"Not Exactly Burnout but Feeling Somewhat Lethargic"... The Rise of Toastout [Jjinbit]

"Grilled Before Completely Burned" Trending on SNS
Faster Self-Awareness... Reflecting Interest in Work-Life Balance
'Long Working Hours' Labor-Management-Government Talks Begin... Conflict Expected

Editor's Note[Jjinbit] is a shortened form of 'Jung Hyunjin's Business Trend' and 'Real Business Trend,' a segment that showcases trends in changes in work.

"I came to Toast-out." Recently, this new slang has been trending on social networking services (SNS). It is a variation of the term burnout, which describes a phenomenon where a person deeply engaged in work feels fatigue from overwork and falls into lethargy. Toast-out means "not quite burnout but a somewhat lethargic state, lacking motivation yet managing to live well in the present life." While 'burnout' refers to being completely exhausted as if everything has burned out, 'toast-out' describes a state like toast that is browned but not fully burnt. On SNS, illustrations depicting the pitch-black burnt burnout and the brown toasted toast-out are flooding the feeds.

Toast-out is an intermediate stage between a peaceful daily life and burnout. SNS users define burnout as "an urgent state requiring immediate resignation or something similar," whereas toast-out is "a state where forced smiles are still possible." Since burnout is a state that has completely exceeded limits, external help is necessary to resolve it, but toast-out can be recovered from with just a day or two of rest. Although it is a bittersweet expression revealing the mental exhaustion process of young people suffering from stress and overwork, it can be positively evaluated for subdividing stages so that individuals can recognize and respond to their condition before complete exhaustion.

Until now, most people complaining of burnout were often unaware that they were becoming exhausted. The term burnout began to be used in its current meaning only about 50 years ago. Originally, it was an informal expression referring to the mental lethargy experienced by drug addicts, but in 1974, American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger started applying it to volunteers supporting drug addicts who were exhausted from stress and overwork. The World Health Organization (WHO) only began listing 'burnout syndrome' in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) system in 2020. WHO assessed that although it is not medically classified as a disease, it can cause chronic fatigue, decreased work capacity, and seriously affect health.

In Korea, the term burnout rapidly spread in the 2010s. In our society, which has the chronic problem of long working hours, burnout has become a social issue rather than an individual one. Recently, JobKorea conducted a survey on 'burnout syndrome experience' with 342 male and female office workers, revealing that 7 out of 10 respondents experienced burnout syndrome. By age group, workers in their 30s (75.3%) were the most affected. More than 40% of respondents said they suffered from burnout due to 'excessive workload,' and sometimes worked on weekends or holidays because of the heavy workload. Besides excessive work burden and stress, social pressure to live a 'perfect life' also often contributes to burnout.

On the 21st, based on a consensus to resolve long working hours, social dialogue among labor, management, and government officially began. They will discuss working hour reform measures such as a four-day workweek and flexible working hours, focusing on finding 'work-life balance (WLB).' It is expected that conflicts will be intense regarding institutional reforms. Times have changed. Especially among young people, awareness of toast-out before burnout shows that they are beginning to look into their own condition and take interest in countermeasures. We must never forget that the gaze watching this has become sharper.