How to avoid burnout at work

How to avoid burnout at work

Introduction:

"Burnout occurs when an individual has experienced prolonged demands, chronic stress, fatigue, a lack of support, and a decrease satisfaction in what they are doing."

― Asa Don Brown

It's the beginning of the week, and Sarvesh is already longing for the weekend. For the past few months, He has been feeling out of sorts at work, and he is not sure why. For instance, he feels disengaged and unmotivated most days, and he is constantly checking how long it is until he can relax on weekends.

Sarvesh feels that there is never enough time to get everything done. It leaves him feeling perpetual behind and demoralized & Sarvesh is showing classic signs of burnout.

This article will examine another question and understand burnout and its consequences.

1. Understanding the burnout symptoms and common signs

According to The World Health Organization (WHO) professional burnout as the symptoms of burnout commonly fall into the following three dimensions:

1.?????I am feeling exhaustion or energy depletion

2.??????I feel increasingly distant/pessimistic/cynical about one's job.

3.??????I have Reduced professional efficacy/decreased self-evaluation of output/performance

The above three can classify into the following four categories.

1.??????Feelings:?It is tired, irritable, distracted, inadequate, and incompetent.

2.?????Physical: Muscular aches and body pain, headaches, increased or reduced appetite, weight change, and nausea.

3.?????Emotional: Feeling trapped, hopeless, and depressed.

4.?????Mental: Poor concentration, muddled thinking, and indecisiveness.

Ask yourself the following questions:

1.?????Do you feel a lack of satisfaction in activities and tasks you used to enjoy?

2.?????Do you feel difficult to focus or concentrate?

3.?????Do you feel consistently unproductive?

4.?????Do you lack satisfaction from your achievements?

5.?????Do your excessive job demand and unfairness at work exceed human limits??

6.?????Do you doubt yourself most often?

7.?????Have you become cynical or critical (Heightened emotional response-quick to cry, quick anger) anxiety at work?

8.?????Have you become suspicious & paranoid about colleagues? Lack of support from the manager

9.??????Have you become stubborn thinking and unwilling to listen to other people? Developed a negative attitude and appear depressed always?

10. Have your sleep habits (sleep disturbances) changed?

11. ?Have you become more procrastinating more frequently than usual and to a greater degree?

12. ?Have you become morning dread, anxiety that occurs immediately upon waking up in the morning?

13. ?Have you developed the tendency to overeat (Stress Eating) to ease stress?

14. ?Have you developed compassion fatigue?

15. Is your feeling physically exhausted fatigue not resolved by extra rest?

16. Are you postponing your basic self-care needs (Intentional or non-intentional)?

17. ?Are you

18. troubled by frequent unexplained headaches, gastrointestinal & stomach problems, or other minor physical complaints?

?If yes, then you might experience job burnout. Consider talking to a doctor or a health expert because you can also relate these symptoms to health conditions, such as depression.

2. Key Statistics

Burnout searches on search engines have increased dramatically over the last decade. Harvard /Google has done various surveys. Here are some findings and trends for professional burnout:

Google searches related to burnout Job burnout are on the rise. It has increased by 41% annually between 2017 and 2020, while searches for "occupational burnout" have increased by over 2,500% since 2015.

According to a Harvard Business School, stress at work costs the U.S. $190 billion per year in health care, and at least 120,000 casualties in the U.S. each year are because of it. Professional Burnout has significant consequences. 63% of people are more likely to need a sick day, and 260% are more likely to look for a new job actively.

According to a Deloitte survey, Millennials are experiencing more burnout than the previous generation and are less tolerant of it. Eighty-four percent of millennials said they had experienced burnout in their current job, with close to 50% of millennials saying they have quit a job because of burnout specifically, compared to 42% of all survey participants.

3. Risk factors of Job burnout

According to the Gallup organization, the most common causes of burnout were unfair treatment, a very high workload, unclear communication from managers, a lack of support, and excessive time pressures.

There are subtle factors that can play a role as well.

Signs and symptoms of Burnout and its causes often overlap with each other .it is a complex and often bi-directional relationship.

For example:

When you are stressed, overloaded, and experiencing prolonged job burnout, you are more likely to procrastinate. However, procrastinating will probably increase your levels of stress, anxiety, and overwhelm, leading to more burnout.

