Beyond Burnout: Understanding the Trauma of Draining Workplaces and its Long-Term Effects

In today’s fast-paced and demanding work environments, it is no surprise that people’s mental health and well-being often bear the brunt of the pressure. The toll of constant stress, overwhelming workloads, and toxic workplace dynamics can have a profound impact on employees’ overall well-being.  To shed light on this issue, Yasmin Refaei, a corporate, organizational, and industrial psychologist who works at O7 Therapy, provided insight into the signs of workplace-related trauma or burnout, the long-term effects it may have, and how individuals could move forward from such draining environments. Burnout “is not an abrupt occurrence but rather a gradual process that sneaks up on us. It’s a feeling of being pulled in every direction at once, with no discernible progress or advancement,” Refaei explains.  She compares burnout to a car running on fumes: “we may keep pushing forward, but our efficiency and speed are significantly diminished. If left unaddressed, burnout can lead to a complete stall or breakdown.”  Refaei identifies three main ways in which work-related trauma and burnout manifest in people’s bodies: exhaustion, detachment, and ineffectiveness.  “When we experience burnout, we become irritable, drained of energy, lose our appetite,…

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