1 Margareta Junghage Euro Connect Consulting Thinking patterns of Burned Out People

2 Individual Contributor Profile 63 administrators, University of Karlstad Development Program 12 month, financed by EU 20 % had been long term sick listed for Fatigue Syndrome (Burned Out)

3 Fatigue Syndrome - Stress related Mental Ill Health Sweden has had a dramatic increase of mental ill-health last 10 years Mostly occupations with much contact with and responsibility for other people Long process with both physical and mental problems, often over several years

4 Fatigue Syndrome It often starts with tiredness and weakened or painful movement of the neck, back etcetera. After comes sleep disorders, chest-pain, irregular heartbeat, gastric problems, dizziness, memory and concentration difficulties. Growing physical and mental fatigue, depression and the feeling of “hitting the wall”

5 Why so many stricken? Big changes in working life, reduction in staff support, re-organizations, increasing load of work The increasing information density Different rates of resistance to external stress

6 The individual elements of meaning are not known yet Genetic factors can matter Early developmental environment can matter In what degree the individual built his/her self esteem on the capability to achieve good working results can matter

7 Often it is a highly loyal and hard working person, valuable contributor, who is stricken with Fatigue Syndrome Source for facts: The National Board of Health and Welfare, Sweden.

8 Selection and Target group The total group: 61 women, 2 men I have selected 13 women, who all told me face to face they had been Burned out, now or earlier Diagnoses: 11 Fatigue Syndrome, 1 stress-related sickness stomach problems, 1 depression, therapeutic treatment

9 Age Age > 60 Quantity

10 Outer World Values, Concept

11 Self Values, Concept

12 Hypothesis Heavy overvaluation, 8 or 9, in Self Concept, maybe even in Outer Self, added to high self demands, sometimes results in Fatigue Syndrome Very low values on Inner Self This is often a loyal and hard working person, as they said in the article This is correct for half the selected group. I had to dig deeper!

13 Percept values - approach in the Inner world? Everyone except two had an approach to value their Self with a strong focus on either their own performance, Outer Self, or the importance to live up to the promises they had given others (Self Concept) They all placed the bar high and demanded that they jump over it!

14 Overvaluations and Transpositions Overvaluations have great impact on the value pattern When a person places a Transposition statement (not fulfilling the norm) lower than APNI, it is overvaluation, s/he gives it a stronger negative value than the axiological value

15 Self values, concept + Value % positive Transpositions ABCDEFGHIJKLM IS OS SC Tran IS Tran OS Tran SC

16 Transpositions - a piece in the pattern? High values on Transpositions, 50 % >, often combines with overvaluations, 8 or 9, either in Outer Self or in Self Concept. All persons with this pattern have red figures in the table! To confirm high values on Transpositions in the conclusions we have to develop corresponding figures on a control group.

17 Attention Balance The balance between the Outer World and Inner Self Figures >1 (1,7-3) : the individual is better at valuing the Outer World compared to his/her valuing of his/her Inner Self 1 person has balance, 1 5 persons have 1,7 7 persons have 3,0

18 Attention balance and Structured Thinking If we study the five persons who still are sick listed part time, we can see some similarities between them. They all have high values on Structured Thinking (7-8) and they all have high figures in Attention Balance (1,7-3)

19 Control Group I used the Raw Scores I had in my office Six persons are from the total target group of 63 Four people are working in other non- administrator tasks.

20 Use the theory on control group Three persons fulfill all the criteria, i.e. High values in Outer Self and/or Self Concept, Low values in Inner Self, Heavy overvaluation of Transpositions, Attention Balance on 1,7 or higher High values on Structured Thinking

21 Use the theory on the group of have the value of 8 or 9 in Outer Self and/or Self Concept If we add low values, 1-3, on Inner Self, the group dwindles to 30 If we pick away those who do not have high values in Structured Thinking, the group dwindles to 20 If we had access to Raw Scores on the whole group, we could take away persons with balance in Attention balance and find the group, at high risk to “hit the wall”

22 Conclusions Heavy overvaluation in Outer Self and/or Self Concept, combined with low values in Inner Self, with very high self-demands accompanied by the fight to achieve these lofty demands can lead to Fatigue Syndrome

23 Conclusions, continuance Attention Balance is a contributing factor. Outer directed thinkers are more likely to be stricken with Fatigue Syndrome. Combined with heavy overvaluations on Transpositions in Outer Self and/or Self Concept and high values in Structured Thinking, the risk to be stricken with Fatigue Syndrome is probably even greater!

24 How to use the results? We can use this knowledge and pay attention to persons with this pattern and tell them they have a higher risk to be stricken with Fatigue Syndrome This should make them more aware so they can listen to early warning signals and get help before it has gone to far!