?It is a mistake to ignore the many external and environmental factors contributing to burnout.

a. Environmental Causes of Burnout

Unfair treatment at work. One of the most reported causes of burnout at work is the perception of being mistreated by managers, bosses, and co-workers. Negative consequences of unfair and toxic work culture lead to low organizational trust. And, your stress levels are elevated, which leads to many of the most common symptoms of professional burnout, like anxiety, exhaustion, and isolation.

b. Lack of control. ->You need control over your life, including work—personnel as well as professional.

c. Excessive workloads. The primary reason for excessive workloads is poor communication between the people doing the work and those assigning it. If a manager doesn't see how their direct reports are regularly working, it would be easy to develop misconceptions about workloads if employees can't speak up assertively about excessive amounts of work.

Poor job clarity will result in confusion, frustration, and Procrastination.

d. Poor communication and support. In many Organizations, the culture of communication is not very open. Employees feel that communication down the line is not very transparent. Some employees are less vocal, and some are more vocal in raising their concerns. Lack of down-the-line communication will lead to conflict and resentments, resulting in more minor employee engagements.

e. Unreasonable timelines and deadlines.

It is the most common issue between managers and their workforce. Both the manager and down-the-line workforce, in general, are not on the same page. It is a communication gap—a mismatch between reality and expectations. Pressure is never released. Unreasonable scope of work in an unreasonable.

y time. In some cases, the company culture might be too demanding. Employees do not get enough time for fruitful and deep-quality work for an extended period.

. It's essentially the opposite of "busy work." Ironically, a constant stream of tedious busywork (Internal meetings & alignments) can be more likely to lead to burnout for some people than more intense bursts of highly demanding but highly focused and creative deep fruitful work.

4. Internal Causes of Burnout:

There are various elements related to Individuals which add to burnout. Some of them are listed as follows.

a.) Perfectionism. Many of the employees struggle with Perfectionism, which means they continue to work hard well past the point of diminishing returns. Perfectionism is psychological where you feel compelled to work hard despite knowing that it's ultimately not in your best interest. Importantly, Perfectionism isn't about striving for perfection in outcomes as it is about striving for perfection in feeling. Perfectionists don't need to do perfectly Ignored self-care. Self-care is all about consistently doing the things that keep us mentally and physically healthy, resilient, and strong. However, self-care activities such as regular exercise, a healthy diet, and family time are compromised when stress levels rise. Facetiously, these are the very things that buffer us from the adverse effects of stress. In the absence of the above, partial stress may result in full-blown stress for you and your team.

b.) Procrastination.

Procrastination means putting off important works and tasks and focussing on less urgent, more enjoyable, and more accessible activities instead.

Procrastination is a trap, and one must avoid falling into

it must not become a habit because it can compound the effects of burnout. After all, you're constantly adding more and more to your workload by avoiding it at the earliest. Procrastination also leads to additional mental stress because you chronically feel guilty and anxious about avoiding what you know needs to get done

?immediately. You must keep a to-do list. Prioritize your To-Do list. It would be best to become a master of scheduling and project planning. You must start complex tasks at the first hour to be more productive. Make great use of task and time management apps Trello and toggl.

c.)Self-criticism. Your private dinner conversation can either be a powerful inspiration or a significant obstacle to reaching your goals. It is one of the dangerous causes of burnout.

Your thought affects your feeling behaviors and actions. It would help if you did not become a victim of your verbal conversation with yourself.

?While self-criticism can feel motivational, it does the opposite—it saps us of energy and drives us to move backward. You must pay attention to your thoughts. It would be best if you replaced exaggeratedly negative thoughts with realistic statements. Learning to recognize your thought patterns is key to understanding how your thinking is affects your life.

d.) Lack of assertiveness.

Boundaries play a critical role in the impact of burnout. You need clearly define the internal and external boundaries of your work. In the absence of a precisely defined, burnout is guaranteed.

?Many people struggle to set clearly defined boundaries. The big question is how to communicate assertively—in a way that's honest to their needs and respectful of others. Most people are so afraid of coming across as rude or disrespectful that they end up constantly deferring their own needs. When it goes on long enough, it's a significant risk factor for developing burnout at work.

5. General Myths and misconceptions

There are several myths and misconceptions.

