Are Millennials more prone to burnout? - Simon Sinek

 Are Millennials more prone to burnout than other generations? The answer is maybe but not because they're Millennials. It's not some biological thing that an entire generation is more prone to burnout than a previous generation. 

I don't think that's it at all but I think that the trend of how we live our lives is very different. I think we are more solitary in how we live our lives. 

And there's good data that there are fewer marriages, there are fewer people living together, people are staying single longer and even the quality of relationships which I've talked about and others have talked about as well where social media and cell phones. 

Sometimes interrupt and get in the way and frustrate our ability to form those deep meaningful relationships. 

Millennials just by virtue of when they were born and what technologies were available that day were sort of on the front line the first ones to grow up in this world and these trends. 

And so I think that the opportunity to ask for help or accept help when it's offered, to express that kind of vulnerability to deal with that kind of stress. 

I mean think about how easy it is when there's a conflict with another human being. It's just much easier to ghost them than to have a confrontation, right? You've been dating somebody for a while, you're really not into it anymore. 

Instead of gaining closure and having a conversation, even a fight, we just disappear. Why? Because it's easier. Let's be honest. But I think that actually not only hurts the other person it actually creates loneliness for us. 

Sometimes those confrontations, even if they're difficult, are valuable. There's some good data on this— that somebody who gets ignored at work when their boss never talks to them, they never get any kind of positive feedback, never kind of negative feedback.

I can't remember exact numbers but it's something like seven percent are engaged in their work. It's an overwhelmingly high number of people are disengaged simply because they get no positive or negative feedback and if they were to get in trouble, their level of engagement actually goes up. 

And if we get one piece of positive feedback from our bosses our level of engagement quadruples or something like that. In other words, getting negative feedback actually makes us more engaged in our work than getting no feedback because at least somebody knows we exist and that's the point. 

I think one of the reasons that this generation and maybe younger generations and again not as a result of the generation thing but rather the life in which they've grown up just by virtue of when they grow up probably does make them more prone to burnout.

Probably because they find themselves doing more things themselves. That the concept of partnership or help is reduced. 

So, when you have more to do when you have more on your plate, you have to be the breadwinner, the homemaker ... all of this, of course, we're going to burn out more.