The Challenges That Corporate Mental Health Programs Face

Part 2: Existential burnout

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In January 2022, Aaron de Smet of McKinsey & Co. interviewed Adria Horn, executive vice president of workforce at Tilson, a national telecom provider based in Portland, Maine. Horn is also a lieutenant colonel in the US Army Reserve and an army veteran who served five tours of duty overseas between 2003 and 2010. In this discussion, Horn discussed how the emotional reaction to returning from deployment does parallel what many workers are experiencing now during the great resignation. She explained that returning home after a deployment was supposed to feel great, but it did not. The world felt disrupted, unfamiliar, disconnected, and changed. As Smet put it, “You’ve lost your tribe.” Horn added that you lose your sense of belonging, and there is a sense of grief over lost time, lost friends and relatives, and lost routines. There is a deep sense of disappointment and lack of control.

While offering mental health benefits in this context is necessary, the likelihood that people will regularly take advantage of these offerings is slim.

One study demonstrated that the lockdown resulted in feelings of sadness, boredom, impotence, and anxiety. This “impotence” translates to a feeling of personal ineffectiveness, which is a hallmark of burnout. Compounded by flames of…