Glossary of Terms
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Common Language about Burnout and Workplace Culture
This glossary supports leaders, managers, and professionals seeking precise definitions around burnout, culture, and well-being.
Burnout Related Language
Definition: of Burnout (WHO framework)
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.” - World Health Organization
The three major signs of burnout are: Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion; Disengagement and/or cynicism; Lack of professional effectiveness
Workload: The amount of work to be done, especially by a particular person in a period of time.
Empowerment: Granting employees the authority and confidence to make decisions.
Remote work: Performing job duties from a location outside the traditional office environment.
Culture fit: The alignment of an individual's values and behaviors with the organization's culture.
Work-life balance: The equilibrium between personal life and professional responsibilities.
Work From Home (WFH): A remote work arrangement where employees perform their job duties from home, using digital tools for communication and collaboration, offering flexibility but requiring self-discipline and clear boundaries.
Hybrid Work: A flexible work model combining remote and in-office work, allowing employees to split time between home and the workplace, balancing autonomy, collaboration, and company culture.
Overwork
Overwork is the sustained pattern of working beyond healthy capacity, where excessive demands outpace recovery and gradually erode cognitive performance, health, and engagement.
Wellness
Wellness refers to the intentional practices and supports that promote physical, mental, and emotional health at the individual level.
Well-Being
Well-being is the broader, sustained state of psychological, physical, and social health that emerges when people experience meaning, connection, safety, and manageable demands.
Productivity
Productivity is the effective creation of value through focused effort and resources, ideally measured not by hours worked but by meaningful outcomes achieved sustainably.
Toxic productivity is an unhealthy compulsion to be productive at all times, often at the expense of our mental and physical well-being, relationships, and overall quality of life.
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Generational Language used in Workplaces
Generational labels often shape workplace expectations and leadership narratives, though ranges may vary by source.
Generational Labels - Commonly Used (some date ranges vary by source)
Baby Boomers (born 1946–1964)
Baby Boomers are the post–World War II generation shaped by economic expansion, institutional loyalty, and the rise of mass media and corporate careers.
Generation X (born 1965–1980)
Generation X grew up during economic restructuring and rising divorce rates, developing independence, skepticism of institutions, and adaptability in a shifting labor market.
Millennials (Generation Y) (born 1981–1996)
Millennials came of age alongside the internet and global connectivity, tending to value purpose-driven work, collaboration, and flexibility in how and where they work.
Generation Z (born 1997–2012)
Generation Z is the first fully digital-native generation, shaped by smartphones, social media, economic uncertainty, and heightened awareness of mental health and identity.
Generation Alpha (born 2013–2025)
Generation Alpha is growing up immersed in AI, ubiquitous connectivity, and hybrid physical-digital environments, with education and socialization increasingly mediated by technology.
Looking for leadership-ready language? Explore curated burnout quotes and reflections →
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Psychology Terminology
These foundational psychological concepts frequently appear in conversations about burnout, resilience, and leadership effectiveness.
Psychological Flexibility
Flexibility is a personality trait that describes the extent to which a person can cope with changes in circumstances and think about problems and tasks in novel, creative ways.[1] This trait comes into play when stressors or unexpected events occur, requiring that a person change their stance, outlook, or commitment.
Emotional Flexibility
The ability to flexibly regulate emotions and to recover from the primary emotional response when required. Essentially - it creates the best possible match with the ever-changing environment. (Aldao et al)
Optimism
Optimism reflects a belief or hope that the outcome of some specific endeavour, or outcomes in general, will be positive, favourable, and desirable.
In Plain Language: A consistent belief that everything will turn out ok even if it wasn’t how we’d planned.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimism
Hope
Hope is a positive motivational state characterized by the belief that desired outcomes are possible and that one can identify pathways and sustain the agency needed to achieve them.
In Plain Language: “Believing there is a way forward, and that you can take steps toward it.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope
Pessimism
Pessimism is a cognitive orientation that anticipates unfavorable outcomes, often attributing setbacks to stable or enduring causes and expecting future efforts to produce limited success.
