As the year draws to a close, issues of mental, physical, and emotional exhaustion that reduce motivation, commonly known as burnout, often emerge among workers and students. Performance targets, year-end financial closings, and evaluations frequently place individuals under pressure, leading to burnout-like conditions.
Dr. Sumaryono, an expert in industrial and organizational psychology at the Faculty of Psychology, Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), explained that not all psychological fatigue can be immediately classified as burnout.
According to him, it is important to understand the differences between stress, burnout, and depression to respond appropriately and proportionally.
Dr. Sumaryono explained that burnout, stress, and depression are three distinct conditions.
Burnout is a more severe condition because it involves physical, emotional, and mental exhaustion simultaneously.
“What often happens is actually stress, not burnout. Burnout tends to be much more severe,” he said on Wednesday (Dec. 24, 2025).
Toward the end of the year, workers generally face multiple demands such as deadlines and performance targets.
Meanwhile, students, according to Dr. Sumaryono, are still experiencing relatively normal academic workloads and are therefore more accurately described as experiencing stress rather than burnout.
Furthermore, he highlighted the increasingly inaccurate use of the term burnout, particularly among young people.
Dr. Sumaryono noted that even minor pressure is often labeled as burnout.
Psychologically, he explained, burnout is characterized by a profound sense of helplessness.
“If you have a headache or feel dizzy, that is stress. Burnout is when you truly feel incapable and severely exhausted of carrying out an activity and other activities as well,” he explained.
Depression, according to him, has entered the clinical domain and requires more serious professional treatment.
Regarding Millennials and Generation Z, Dr. Sumaryono does not fully agree that these generations are more prone to burnout than previous generations.
He believes the difference lies more in resilience to pressure.
Limited experience can mean their ability to withstand significant pressure still requires adjustment.
Nevertheless, he emphasized that this does not mean earlier generations did not face pressure; it is just that the form and context were different.
“Generational differences lie in experience in dealing with pressure and how they learn to cope,” he explained.
In both professional and academic settings, expectations regarding careers and productivity are strongly influenced by individual perceptions.
Dr. Sumaryono gave an example that stress can become an adaptive process when a person finds meaning in their work.
He emphasized the importance of mentors, both academic advisors and workplace supervisors, in guiding young people through coaching approaches.
“Open communication is considered key so that pressure does not develop into misdirected stress and potentially lead to burnout,” he said.
In closing, Dr. Sumaryono shared realistic strategies to prevent burnout, especially toward the end of the year, through the CHANGE method.
This method includes Challenge (viewing life as a challenge), Hope (maintaining optimism), Adaptation (managing stress and setting priorities), Network (building connections to seek perspectives from mentors and others), and eventually reaching the stages of Growth and Excellence.
He emphasized that stress should not be underestimated, but it should not be exaggerated either. With proper understanding, stress can instead become a driving force for sustained productivity.
Author: Ika Agustine
Editor: Gusti Grehenson
Post-editor: Lintang Andwyna
Illustration: Freepik