42% of global workforce experiencing burnout, women reportedly worse off

Yahoo Finance’s Seana Smith and Dave Briggs discuss a Future Forum report on the state of burnout among workers, showing that women and workers under the age of 30 are experiencing the highest levels of burnout.

Video Transcript

DAVE BRIGGS: Worker burnout– are you burned out? Well, levels have reached a new high according to one recent survey. The Future Forum polling more than 10,000 workers around the world, and 42% of them say they’re feeling mentally and physically exhausted due to stress at work.

According to the Future Forum, though, women are experiencing burnout far more than men, 46% compared to 37%. And nearly half of workers under the age of 30 are experiencing burnout as well, 48% compared to 40% for those over 30.

So I want your analysis here, my friend. Why are women and young people feeling more burned out than men and older workers?

SEANA SMITH: So women– OK, so two things. I don’t really know– I was surprised to see that those under the age of 30 were more burnt out than those over the age of 30. That took me a little bit by surprise.

Women, I think from personal experience, you have a lot going on. If you have kids, you have– you feel like you’re constantly running around on this circle of life. I think a lot of that probably plays in to their day-to-day work, me personally speaking, and I do think you do become a little overwhelmed. I don’t know if that is the case for women out there. Certainly not probably as common of a case for those under 30 given the number of women that have kids under the age of 30, but I think that that probably has something to do with it.

DAVE BRIGGS: I think you nailed it with women because the women I know who are working are burned out in particular because the guy at home is not holding up his end of the bargain, and most of us are not. Or some are just naturally born multitaskers that want to take on those things.

SEANA SMITH: Is that you?

DAVE BRIGGS: But nonetheless, they do feel burned out.

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Now, I’m going to play old guy here because that’s my resonant role on the younger workers. I just think they came into this workforce with different expectations. Some came into the workforce during COVID when they were allowed to be at home and in their PJs. And sorry, they didn’t have a chance to develop that grit-and-grind mentality that a lot of older workers did like– well, I won’t say you but like us because you’re younger.

SEANA SMITH: No, but I’m older. I was in the workforce far before COVID, years and years and years before.

DAVE BRIGGS: Trying to make clear that you’re not old.

SEANA SMITH: But flexibility also key, and that’s something that clearly that was shown in this survey as well.