Is there an answer to millennial burnout?
千禧一代年轻人的倦怠感如何解决才好？

In a popular BuzzFeed article, Anne Helen Petersen describes how millennials (people born between 1981 and 1996) became “the burnout generation”. She describes some of the stark consequences of edging towards burnout and identifies what she calls “errand paralysis”, marked by a struggle to do even simple or mundane tasks.

美国网媒BuzzFeed上有一篇颇受欢迎的文章，作者彼得森（Anne Helen Petersen）在文中描述了千禧一代（1981年至1996年间出生的人）如何成为“倦怠的一代”。她阐述了一步步走向倦怠所带来的严重后果，并解释了她口中的“杂事瘫痪”——特点是连简单普通的工作也不愿意做。

Many of the factors contributing to this burnout are rooted in the challenging job and economic conditions that millennials face, according to Petersen. She also describes “intensive parenting” as a contributing factor, because millennials have been relentlessly trained and prepared for the workplace by their parents. They have internalised the idea that they need to be working all the time or engaging in the never-ending pursuit of self-optimisation.

彼得森认为，造成这种倦怠很大一部分原因在于千禧一代所面临的工作挑战和经济情况。她认为“密集型教养”也是一个影响因素，千禧一代的父母们毫不留情地训练孩子们为将来的工作做好准备。他们已经被父母洗脑，认为需要一直工作或永不停歇地提升自我。

Similarity to work burnout

类似职场倦怠

Millennial burnout has a lot of similarities with regular burnout, otherwise known as work burnout. Burnout is a response to prolonged stress and typically involves emotional exhaustion, cynicism or detachment, and feeling ineffective. The six main risk factors for work burnout are having an overwhelming workload, limited control, unrewarding work, unfair work, work that conflicts with values and a lack of community in the workplace.

千禧一代的倦怠感与一般的倦怠（又称职场倦怠）有许多相似之处。倦怠是长期压力造成的，通常包括情绪衰竭、愤世嫉俗或漠不关心，以及效率低下。职场倦怠的六个主要风险因素是工作超负荷、掌控力低、没有成就感、不公平、有违价值观，以及在工作中缺乏归属感。

People who have to navigate complex, contradictory and sometimes hostile environments are vulnerable to burnout. If millennials are found to be suffering higher levels of burnout, this might indicate that they face more problematic environments. It is quite possibly the same stuff that stresses everyone, but it is occurring in new, unexpected or greater ways for millennials, and we haven’t been paying attention.

在面对复杂、矛盾且时而不利的环境时，人会更容易倦怠。如果千禧一代的倦怠程度更严重，可能表明他们所处的环境问题更多。造成压力的事情很可能对每个人都一样，但却正以意想不到的全新面貌更猛烈地砸向千禧一代，而且我们尚未察觉。

For example, we know that traditional social comparison plays a role in work burnout. For millennials, social competition and comparison are continually reinforced online, and engaging with this has already been shown to be associated with depressive symptoms in young people.

例如，我们知道传统的社会比较会造成职场倦怠。对于千禧一代来说，社交网络不断加剧着竞争和比较，更证明了与年轻人的抑郁、压力或倦怠有关。

Even if you avoid social media, using technology and going online can be physically and emotionally exhausting. Excessive internet use has been linked to burnout at school. These are just some of the ways that millennials have been increasingly exposed to the same stressors that we know can negatively affect people in the workplace.

即使你不用社交媒体，使用科技产品和上网仍要消耗大量体力和精力。过度使用互联网可能会导致学业倦怠。千禧一代所遭受的压力日益增多，这些还只是其中一小部分，而且众所周知也会对职场人士产生负面影响。

We know very little about how millennials experience burnout. Early research suggests there are generational differences. Specifically, millennials respond to emotional exhaustion (often the first stage of burnout) differently to baby boomers (people born between 1946 and 1964). When feeling emotionally exhausted, millennials are more likely to feel dissatisfied and want to leave their job than baby boomers.

我们对千禧一代经历倦怠的情况知之甚少。早期研究表明存在代际差异，具体而言，千禧一代与婴儿潮一代（1946年至1964年间出生的人）对情绪衰竭的反应有所不同（情绪衰竭通常是倦怠的第一阶段）。当感到情绪疲惫时，千禧一代相比婴儿潮一代更容易感到不满且想要离职。

Burnout research shows that complex environments and stressors, coupled with high expectations, create the conditions for traditional work burnout. The same can be said for the millennial burnout, which draws on similar notions of perfectionism.

