Wake up, work, sleep and repeat: Pandemic burnout is becoming a crisis among stay-at-home workers — here’s why it’s happening, and how to break through the fog

The feeling crept up on him midway through January, around the time the second wave of COVID-19 hit its peak and even harsher lockdown measures ensued. It felt like a mix of fatigue and identity crisis. Not quite depression, but something more than endless boredom.

Kyle Ashley was approaching nearly one year of working from home, alone, navigating a daily barrage of video conferences and emails. Sensing burnout, he took a vacation day, ideally to spend roaming the neighbourhood with his golden retriever, a two-year-old rescue named Cooper. Instead, he spent most of it sitting at his desk, doing more work, this time without the torrent of urgent correspondence that accompanies actual workdays.

I literally just did the same thing that I usually do, only without all the emails," he said. I don't even feel like I exist outside my production anymore."

Ashley's world has narrowed dramatically in recent years. In another life, he routinely appeared in the pages of the Star as Toronto's famed bike lane protector" - a former parking enforcement officer and cycling enthusiast who vowed to bolster road safety. He spent most of his days outside, on the job, interacting with passersby. Today, his daily routine goes something like this: wake up, eat, work, walk Cooper, eat again, work some more, eat again, stare at Twitter, go to bed, repeat.

Ever seen Groundhog Day?' " he asks.

Such is true for most of us working from home.

Fourteen months after a deadly plague hit Canada, our existence has become smaller and monotonous, defined almost exclusively by work. We roll out of bed and land in our desk chairs. Every day is the same, every activity a repeat. Confined to computers, avoiding the outdoors, remote workers are facing a collective crisis of productivity and purpose, a lethargy that has us forgetting the time, the day, the place and the pre-pandemic world when things were allegedly better than they are now. (Things were better, right?)

Delia Cai, for BuzzFeed, recently spoke for us all: Another day of staring at the big screen while scrolling through my little screen so as to reward myself for staring at the medium screen all week," she wrote on Twitter.

That dizzying sense of ennui - languishing," it's called - is a growing concern among employers and within workplaces. A recent survey from Sage Canada found that nearly half of Canadian business leaders and nearly one third of employees cited burnout as a concern for the remainder of 2021. Roughly a third of businesses said they're already taking action to address the productivity crisis, while nearly half say they're currently developing a plan.

Even the federal government has recognized this merging of life and work as a serious labour problem.

Last week, Labour Minister Filomena Tassi said workers need the ability to avoid work emails and messages in off-hours. This idea, known as the right to disconnect, first came up as a proposed addition to the federal labour code almost three years ago. In 2016, France adopted a law giving workers the right to disconnect from their devices outside business hours over worries that employees were doing unpaid overtime work, causing them to burn out.

Now, with an estimated five million Canadians working from home, that need to disconnect has never been greater.

Some employers have started chipping away at the problem. At KPMG, which employs roughly 8,000 workers in 40 offices around the country, employees were recently given six extra vacation days with pay, along with some structural changes to work days. No meetings will be held on Wednesdays, no video conferences on Fridays, and a $500 bonus for all employees, the company announced.

Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser told staff in March that all internal video calls on Fridays would be banned to encourage workers to set boundaries, and a holiday for the entire firm, Citi Reset Day, would be instituted to combat pandemic fatigue.

These kinds of changes are critical to allow workers to stabilize their mental health, says Steve Joordens, a professor of psychology at the University of Toronto.

The cumulative effects of the past year have made us all a little dumber," he says. It's scientifically proven.

When the pandemic started, our brains started a process of subconscious self-discipline. Our frontal lobe, responsible for higher cognitive functions and strategic thinking, effectively began dictating to the more primitive parts of our brains - the parts dedicated to behavioural and survival instincts - what the body could and couldn't do.

It's like the nanny in your brain, looking after the five-year-old that's always trying to get into trouble. The five-year-old is our emotional soul that just wants to be with other human beings and just wants to live life the way it was before," explained Joordens. But over and over again, our frontal lobe is telling it, No, you can't do that thing you really want to do.' "

This causes anxiety. Over the course of a year, anxiety becomes chronic anxiety. Cortisol - think of it like the body's built-in alarm system - is released into the body for a prolonged period of time, weakening the brain's frontal lobe. We become more emotional, more exhausted, increasingly incapable of navigating our thoughts and relaying them to others, Joordens says. It's why you sometimes have trouble composing a basic email.

Over a long stretch of time, it wears us down," he says.

There was a fear among employers, early in the pandemic, that companies would become victims of time theft,' that employees would be less productive at home than in the office. Studies have shown the opposite is true - and to the detriment of the employee.

Research has shown that white-collar employees are working two to 2.5 hours more a day than before the pandemic. With fewer separations between home life and work, it's become easier for workers to stay an hour later without budgeting time for commuting. And some businesses have been busier than ever, prompting employees to assume greater workloads.

People are actually working too much, and it's taking over their lives," says Francoise Mathieu, executive director of TEND, a Kingston-based organization offering wellness exercises for high-stress workplaces.

Through her organization, Mathieu has been recommending a variety of nano" strategies for workers that she says should be followed routinely.

First, she recommends shutting down your work systems outside office hours. When you're off the clock, try shutting down your computer - like, actually shutting it down - and disabling email notifications on your phone. Distinguish your work clothes from your home clothes, she says, and stay away from your office chair when you're off the clock. She also suggests reading a book before bedtime, something unrelated to your work.

These are really tiny recommendations," she says. But, combined, they can go a long way."

Joordens recommends two simple activities: listening to music and laughing. There are few better ways to release endorphins in the brain," he says.

But most advice is much easier said than done. No matter the clothes you're wearing, it won't prevent an incoming email from your boss at 9 p.m. Mathieu acknowledges that, for this to work, a seismic shift in workplace expectations is required.

For any of this to work, we need employers to undertake healthy work habits themselves," she says. As leaders, we need to be role models. We can't just say, Take care of yourselves, but have this on my desk tonight.' "

Jacob Lorinc is a Toronto-based reporter covering business for the Star. Reach him via email: jlorinc@thestar.ca