Sponsored by
A VOLUNTEER PSYCHOLOGIST NAMED BURNOUT IN 1974
Herbert Freudenberger Volunteered At A New York Free Clinic
He Wrote Down What He Saw In The Staff There
Seven Pages Ran In The Journal Of Social Issues In 1974
The Word He Used Was Burn Out
He Had Taken It From The Clinic's Own Patients
Christina Maslach Came Across The Same Word In California
Her Team Built A Questionnaire Around It In 1981
This Part Covers Who Named It And Who Measured It
THIS NEWSLETTER IS FOR INFORMATIONAL PURPOSES ONLY. NOTHING IN THIS CONTENT CONSTITUTES MEDICAL, PSYCHOLOGICAL, OR PROFESSIONAL ADVICE. ALWAYS CONSULT A QUALIFIED HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL BEFORE MAKING ANY HEALTH RELATED DECISIONS.
A Quick Shoutout To Our Sponsor: SPRAYGROUND
Here's What They Have For You 🛝
👇🏻
A Backpack They'll Love All Year
Back-to-school shopping doesn't have to be a battle. Give your kids a backpack they'll actually be excited to carry every day.
Sprayground backpacks combine bold designs, premium quality and smart storage to handle everything from the classroom to after-school activities. Built to last and made to stand out, they're designed for students who want to express their personality while staying organized. Start the school year with a backpack they'll be proud to wear.
OKAY BACK FROM THE CLINIC 🩹
👇🏻
THE CLINIC WHERE IT STARTED 🚪
Herbert Freudenberger Trained As A Psychologist
He Ran A Private Practice In Manhattan
At Night He Went To A Free Clinic
That Clinic Served People Dependent On Drugs
He Worked There Without Pay
Patients At The Clinic Already Used The Word Burn Out
They Meant The Effects Of Chronic Drug Use
Freudenberger Applied The Same Word To The Staff
The Same Thing Happened To Him
His Paper Lists The Physical Signs
Exhaustion And Fatigue Are First
A Lingering Cold Nobody Can Shake Comes Next
Frequent Headaches Are On It
Gastrointestinal Trouble Is Listed Too
Sleeplessness And Shortness Of Breath Are The Last Two
The Behavioral List Runs Longer
Quickness To Anger Appears On It
So Does Crying Easily
Suspicion And Paranoia Are Named
Rigidity And Stubbornness Follow
He Uses The Phrase House Cynic
The Burned Out Worker Puts In More Hours And Does Less
Nothing In The Paper Was Measured
A Quick Shoutout To Our Sponsor: THE CODE
Here's What They Have For You 👨🏼💻
👇🏻
Learn how to code faster with AI in 5 mins a day
You're spending 40 hours a week writing code that AI could do in 10.
While you're grinding through pull requests, 200k+ engineers at OpenAI, Google & Meta are using AI to ship faster.
How?
The Code newsletter teaches them exactly which AI tools to use and how to use them.
Here's what you get:
AI coding techniques used by top engineers at top companies in just 5 mins a day
Tools and workflows that cut your coding time in half
Tech insights that keep you 6 months ahead
Sign up and get access to the Ultimate Claude code guide to ship 5X faster.
THE QUESTIONNAIRE THAT DEFINED IT 📝
Christina Maslach Was A Social Psychologist At Berkeley
She Studied How Workers Handle Emotional Strain On The Job
Her Team Interviewed Human Services Workers In California
A Colleague Described Those Interviews To An Attorney
The Attorney Said Poverty Lawyers Had A Word For It
That Word Was Burnout
Drug Counselors And Teachers Were Using It Too
Freudenberger's Paper Was Not Her Source
Susan Jackson Joined The Work
Together They Built A Rating Scale In 1981
They Called It The Maslach Burnout Inventory
It Has Twenty Two Items
Each One Is Scored From Zero To Six
The Scale Runs From Never To Every Day
Nine Items Cover Emotional Exhaustion
Five Cover Depersonalization
Eight Cover Personal Accomplishment
Those Three Became The Definition Itself
The World Health Organization Later Used The Same Structure
Maslach Locates The Cause In The Job Rather Than The Person
Every Item Still Asks How The Worker Feels
The Inventory Never Set A Clinical Cutoff
Researchers Chose Their Own Thresholds Instead
A Quick Shoutout To Our Sponsor: FORWARD FUTURE
Here's What They Have For You ⚡️
👇🏻
Wake Up Smarter About AI.
The president of OpenAI. The CEO of Google. The founder of LinkedIn. We talk to the people building AI. Every morning, we put what they told us in your inbox.
What they're actually worried about. What they're betting on. What's coming next. Delivered in five minutes, before your first meeting.
With one email, and only five minutes, you can stay ahead of 99% of the world.
THE NUMBER NOBODY AGREES ON 📊
Lisa Rotenstein Led A Review Published In 2018
It Collected Studies Of Burnout Among Physicians
One Hundred Eighty Two Studies Qualified
They Covered More Than 109,000 People
Forty Five Countries Appeared In The Sample
Publication Dates Ran From 1991 To 2018
Roughly Eighty Six Percent Used The Maslach Inventory
Studies Still Defined Burnout Differently
The Review Counted The Definitions Being Used
At Least One Hundred Forty Two Turned Up
Forty Seven Were Different Cutoffs On One Inventory
Reported Burnout Started At Zero Percent
Its Highest Estimate Reached 80.5 Percent
Both Figures Describe The Same Profession
Emotional Exhaustion Ranged Just As Widely
Depersonalization Reached 89.9 Percent In One Study
Another Study Reported None At All
No Single Prevalence Figure Came Out Of It
The Authors Wrote That The Variation Precluded Conclusions
Any Headline Percentage Comes From One Chosen Cutoff
A Different Cutoff Produces A Different Answer
