Burnout leave
Given that people’s professional lives are so closely linked to their personal identities, it comes as little surprise that social scientists are so fascinated by what happens when individuals go on sick leave. When the cause of the sick leave is burnout, which is a contentious concept in itself, the legitimacy of the sick leave comes under further challenge. A recent Finnish study explored how sick leave was explained and justified in narrative accounts by burnout sufferers.1 It found that sick leave involves negotiation of one’s status and worth in the categories of ‘respectable employee’ and ‘credible patient’. A transition to sick leave requires causal explanations of burnout, which aim to …