Eternal cycle of goals and rewards

Today's workplace is clearly asking for burnout.

Office technology alone manages to set up an atmosphere of non-stop emergency, even when there is no actual crisis on. International trading heightens this effect, with its 24/7 operation nagging that makes you feel guilty about going home. And then there is the sheer intensity of commercial competition, suggesting that the slightest relaxation will play straight into the hands of the other side.

That is how so many of our most gifted, energetic and responsible executives find themselves victims of burnout with their career, sometimes finished by 30. They feel that each extra effort will give them more control over their situation. But in fact, the situation increasingly controls them.

The cycle works this way. A goal is set, you reach it, and earn the promised reward. The next goal is then set higher in exchange for a higher reward. You start to make a Pavlovian connection between effort and reward, and then you can't escape the spiralling workload.

Commitment

Even if you wanted to, you probably couldn't get off the treadmill, as there is usually no option of settling for a 'lite' version of your working day. And offering to work a three-day week is just not feasible when there is an unspoken need to keep behind the situation seven days a week.

Today's executive responsibilities demand total commitment or nothing.

Total absorption is of course the ideal work-mode, a kind of trance, where you attain prodigious levels of concentration and deep insights that impact favourably on your record. But this is basically living on adrenalin - and adrenalin is finite.

That is the moment when the rocket turns into a falling stick. As you start working unnaturally long hours as routine, your efficiency starts to drop. Meanwhile you have neglected your health, your leisure and your family life too.

This is one half of the picture, and it is the better-known half-burnout as the dangerous other side of achievement culture, sometimes seen as the punishment for greed.

But there is also the less-known cause of burnout - the stress of being a loser in business. It is not only because losers are dumped with all the tedious chores that may demand even more midnight oil than the work of the high-flyers. It is the sheer mental grind of being powerless, unable to influence a situation, someone who basically gets things wrong and whose opinions are not wanted.

The frustration and hopelessness intensify, as though you are walking along for ever with the left foot in the right shoe. This is the true opposite of adrenalin, making a bad performance even worse.

And then, without having enjoyed the rewards that go with over-achievement, you too turn into that pitiable figure, the burnt-out case.

The writer is a BBC broadcaster and motivational speaker, with 20 years' experience as CEO of Carole Spiers Group, an international stress consultancy based in London.

Key points: What causes a burnout

• Today's culture automatically ratchets-up stress, leading to burnout.
• With high achievers, concentration and efficiency intensifies, then fails.
• With low achievers, frustration and humiliation equally lead to burnout.