Lockdown and risk of burnout in SME owners-managers: the impediment exhaustion syndrome[Confinamiento y riesgo de agotamiento de los dirigentes-propietarios en PyME: el síndrome de agotamiento por impedimento]

Using the BMS-10 scale (Burnout Measure Short version composed of ten éléments) it is shown that its level increased and its composition changed in French SME owners-managers from before to during the Covid-19 pandemic. Seven independent samples of SME owners-managers collected over a period from 2012 to the end of April 2020 (one month after the start of the first lockdown in France) are investigated. Before the pandemic the hierarchy of éléments is largely the same with feelings of being tired, of disappointment with people and of exhaustion ("I've had it") as the three most important ones. During the pandemic a new hierarchy appears with feelings of helplessness and being trapped as the two most important éléments. This points at an unprecedented form of impediment exhaustion. Two lessons can be drawn. First of all, the governmental and health authorities should be aware of the risk of an increasing burnout for SME owners-managers during the Covid-19 crisis and in particular during lockdown episodes. Secondly, by assuming that a SME owner-manager can be confronted with a situation of incapacity, due to an accident or an illness, pension and health insurance institutions should be alerted about the option to set up novel consultation and support services in order to prevent the deterioration of mental health related to impediment exhaustion. This development seems so severe and so specific that the term impediment exhaustion syndrome is proposed.