Workplace burnout has become so pervasive that the World Health Organization has redefined the term and is working to develop guidelines on mental well-being in the workplace. Some cities are also taking on the issue. Stephanie Hirsch, an at-large city councilor in Somerville, is introducing a resolution to deal with workplace burnout among city staff. She spoke with WGBH News' Arun Rath about the resolution. This transcript has been edited for clarity.

Arun Rath: So first off, could you take us through what the resolution says? It's pretty straightforward.

Stephanie Hirsch: Mainly, I just wanted to introduce the idea so that we can have it in mind. I didn't want to call for a new commission or task force because that would be, sort of ironically, adding to the workload of city staff. But if it's something that we can think about as we make future decisions about personnel or staffing, I don’t think it’s something we talk about much, and it's probably worth talking about more.

Rath: What have you heard from city staff about burnout?

Hirsch: People in Somerville, and I think everywhere, are more sad and frustrated at this particular point in time. And the issues range from really personal — a family member dealing with the opioid epidemic, or being evicted or the threat of deportation — to quality of life, challenges like just being stuck in traffic for half an hour to try to go only one mile. When you get to be in an elected position or city staff person, you just feel like this tremendous weight of responsibility that we should be helping alleviate or relieve some of the burdens that people have. It can be just a relentless, unending, 24-hour challenge.

Rath: In your position with your responsibilities, have you ever experienced workplace burnout?

Hirsch: Yes. It's just like a constant feeling of being responsible and able in some way to try to help. And it's hard to separate the work with just home or just life.

A city colleague of mine was telling me a story that she went to Market Basket on Sunday morning, and she was at the deli line, and from way across the deli section somebody started yelling at her, an old friend from 40 years ago, about parking tickets. And everybody in the deli section turned and got really quiet and turned to listen to this woman yell at my colleague.

Rath: Well, there's something to be said for that kind of access. But beyond the resolution, beyond recognizing, the problem, what can the city council do to help?

Hirsch: That's a good question. I don't really know. When I was thinking about it, I was thinking that a lot of our talk about handling stress or preventing burnout or handling homework balance is kind of a personal step, like, I'm going to disconnect from Facebook or I'm going to separate my email addresses or something like that. But I was thinking what can we do as a community, or what can we do as a workplace organization to set up some kind of expectations and culture that's different? We almost have to kind of come up with a pact as a community, and as a workplace, to say we have to be able to stay sane and happy in order to continue to do this really hard work together.

Rath: There's this attitude that's pretty pervasive, that exhaustion or burnout are like a rich man's disease, that you shouldn't enjoy work. That's why it's called work. This is just a problem, you should just cope with on your own.

Hirsch: I think being an elected person or city staff person, we should be able to take care of each other and have empathy, and that seems like the order of business of the day is an increase in empathy and kindness. If we can't sort it out in a diverse, close-knit, physically close community like Somerville, then it makes me discouraged about the fate of our whole country.