The World Health Organization has officially recognized working too hard as a legitimate medical diagnosis.
The agency included "burnout" in the latest version of its International Classification of Diseases handbook.
The WHO says burnout is associated with employment or unemployment. It results from chronic workplace stress that hasn't been managed successfully.
And it's characterized by three dimensions: Feeling depleted or exhausted; having an "increased mental distance" from one's job or negative feelings related to one's job; and "reduced professional efficacy".
As CNN notes, experts have struggled to agree on a specific definition for burnout, and it's been a vague concept for a long time now. The WHO didn't name any specific treatments for dealing with the issue.
Additional reporting from Newsy affiliate CNN.