有关倦怠的研究表明，复杂的环境和压力，以及期望过高，往往是传统职场倦怠的原因。千禧一代的倦怠亦如此，这点与完美主义类似。

Perfectionists, especially the self-critical ones, are at greater risk of burnout. Naturally, the self-critical type of perfectionist works hard to avoid failure, thereby putting themselves at high risk of burnout.

完美主义者，尤其是自我批评者更容易倦怠。通常，自我批评型的完美主义者会竭尽全力避免失败，因此出现倦怠的风险更高。

Resilience as protection

自我复原能力

A recent approach to tackling work burnout is to train people to be more resilient. This is underpinned by the assumption that highly competent people can improve their working practices to avoid burnout. However, as I recently argued in an editorial in the BMJ, highly competent, psychologically healthy and seemingly resilient people are likely to face an increased risk of burnout.

解决职场倦怠的最新方法是增强人们自我复原的能力。我们假定工作能力强的人可以通过改进工作实践来避免倦怠。然而，正如我最近在《英国医学杂志》（The BMJ）一篇社论中所提到的那样，能力强、心理健康且看似能够自我复原的人所面临的倦怠风险反而更高。

It seems counterintuitive, but one of the earliest studies on workplace burnout showed that workers who were happier, less anxious and more able to relieve stress were more likely to develop burnout than those in a comparison group without these traits. This largely forgotten study involved air traffic controllers in the US in the 1970s; it followed over 400 of them for three years. Most of the cohort (99%) had served in the US Armed Forces, so we can expect that they had experience of extreme stress and most likely had developed resilience.

这似乎跟我们想的不一样，但是早期一项关于职场倦怠的研究表明，工作中那些更开心、更平和以及更善于缓解压力的人相比没有这些特征的人更容易产生倦怠感。这项几乎快被遗忘的研究针对400多名美国空中交通管制员，在20世纪70年代进行了长达三年。被调查者大多数（99％）都曾在美军服役，可以推断他们都曾经历过极度紧张的情况，并且很可能已经培养了自我复原的能力。

This study shows us some of the conditions for creating burnout in this seemingly high functioning and resilient group. Their work was continually becoming more complex, with new technologies being introduced, without the necessary training to use them. They worked long shifts without breaks and had poor environments to work in. Their hours and rotas were challenging and could be unpredictable. These characteristics probably look quite familiar to millennials and anyone working in the gig economy.

这项研究向我们展示了哪些条件会让这群看起来工作优秀且具有自我复原能力的人产生职场倦怠。他们的工作越来越复杂，还引入了新技术却没有必要的培训；需要轮班且每一班都很长、没有休息、工作环境恶劣；工作时间和轮班情况都很难说，甚至说变就变。这些压力对千禧一代和在零工经济环境下工作的人来说都不陌生。

Opposite effect

适得其反

The recent focus on training workers to avoid burnout by encouraging them to be more resilient is likely to become another stress, pressure or high ideal. It is likely that this serves to increase the risk for burnout, especially for the types of perfectionists who are highly self-critical.

近期流行鼓励员工增强自我复原能力来避免倦怠，但这一做法可能会成为另一种压力，或是有些好高骛远。这可能会增加倦怠的风险，尤其是对那些自我批评型的完美主义者。

The importance of our ideals, our view of what we are and should be, also shows us why labelling millennials as “snowflakes” is probably harmful. Similarly, any intensive parenting that attempts to create resilient children may be counterproductive. This is because the core messages of intensive parenting are actually about social control and conformity, and these probably feed into children’s internal and external ideals for the future.

奋斗目标的重要性，以及如何看待现状以及所追求的理想状态也说明，给千禧一代贴上“雪花”的标签可能有害。同样地，任何一种试图培养孩子强大自我复原能力的密集教养法都可能会适得其反。密集型教养的核心是社会控制和与社会一致，很可能会影响儿童以后对自我养成和外在环境所设立的奋斗目标。

What we can learn from burnout trends is that work is becoming rapidly and overwhelmingly more difficult and complex. This is driving higher burnout levels in many professions and in informal workers, such as caregivers, and also, potentially, in millennials. The solution is to simplify complex, contradictory and hostile work and personal environments, rather than giving us all another job of training ourselves to be more resilient to these environments.

从倦怠的发展趋势中我们知道，工作节奏越来越快，工作内容越来越复杂，会导致许多行业以及临时工（如看护人员）更容易倦怠，对千禧一代很可能也有这种影响。解决办法是将复杂、矛盾和不利的工作以及个人环境简单化，而不是再给自己一个任务，把自己训练得能够更好地适应这些环境。

来源：英语点津