A tale of a burnout generation: Understanding the influence of socio-cultural processes in the perceptions and experiences of the millennial generation regarding the professional life and the fear of failure

Millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996, face distinct work-life challenges shaped by recent cultural, economic, and social shifts, leading to high levels of work-related syndromes. Some authors have described them as a 'burnout generation,’ while multiple opinion pieces have been written about stress and burnout in this generation in recent years. Thus, they are a key demographic cohort to pay attention to. Our project’s main objectives are to theorise and critically examine the generational mechanisms and the psychosocial and socio-cultural processes involved in work-related syndromes among them, mainly burnout. This project aligns with a socio-cultural approach in psychology and proposes to approach generational phenomenon from the perspective of the subject adopting a developmental perspective to explore how Millennials build specific relations and representations of the socio-historical context related to work-life and explore their experiences and narrative. A scoping review was conducted in a first step to provide a comprehensive overview of occupational stress and professional burnout within the millennial generation. The next step is a qualitative study phase where we will conduct storytelling groups focusing on the collective experience of millennials and work-related syndromes with a focus on burnout and fear of failure. We will mobilise recent alternative theories proposed to study generations, largely ignored within generational research such as the lifespan and the socio-constructionist perspective. Storytelling will be deployed as narrative groups can make it possible to capture the generational perspective on a phenomenon (burnout). We will do so under a psychological perspective of collective memory, thus in relation to the person who remembers (millennials) as they move through life and society, to better understand their accounts of what happened to them.