Burnout = Cynicism + Disengagement: Connecting the Dots and Listening to Gen Z

Idea 34 for 2025

I recently published an article, Gen Z is burning out at work more than any other generation — here’s why and what can be done.

As a member of Generation X and a seasoned educator of younger people, I well aware of the rise of mental health concerns, such an anxiety and stress, that seems widespread among Millennials and Generation Z. Indeed, my educator colleagues and I are constantly responding to the impacts of these mental health challenges in the classroom, which for me, is in-person and virtual, local and international. Sometimes, with our own collective fatigue and frustration with "requests to accommodate," we too have become jaded and cynical, and at times, even unsympathetic and disengaged from listening.

However, as I learned from writing the article, I have been thinking about the greater risk and presence of burnout among Gen Z as all wrong.

Rather, the members of generation Z, as novices and newcomers to the workplace are the frontlines of a disrupted, perhaps even broken, "work system" which is "transforming" due to various impacts, including the:

• COVID-19 pandemic

• rise of the gig economy and the intensification of a contract work culture

• erosion of benefits and pensions

• rising of cost of living, including in particular, housing and food

• spectre of AI in revolutionizing workflows, leading to further fear of job transformation and displacement

In this fast-morphing "work system," Gen Z members are trying to learn, adapt, and importantly, find their first career opportunity. However, the intensifications of these impacts seem to be most acute at those who are on the first few rungs of the career ladder, and so part of the impact for gen Z has been rising levels of burnout.

Another thing that I learned while researching this article is how burnout is more than fatigue or tiredness. In fact, burnout is tied to cynicism, a sense of mismatch between one's job expectations to its unfolding realities, which then leads to disengagement from the workplace.

So, to make it clear: burnout = cynicism + disengagement.

For someone who's expertise is tie to interactive and engaging learning, of workshops and sessions to steer workplace change and develop more responsive leaders, this was huge alarm bell for me.

It's not enough to create programs regarding employee engagement and wellness without looking at burnout, and cynicism and disengagement it is creating, without addressing the causes of our "broken system."

I address this in my article; however, this involves:

(1) rethinking the relationship between work and society and culture;

(2) also reimagining how we can be better involved in our work, through, in part re-creating human connections for learning, mentorship and community

In short, it involves building more human and humane systems at work. Otherwise, we are just putting on band-aids and putting out fires.

Amidst a chaotic desk filled with crumpled notes and open books, a skeleton humorously slumps over a laptop, surrounded by broken pencils and a notebook marked "S.O.S."—symbolizing academic burnout and the pressures of study. Photo by Tara Winstead pexels.com