How to avoid work burnout

Hello and welcome to CNBC’s Work It newsletter, about all things work — from landing the job to succeeding in your career. It’s the holiday season, which is holly ??, jolly ??and stressful ?? all at the same time, so, we thought it was a good time to talk about burnout – and how to avoid it.

One of the first tips: Make sure you take your vacation time . ??

“Vacations are really important to recover from our always-on work culture,” Ashley Whillans, assistant professor of business administration at Harvard Business School and author of “Time Smart,” told CNBC’s Make It. “They help us come back to work more refreshed, more creative, more energized, feeling more positive.”

And, it’s important to start early in your career to make it a good habit. That way, you can crush it at work, then recharge your battery to keep on crushin’ it.

So, how many days should you take? It’s different for everyone. Some people feel refreshed after just a day off ??, others may need a week or more ??????. And, of course, not everyone has paid time off. What’s important is to make sure you give yourself a break.

So, take some time off this Thanksgiving ?? if you can. Try to really unplug ?? from work – and your phone ??. If your job requires you to check in, try to just keep it to a minimum. Enjoy the time with family, friends and good food! ??

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How to break the habit of being busy

The nonstop emails. A day of back-to-back meetings. A to-do list that just keeps on growing.

Do you feel like a hamster ?? on a wheel ??, stuck in a nonstop busy-ness loop?

Yeah, me, too.

Well, the first thing you (we) need to understand is that those things aren’t the problem. They are simply manifestations of the root causes, Dorie Clark, a leadership expert and former presidential campaign spokesperson, explained in a TED Talk earlier this year.

The real issues are 1) Being busy makes us feel important, 2) It helps avoid uncertainty because we are busy doing SOMETHING and 3) We’re “numbing,” as Brené Brown has explained in her own TED Talk and books, to avoid dealing with some larger issue we don’t want to face. (This is the same reason that people drink, overeat and overspend.)

I know. That’s a lot to process, especially at the holidays. But, the good news is: Understanding that distinction is key to breaking the always busy habit . So, let’s head into the holidays a little more aware and a little less busy. ??

The most stressful jobs

Everyone, I’m sure, feels stress on the job.

But, after studying more than 800 jobs, Occupational Information Network, or O*NET, part of the Labor Department, ranked them by level of stress and came up with the top 10 most stressful jobs. Some are on the low end of the pay spectrum (those people can legit say “You don’t pay me enough to put up with this”) while others pay $200k or more.

It does make you wonder: Are you being paid enough ?? to put up with this?! ??

Here’s a look at the full list of the 10 most stressful jobs , the pay and what the job entails.

Is your job really the problem?

Is your job really the problem of why you’re feeling burned out? Or, I’m just going to come out and say it — is it you? ??

(If it makes you feel any better, I’m pretty sure it’s me. I’m the problem, it’s me.??)

Well, before you go off on a Taylor Swift tangent, you might be pleased to know that it may actually be a mismatch of you and the job, according to Christina Maslach, a social psychologist, retired professor of psychology at U.C. Berkeley and author of “The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs.”

So, how do you fix it?

Maslach said there are 6 factors that you need to address:

? Workload

? Control

? Reward

? Community

? Fairness

? Values

Here’s how to find balance in those 6 things to reverse burnout at work .

Happy Thanksgiving! See you on the other side – hopefully rested and recharged! ???

More from CNBC:

? Just 60% of NYC job listings include salary ranges— who’s complying, who’s not

? How 3 teachers are navigating the burnout crisis in education

?Avoid these 10 cringeworthy phrases that annoy your co-workers

? I don’t expect you to get my name right, but I want you to try. Here's why

?Here are Bill Gates’ 5 book recommendations for your holiday reading list

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