Here are several of the most common:

?a.) More vacation and time off. While the employees relate total work time to burnout, it related the much bigger factors to how individuals think, feel, and perceive the workloads and how organizations operate.

b.) burnout is a personal issue & does not relate to an organizational one.

?Organizational working culture driven by a management leadership team plays a vital role in developing and maintaining employee engagement. It is not the employee's sole responsibility in nature.

?c.) Passion helps prevent burnout.

A Deloitte survey found that while 87% of people surveyed reported having a passion for their job, 64% also said something frequently stressed them at the workplace.

People do not quit their job. They quit situations.

A significant career change might change burnout. In general, reshaping a job role can address burnout rather than leaving and finding a better one.

6. Consequence of Burnout

Being ignorant and unaddressed job burnout can have significant consequences, including

o??Excessive stress.

o??Fatigue

o??Sadness, anger, or irritability

o??Alcohol or substance misuse

o??Heart disease

o??High blood pressure

o??Vulnerability to illnesses

7. How to avoid / Handling Burnout.

a.) Try to act. To get started:

Find out the root cause of stress: Decrease your stress and burnout at work. First, you must get super clear about the natural sources of your stress and burnout. Take the sheet of paper and list down all the activities leading to your stress levels.

You need to search the most common stress pieces at work and identify the corresponding stressor for each. For example, if you feel stressed working on weekends, you need to talk to your manager and inform them about the workload.

b.) Spot the early sign of a workout:

Early warning systems need to be on the spot. You need to create an early warning system for yourself. When the oil level starts at the bottom, it gives early warning signals for the refill.

????????i.???????????Are you habitually taking work almost every weekend to home?

?????ii.???????????Are you guys; are feeling pain in your shoulders and neck?

???iii.???????????Are you feeling chronic pain in your Cervical pain (symptoms are generally pain in and around the shoulder and neck region.)?

If the Answer to the above, these are the early confirmed early signs of burnout.

c.) Create spaces in your personnel and professional schedules. You can also include the mix of activities that you enjoy in personnel schedules.

It would be best if you did heart-to-heart discussions with your immediate supervisor. Understand the expectations from each other and redefine the goals if needed.

d.) Seek outside support. Whether you reach out to co-workers, friends, family, or loved ones, support and collaboration might help you cope. If you have access to an employee

engagement in your organization, participate in the same.

e) Take periodic breaks periodically throughout the day. Stand up and stretch, take a deep breath, or take a quick walk around the block. It will release stress and bring back focus.

f) Focus on a must-do list basis the priority defined for both personnel and Professional levels—most of your precious time and energy. Everything cannot become urgent daily. You must not allow any unexpected not planned events and tasks into the calendar unless it is very urgent. All the unnecessary and unplanned events will suck a lot of your precious time and energy.

g) Do not isolate yourself in case of burnout

. Maintain social ties in personnel relationships and face challenges and problems. The specific problem between successful and unsuccessful is not the experience and the problems on the path; instead, they have the mindset to remain positive in the face of diversity and utilize the adverse situation for their benefit and advantage.

h) Clarify your values. When experiencing burnout at work, do not get stuck in problem-solving mode—only. Reorienting yourself toward your values—the things that inspire you and matter most in your life—can be an essential ingredient in escaping burnout.

Get some exercise. Build your morning routine. Sound Sleep & regular morning physical activity can help you to refresh your mind and better deal with stress. It can also take your mind off work.

?i) Practice Mindfulness. Burnout often leads to a storm of self-doubt and overthinking. Consistent mindfulness practice adopted as a daily ritual s one of the most effective ways to cultivate true calm and peace of mind. You focus on your breath flow and being intensely aware of what you're sensing and feeling at every moment, without interpretation or judgment. This practice involves facing situations with openness and patience and without judgment

j) Support others from burnout at work -Give them space-This could be a long weekend, a brief vacation, or even a leave of absence. If your colleagues /employees have burnout from work, giving them time to recharge for a short period will help them rejuvenate.

Communicate openly. Keep the line of communication open and open for feedback.

Final Thoughts

Take care of yourselves first. When we do this, the feel-good factor develops. You can have more energy, vibrant and alive better balance in both your professional and personal.

If you feel better in your mind, you can do better—and then balance yourself accordingly. If you continue to experience any of these symptoms despite lifestyle changes and tips mentioned here, please reach out and seek the support and guidance of a qualified medical professional.