5 Signs of Burnout You Shouldn’t Ignore

Many people stay in jobs for longer than they should. This happens for all sorts of reasons - maybe it’s comfortable, maybe they don’t want the hassle of applying for other jobs, or maybe they’re scared of the uncertainty that comes with leaving. Sometimes people are willing to tolerate negative experiences in the short-term - then the ‘short-term’ drifts into the ‘long-term’ without them realising it. Change is one of the hardest things for many people to deal with.

What causes burnout

People sometimes think burnout is simply a result of working too hard for too long. The truth is that burnout can be related to workload, but there are a number of other factors that also contribute to burnout.

The Mayo Clinic has identified the following factors that contribute to job burnout:

1. Lack of control
2. Unclear job expectations
3. Dysfunctional workplace dynamics
4. Mismatch in values
5. Poor job fit
6. Lack of social support
7. Work-life imbalance

So if your job is a mix of some of the factors above, you might be accruing some burnout risk. If you don’t take some steps to start dealing with it, then you could be heading towards a crisis.

Sometimes when we’re very task focussed, it’s hard to accurately gauge how well we are coping. However our body or mind will usually tell us something is wrong if we’re listening - but we do need to watch for the signs. Although we might think we’re doing OK or that it’s not ‘that bad’, it might be that you are accruing issues that can lead to burnout. So what are the signs?

Five most common signs of job burnout

Forbes outlines 5 signs of job burnout that will be familiar to you if you’ve ever been in a burnout situation:

1. Your work seems much harder and more arduous than it used to.
2. Nothing in your work excites you. It all feels like a burden or like punishment.
3. Worrying about your job is costing you sleep or making you sick.
4. You hate to get out of bed in the morning and go to work.
5. You have no energy for things that used to be fun. You think, “I can’t finish that Netflix series; I can’t go out to dinner tonight - I have too much work to do!”

If nothing in your work excites you and it all feels like a burden or a punishment, this is a sign of burnout.

Getting Help

If you think you might be heading towards burnout, maybe it’s time to think about seeing a counsellor. If you haven’t had counselling before this can be a little scary, but most counselling is more informal than you think. It can help enormously to get an external perspective on what’s going on for you and how serious things are, and to develop some strategies to deal with the situation.

Training can also help develop some practical skills to manage stress. Self-management is an effective way to put up a protective barrier and techniques can be done quickly and easily during the workday. It can be helpful to have a small toolkit of strategies to draw from when needed.

You might decide the job situation is bearable once you put some measures in place, and thus big changes aren’t needed. Or you might decide that staying isn’t worth it for you and you need to start looking for other options. Even if you decide to stay where you are, early signs of burnout can give you a wakeup call to start developing a Plan B for if things don’t get better. And the good news is, they can and they will - if you listen to yourself, get help, and if needed, move on.

Simon Goode is a Director of Reboot: Grow. Providing customised Professional Development courses, including workshops providing strategies for responding to stress and burnout.

If you want to organise some support for you or your staff, check out our customised training on Managing Stress and Burnout