In Plain Language: “Expecting things to go wrong and doubting that change will make much difference.”
Looking for leadership-ready language? Explore curated burnout quotes and reflections →
Cognitive Flexibility
According to the APA: The capacity for objective appraisal and appropriately flexible action. Cognitive flexibility also implies adaptability and fair-mindedness.
In Plain Language: The ability and openness to changing your mind.
Resilience (Psychological)
Psychological resilience is the ability to cope mentally and emotionally with a crisis, or to return to pre-crisis status quickly.(Garmezy)
In Plain Language: The ability to bounce back from challenging situations.
Empathy
Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings or perspective of another person, recognizing their emotional experience without losing awareness of your own.
In Plain Language: “Seeing and feeling with someone, not just about them.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empathy
Compassion
Compassion is a prosocial emotional response that arises from recognizing another person’s suffering and includes a genuine desire to help relieve or reduce that suffering.
In Plain Language: “Caring enough about someone’s struggle to want to do something about it.”
Difference: Empathy helps us understand; compassion moves us to act.
Trust
Trust is the willingness to be vulnerable to another person, group, or system based on positive expectations of their intentions, competence, and reliability.
In Plain Language: “Choosing to rely on someone because you believe they will act with integrity and follow through.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trust_(social_science)
Mistrust
Mistrust is a general sense of unease or skepticism toward another person, group, or system, often arising from uncertainty, lack of information, or past negative experiences.
In Plain Language: “Feeling unsure or guarded because something does not feel fully reliable.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mistrust
Distrust
Distrust is the confident expectation that another person, group, or system will act in ways that are harmful, self-serving, or unreliable.
In Plain Language: “Believing someone will let you down or act against your interests.”
Neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it previously functioned.
In Plain Language: The ability of the brain to organize and reorganize to adapt to change over time.
Gratitude
Gratitude, thankfulness, or gratefulness is a feeling of appreciation (or similar positive response) by a recipient of another's kindness. This kindness can be gifts, help, favours, or another form of generosity to another person.
In Plain Language: “The science of focusing on what we have versus what we don’t have.” (Evans)
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Jargon, Buzzwords, Hashtags
This glossary supports leaders, managers, and professionals seeking to understand the latest buzzwords and emerging language on social media
When employees put in the minimum amount of effort to keep their jobs, but don't go the extra mile for their employer.
Short clips on TikTok featuring workers quitting their jobs, or thinking about and openly discussing whether to resign. Sometimes also referred to as Loud Quitting.
Rage Applying
Rage applying happens when a person is so unhappy with their current job that they apply for many others in a burst.
The Great Resignation
An ongoing economic trend where employees have voluntarily resigned from their jobs in large numbers, beginning in the height of the pandemic. Among the most cited reasons for resigning include wage stagnation amid rising cost of living, limited opportunities for advancement, hostile work environments, lack of benefits, inflexible remote-work policies, and long-lasting job dissatisfaction. Many employees left the labour market altogether
The Great Reshuffling
An ongoing economic trend is where employees are changing jobs, roles, or fields of work to find better schedules, flexible work arrangements, and better wages, among other reasons.
Reverse Bucket List: A list of our accomplishments over the past year, done in place of a New Year’s Resolution list, often leads to feelings of disappointment and ineffectiveness when we don’t accomplish our resolutions year after year.
JOMO: Joy of Missing Out. As opposed to Fear of Missing Out, JOMO invites us to enjoy the time we regain by saying no to things that don’t help us to achieve our goals or bring us happiness.
Reverse Bucket List: A list of our accomplishments over the past year, done in place of a New Year’s Resolution list, often leads to feelings of disappointment and ineffectiveness when we don’t accomplish our resolutions year after year.
Toxic Positivity: Toxic positivity promotes excessive positivity without acknowledging negative emotions. Many people feel that by only focusing on positive things and rejecting anything that might cause them to feel negative emotions, they can maintain a constant state of happiness.
This happens when staff log extra hours before and after vacations so they don't fall behind in work.