevalent?

Millennial burnout is the very apparent situation most young people seem to be facing in the post-COVID world. While normally associated with employment, there are several other aspects of life that can increase Gen Zs and Millennials to feel burnt out. With Millennials turning to social media and the impending recession looming over the months ahead, why is burnout affecting so many young people?

Job Hunting

Many Millennials live by the fact they need to love what they do for work, and if they don’t then they need to keep looking. However, this pressure generally comes from wanting a job they can brag about to their friends and one that will impress their parents, while finding a job from a passion often leads to being underpaid (Petersen 2021). As a result, many Millennials spend their time moving between jobs until they find the one they're passionate about. Jumping from job to job can lead to burnout, but so can the step in between: the job hunt. The job hunt can be a full time job in itself, but with less fruitful returns. When millennials aren't succeeding at finding their desired jobs or landing interviews, it can be easy to get depressed with the search. Studies have proven that the stress of searching for a job can lead to long term mental health issues (Petersen 2021).

Social Media

In this digital age, many of us are turning to social media for many hours of the day, often being the first thing and last thing we do in our day. Despite the benefits social media can bring as a modern and instant form of communication, it can lead to overexposure and ultimately burnout for many Millennials. There's no secret that overexposure to social media can drain us physically and emotionally, and Millennials are not immune from this. Smartphones and social media are addictive, and for most do not allow the user to destress and recharge. Despite the fact that social media offers a range of features, when users are stressed out, they remain on these sites to “de-stress” but in reality are contributing to the problem (Petersen 2021). This overexposure to social media often means an overexposure to the lives of others, whether that be people you know or celebrities. Seeing only the positives of other people’s lives, as is so often portrayed on social media, of trips, promotions and displays of wealth can make the unemployed Millennial feel unworthy or full of self-doubt. When this self-doubt begins to manifest, Millennials often feel undervalued and worry about how their life is so dissimilar to those they see online. Research has shown that those aged 18-29 have the highest rate of social media usage, crossing both Generation Z and Millennials, who also have the highest rates of burnout (Petersen 2021).

Cost of Living Crisis

Possibly one of the biggest issues facing most people right now is the cost of living crisis - with bills increasing, and inflation and taxes rising, many people are starting to feel the effects. Current estimates predict cost of living pressures will get worse before they get better, and will not stabilise until 2024 (Huffpost 2022). Many recent articles have spoken about the rising cost of living, discovering that around 51% of Gen Zs and Millennials worry they will not be able to cover the costs of their monthly bills and rent. As a result, around 40% of these younger generations have taken up side-hustles for some extra money on top of full time employment (Deloitte 2022a). All of this, just to make ends meet, has left a large portion of these generations feeling burnt out. The “Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2022” carried out by Deloitte found that for the first time in the survey’s 11 year history, the cost of living crisis was the top concern for Gen Zs and Millennials (Deloitte 2022b).

This list is by no means exhaustive, and burnout can be experienced through a variety of aspects of life. While the future may look uncertain and many Gen Zs and Millennials are already suffering from burnout, there are several strategies that can help with coping with burnout, no matter which aspect of life it is affecting. Life is difficult now in a different way than it was for generations past, and burnout is no small issue when it comes to the mental health of the younger generations. However, burnout is manageable, and burnout is recoverable.

Bibliography

Deloitte, 2022a. The Deloitte Global 2022 Gen Z and Millennial Survey. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/global/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/genzmillennialsurvey.html (accessed 22nd August 2022).

Deloitte, 2022b. Cost of living now leading concern among Gen zs and millennials. Available at: https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/press-releases/articles/cost-of-living-now-leading-concern-among-gen-zs-and-millennials.html (accessed 22nd August 2022).

Petersen, A.H., 2021. Can't even: How millennials became the burnout generation. Mariner Books.

Huffpost, 2022. Explained: What is the cost of living crisis?. Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/explained-what-is-the-cost-of-living-crisis_uk_61dbf949e4b0bcd219614c85 (accessed 26th August 2022).