BURNOUT VERSUS LAZINESS

image credit: Burnout.org

By Agbor Blessing Favour

In today's academic space where students juggle multiple responsibilities such as lectures, assignments with fast approaching deadlines and even financial pressure, burnout is becoming common amongst students. Unfortunately, it is often mistaken as laziness.

Before labeling a student as lazy, we need to understand the basic difference.

Burnout is simply the state of physical and mental collapse due to long periods of stress without adequate rest.

Laziness on the other hand means an individual has the ability and the resources to carry out a given task but simply chooses not to.

Instead of making unproductivity a basis to label people as lazy, we should perhaps ask "what might this person be going through" and offer help if we can. A little empathy, love, support and care go a long way.

Next time someone appears unproductive, the better question isn't "why is this individual so lazy?" but are they carrying more than they can handle or are they carrying more than we can see?