The moral orders of work and health: a case of sick leave due to burnout

Abstract

Being on sick leave due to burnout entails a high level of accountability. Persons suffering from burnout do not automatically play a legitimate sick role because of the fuzziness of the burnout concept. In addition, while being on sick leave, they are in a non-working position, which is against the ideals of work-centred society. Therefore, they are required to explain their 'deviant' situation. Drawing on the interview data, the article explores how sick leave is explained and justified in narrative accounts by Finnish burnout sufferers. Results show that sick leave makes the moral orders of work, health and illness visible. Sick leave as a process involves negotiation of one's status and worth in the categories of 'respectable employee' and 'credible patient'. A transition to sick leave requires causal explanations of burnout, which aim to legitimate ill-being. Being on sick leave creates an obligation for activity and productivity that is 'work-like' management of health. The study shows the fundamental level at which work structures everyday life, routines, and habits in the work-centred society. In this context, burnout sufferers struggle to legitimise their work-related distress and absence from work and restore their morally worthy identities.

Tensions and Paradoxes of Stigma: Discussing Stigma in Mental Health Rehabilitation

“…Again, the young are regarded as different from the others; they pay attention to their mental health and risk being labeled as unreliable workers. There is indeed evidence of burnout sufferers struggling to legitimize being sick in a work-centered society such as Finland, because sick leave is often related to exploiting the welfare system [ 51 ]. The support workers in our interviews seem to place themselves somewhere between these two extremes.…”

“…Previous research has proven that social distance toward people with schizophrenia is larger than toward those with depression due to the anticipation of social disability [ 53 ]. People with schizophrenia also stand out in the unemployment and disability statistics, see, e.g., [ 54 , 55 ] and being unemployed is known to emphasize exclusion [ 51 ]. However, from the viewpoint of the Clubhouse organization, people with schizophrenia are a notable client group, and this may potentially reflect on the participants’ views of mental illness and stigma.…”

Acting the part: how social and organisational factors shape managers' actions towards employees with repeated short-term sickness absence

“…One important aspect that needs to be addressed in order to understand the managers' views of employees with repeated short-term sickness absence is the status that work holds in our modern society. Work is highly valued and is not only the way that people get access to necessities such as food and housing but also the way individuals gain status (Frayne, 2015;Korhonen and Komulainen, 2019;Sage, 2018;Weeks, 2011). We raise our children to become working citizens, schools prepare us for work-life and welfare policies are all directed at making people capable of work (Weeks, 2011).…”

A Theoretical Model Explaining the Development and Maintenance of Clinical Burnout

“…Furthermore, social withdrawal behaviors can lead to loneliness, which is associated with exaggerated blood pressure and inflammatory reactivity to acute stress, which is suggested to be a biological mechanism through which loneliness has an impact on health [128]. An additional stress factor among people with clinical burnout is to legitimize their work-related distress and absence from work and restore their morally worthy identities [129].…”