A Case of Adult-Onset Leukoencephalopathy With Axonal Spheroids and Pigmented Glia mimicking Multiple Sclerosis.

Burnout is one of the psychological stresses that affects workers’ health and well-being. Therefore, the World Health Organization (Prada-Ospina ) describes burnout as a psychological reaction to long-term work-related stress. It is a workplace psychological stress syndrome characterised by emotional, physical and mental exhaustion, reduced work efficiency and lower job satisfaction (Alsalhe et al. ; Maryani & Gazali ). Burnout causes psychological trauma, leading to negative behaviours such as decreased attention, withdrawal from colleagues and increased absenteeism (Dobson et al. ; Johnson ; Johnson & Newman ; Smith, Mullins-Jaime & Balogun ). This phenomenon can significantly jeopardise team dynamics and organisational effectiveness, thereby potentially undermining the quality of work output and increasing the risk of workplace conflicts (Maryani & Gazali ; Van Jaarsveldt & Jacobs ). In the 21st century, universities have intensified their pursuit of excellence and work demands. Insurmountable pressure is often placed on academic staff to achieve expected outcomes, which can heighten stress. Because of increasing expectations for academic staff, it has been authoritatively argued that working in a university setting is no longer stress-free (Smith et al. ). This emanates from the fact that the responsibilities expected of academics have become extensive. The situation is much more intense among medical and health academic staff, with high expectations for not only clinical and classroom teaching and research but also community engagement to increase the number of medical personnel and improve patient outcomes. Professionals in the health field continue to engage in clinical practice to maintain their clinical skills and enhance their ability to supervise health professional students. However, because of heavy workloads and demands, many staff are stressed, which makes their work challenging and affects their career progression (Kocatepe, Kocatepe & Yildirim ). The role of academics has grown significantly in response to increased demands from various stakeholders, including university administrations, research councils and government bodies (Dobson & Schnall ; Gordon & Schnall ; Landsbergis & Schnall ). Researchers have documented increased responsibilities, including teaching, research, academic duties and other service roles (Francis, Bin Ahmad & Abdullah ; Meilani, Bernarto & Nahar ; Mohammad Alrifae & Wahab ). Moreover, the tasks extend beyond teaching to include supervising students, publishing, compiling reports, performing administrative duties and presenting at conferences (Dobson et al. ; Kocatepe et al. ; Landsbergis & Schnall ; Zizka & Probst ). Academics are further required to participate in research projects, serve on scientific committees and review scholarly papers, while also fulfilling other obligations outside academia, such as family, friendships and social engagements (Ameri & Mohammadi ; Luzipho, Joubert & Dhurup ; Valkov & Peeva ). This has dramatically increased pressure among academics, perpetuating a spike in burnout. In addition, the increase in workload has been linked to growing student populations, increased demands for research output, and the adoption of performance-based funding models (Francis et al. ; Meilani et al. ; Mohammad Alrifae & Wahab ). This noticeable increase in workload has become a cause for concern, plunging academics into an emotional quandary that ultimately leads to occupational stress and burnout (Katz et al. ; Kelly et al. ; Ostrow et al. ). Furthermore, the institutions benefit immensely from the increased workload for academic staff, but the same cannot be said of the latter. For example, improved research outputs attract funding from various stakeholders, including the government, the private sector and non-governmental organisations (Boitet et al. ; Rogers et al. ; Underdahl, Ditri & Duthely ). These stakeholders are generally interested in funding academic institutions such as universities that pursue research on national issues, innovation and societal development. On the other hand, an increased workload can lead to significantly high academic stress levels. In contributing to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the academic community must recognise its role in addressing the effects of burnout, promoting good health and well-being (SDG 3) and decent work (SDG 8). University management must implement effective strategies to address burnout, and we, as academic professionals, can contribute by promoting healthy work–life balance, offering mental health resources and fostering supportive work environments (Abadi & Hasanuddin ; Akerstrom et al. ). Also, according to Brown et al. () and Strauss et al. (), considering the challenges confronting health professional academics in universities in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), more comprehensive studies must be conducted based on the Maslach model to assess the growing burnout concern a