Attention for burnout risks in new a.s.r. campaign

People of any age can suffer a burnout. Whether it is someone in their thirties with a demanding job and a busy social life or a person in their forties or fifties with a job and growing children and caring for a sick parent. When someone experiences continuous stress, physical or psychological complaints can arise, followed by illness. Fortunately, if the signs are recognised at an early stage and something is done about it in time, it is possible to prevent absenteeism due to stress and burnout complaints. 

Ewout Hollegien, Director of Income at a.s.r.: ‘Approximately 75,000 business owners have taken out occupational disability insurance with a.s.r. In addition, more than 45,000 companies have insured their employees against occupational disability. In the past year, we have seen an increase in the number of customers reporting sick due to stress and other mental complaints. And although we have already seen for about five years that the use of our sick leave policy and similar individual insurance policies increase by about 4% annually, the corona crisis has accelerated this trend. In 2020, the number of indications rose by 7%. More attention to the psychological problems of employees and business owners is important to reverse this trend. With our campaign, we therefore want to make people more aware of the risk of burnout and the early recognition of its signs’.

Hella de Weger, Manager Brand & Positioning at a.s.r.: ‘What is particularly striking as far as burnout is concerned is that 80% of people do not see it coming, either in themselves or in others, but afterwards they sensed or recognised the signs. We also notice that there is still a taboo on discussing burnout. If we can recognise the signals and dare to admit to having doubts, we can better prevent stress and burnout. Oddly enough, healthy doubts, like absenteeism due to burnout, are also sometimes seen as failure. We really need to get rid of this stigma, so we can pay more attention to how we are really doing. If our skin shows a spot that looks unfamiliar, we have it checked. You should do the same with doubts about your mental health: having doubts is a healthy thing. a.s.r. therefore not only helps its customers in the event of absenteeism, but also if they have healthy doubts. 

The campaign can be seen on TV, radio, social media and in various online media. In addition, people can take the healthy doubt test at www.asr.nl/gezondetwijfeltest.