BURNOUT AND OVERWORKING AT UNIVERSITY

Applying to university, most students know that the next few years will require a lot of work but with the heavy workload and increasingly competitive nature of the graduate job scene, some students are working too much and forgetting to enjoy their university experience.

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Some students can maintain a healthy work-life balance with no difficulty but, for others, this balance becomes a bit skewed. With the increasing pressure for graduates to have the best skills and highest grades, there’s a temptation for students and graduates to overhaul the work-life balance and just work as much as possible.

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While working hard to get the best grades and graduate schemes possible, and working non-stop to achieve this, may seem like short-term pain for long-term gain, working yourself beyond your limits and with no rest may be counterproductive.

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How is working more and resting less counterproductive? Because of the very real and serious threat of burnout. What hustle culture doesn’t tell you when it eggs you on to work yourself to the bone for the best grades and best jobs possible is that doing this won’t just mean missing out on a few social events and having a few late nights. It can have long term effects on your productivity, physical health and mental health.

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Burnout is not just feeling a bit tired at the end of a long day studying in the library. It has serious physical and mental effects. Help Guide states that “burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress”.

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Help Guide goes on to list the varying symptoms of burnout, ranging from physical effects such as “feeling tired or drained most of the time” and “frequent headaches or muscle pains” to emotional effects such as “loss of motivation” and a “sense of failure and doubt”, including many more.

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The many different physical and emotional effects of burnout convey just how damaging it can be.

The lack of motivation burnout can cause could mean that, while productivity increases in the short run, working yourself with no rest could decrease productivity in the long run.

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The NHS has provided tips on how to deal with feeling stressed or burnout such as being more active, talking to friends and family, planning and splitting up big tasks. These tips can be useful in dealing with burnout.

However,  we must ensure we don’t get burnt out in the first place, and this means knowing when we’re doing too much work. We must, instead, create a work-life balance that encourages a healthy amount of productivity.

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This issue of students and graduates working themselves to the point of exhaustion and burnout is linked with the phenomenon of hustle culture. Taylor’s University says that “hustle culture can be defined as the state of overworking to the point where it becomes a lifestyle”. It promotes working constantly with no rest in the belief that the more work you do, the richer, more fulfilled and more successful you will be.

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This phenomenon seems to be infiltrating its way into university spaces, feeding off of the competitive environment and desperation for the best graduate jobs.

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Even as the nation went into lockdown — and many students and graduates were struck with confusion, fear and uncertainty — toxic narratives of productivity infiltrated social media feeds. Posts that shamed people for not learning a new language or skill during lockdown or stating that people have wasted their lockdown if they haven’t used it productively were a recurring theme on Instagram explore pages, a supposed respite from the outside world.

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These cultural expectations to continually work, monetize our hobbies and place less emphasis on resting could be seen throughout the pandemic. Despite being a time of great uncertainty and a time where many people’s mental health was directly suffering as a result of the pandemic, there were still narratives around working yourself to the point of no rest.

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Beyond the pandemic, themes of overworking with no rest have continued, with some people even wearing their burnout like a badge of honour. The culture around productivity rewards burnout and exhaustion instead of rest, and healthy boundaries between work and life.

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For many students and graduates, the current narrative around productivity is exhausting and tiring but expected. It is a narrative that has been around for too long and has had damaging effects. One student spoke to us about their thoughts on burnout and hustle culture: “We find ourselves burnt out to a point we can’t even keep up with the cycle and think that life is walking away from us at great speed, and we can’t keep up.”

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It is easy to get caught up in trying to reach the best grades possible and working beyond your limits, especially due to the competitive aspect of university and the common comparison with peers. With the ever-increasing competitive nature of the graduate job market, the temptation of overworking can be overbearing. But, with the looming threat of burnout, a healthy work to life balance is vital.

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Not only will creating a healthy work to life balance be better for productivity in the long run, it will also allow you to have fun and enjoy life alongside your studies.