Christina Maslach
Six ways to be mismatched
Workload is only the first
Maslach & Leiter's six areas of worklife
Same hours, and one person breaks while another doesn't. The six places she found the mismatch.
What actually happened?
Maslach and Leiter split the sources of burnout into six areas — the places where a person and a job fail to match: workload, control, reward, community, fairness and values. Most people watch only the first. In her data the later ones are often more lethal, particularly having no say (control) and doing work that runs against what you believe (values). At identical hours, people matched on all six rarely break; people short two or three break quickly.
Little work with no control hurts more than lots with control
Control is the second area and the most underrated. Few tasks, each needing sign-off and liable to be overturned at any moment, costs far more than a heavy load you get to arrange yourself. This matches what the stress research found independently.
Three things a day, each waiting on three people to nod, is more tiring than ten you decide yourself.
A values mismatch is the slowest and the deepest
The sixth area is doing work that runs against what you care about. It doesn't strike the same day; it hollows out the meaning gradually — the longer you do it the emptier it gets, and the less you can say why. Fix the other five and this one still takes you down.
Having to say things you don't believe every day. No salary fills that particular hole.
Score them separately or you can't tell what to move
'Work is exhausting' implies no action at all. Score the six one by one and the answer usually gets specific: what you need to fight for is decision rights, or what you need to raise is fairness, or what you need is different work.
You think you need less volume; the audit says what's missing is any say in it.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: you can't say what is draining you, only that you can't keep this up.
Ask first: workload, control, reward, community, fairness, values — which of the six am I clearly mismatched on? One sentence each.
Where it goes wrong: using it to prove quitting is the only option — several of the six are negotiable; and don't fail all six and then do nothing. Move the worst one.
Lines to keep
Little work needing sign-off costs more than lots you decide yourself.
A values mismatch doesn't strike today. It hollows the meaning out slowly.