I still think this is largely wrong.
I've worked some tough jobs in my life. Physically laborious. I'm talking 100+ hour weeks on an ice cold production line working under complete psychopaths. I felt overworked, abused, frustrated - I turned off my brain, chatted with coworkers, and did the job. But never once did I feel "burned out". No matter how much I hated the jobs, I could always stand there and do another day. And the end of every shift felt so good.
In contrast, I have felt very burned out in relatively nice jobs - thoroughly pleasant environments with minor workloads. I don't even know why. Something about staring at screens all day - something about that "unplugging" feeling you get after locking in on some code all day - maybe constantly thinking about how other people think.
Honestly, the closest non-work simile I have found was signing up to do a video game marathon. After hour 8 I had a distinct feeling of burnout for that game - as bad as any terrible job I have ever had. For doing something I should otherwise find enjoyable.
So I think there can be some amount of trauma involved, but I think the core of "burnout" has less to do with actual negative experiences and more about the type of work we engage with. And I specifically think it has to do with our capacity to either do continuous creative problem solving, or engage with large varieties of different people - both activities that humans have not historically had to engage in for extended periods of time in previous eras.
I've worked some tough jobs in my life. Physically laborious. I'm talking 100+ hour weeks on an ice cold production line working under complete psychopaths. I felt overworked, abused, frustrated - I turned off my brain, chatted with coworkers, and did the job. But never once did I feel "burned out". No matter how much I hated the jobs, I could always stand there and do another day. And the end of every shift felt so good.
In contrast, I have felt very burned out in relatively nice jobs - thoroughly pleasant environments with minor workloads. I don't even know why. Something about staring at screens all day - something about that "unplugging" feeling you get after locking in on some code all day - maybe constantly thinking about how other people think.
Honestly, the closest non-work simile I have found was signing up to do a video game marathon. After hour 8 I had a distinct feeling of burnout for that game - as bad as any terrible job I have ever had. For doing something I should otherwise find enjoyable.
So I think there can be some amount of trauma involved, but I think the core of "burnout" has less to do with actual negative experiences and more about the type of work we engage with. And I specifically think it has to do with our capacity to either do continuous creative problem solving, or engage with large varieties of different people - both activities that humans have not historically had to engage in for extended periods of time in previous eras.