What It Means to Reach Burnout: Your Work, Your Time & Your Health
Vivek kumar Singh
Content Strategist | Copywriter | Research | Editing | Marketing & Branding | Ed-Tech
Burnout in the workplace has always an issue in our “more is more” world. Health care professionals and food service workers alike not only faced serious health risks, but also long hours and staffing woes. Newly remote workers, especially parents, struggled to achieve work-life balance, the lack of separation between their home lives and their jobs causing them to work at all hours, and often long hours, while simultaneously juggling kids, household responsibilities, and the fear and anxiety of the #pandemic we have faced earlier.
Though they aren't finished, the changes to the way we live and work are just now beginning to taper down. Throughout the past several years, stress and anxiety have skyrocketed, and the majority of us are still struggling to adjust to a new normal.
Even when we're very exhausted, we still have to work. It is possible to recover, but more than ever, we must all work together to prevent burnout, from individual workers to company executives to entire governments.
What is job burnout?
Burnout is recognized as an occupational phenomenon and is included in the WHO's ICD handbook, where it is defined as “a burnout syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Despite this, neither the Mayo Clinic nor the World Health Organization recognizes burnout as a medical condition. There are three aspects of job burnout, according to an inventory created by Christina Maslach , an emeritus psychology professor at the University of California, Berkeley:
It's taken a while for this explanation to be provided. Since psychologist Herbert Freudenberger published one of the first publications on burnout in the 1970s, the notion of burnout has remained ill-defined. Indeed, at least 142 distinct definitions of burnout have been identified in a study of 182 papers published between 1991 and 2018.
So, can working too much lead to burnout?
Although there is subtlety to burnout, career change consultant Lisa Lewis Miller ?notes that it is frequently linked to overwork. We are capable of overworking for brief periods of time before fully recovering with the right coping strategies and time.
Miller defines burnout as the result of prolonged, regular labor periods during which one does not feel recharged. It's possible to experience burnout in spite of loving your work. Everyone need frequent time off from work in order to rejuvenate. While putting your own needs first may appear self-serving, you may regain your composure and balance your mental health.
Identifying the signs of burnout
It's possible that you're too busy and worn out to even recognize it. According to Miller, if you frequently feel as though you lack the will or energy to do much of anything, you are likely experiencing burnout. This can manifest itself in both your personal and professional life.
According to Miller, "you might notice that tasks or activities you would do happily (or at least willingly) now feel like a slog." "Because you are unable to fully engage your attention or brainpower, you may also find that it takes you longer to complete tasks that you have previously completed."
Are you burning out as a result of leaking boundaries?
It's possible that the workplace you work in doesn't provide you complete control over the things that lead to burnout. For instance, shift work and high-pressure employment have inherent elements that are typically non-negotiable; yet, how you handle other aspects might be helpful. For example, you can control if you're the person who often steps in at the last minute to assist out with important tasks or switches shifts on short notice.
Regretfully, "it's easy to become overwhelmed when you are already burned out," according to certified psychotherapist Joyce Marter of Psychology Today. Consequently, self-care is neglected.
When you realize you're headed into burnout, that's when you need to act. According to Marter, at such point, you should "use assertive communication with supervisors to set boundaries with workload and expectations." Confident speech demonstrates regard for oneself and other people. Instead of being passive, aggressive, or passive-aggressive, it is straightforward, diplomatic, and explicit. Acquire the ability to refuse.
If not, Miller thinks you could have "leaky boundaries." You then have a tendency to accept too many obligations at such time.
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Miller says that failing to properly unplug from work and never allowing your work brain to go into "off" mode can also lead to burnout. "Identifying the environmental cues that tend to drive you into burnout is a great place to start when developing new routines, limits, and restorative exercises to deal with them.”
For women, burnout is different
According to Miller, women tend to downplay and dismiss burnout as "having a rough day" or "being low energy." Because women are subject to gender-specific societal pressures, burnout can present itself in unique ways for us.
She lists a few of these as follows:
It seems sense that women would attempt to please everyone and feel trapped in a sea of conflicting demands. According to Miller, this is all before we even consider the additional social expectations that may be associated with your physique, religion, ethnicity, or marital status.
Which tips for job burnout are truly long-term effective?
According to Dorie Clark , author of Entrepreneurial You, strategy consultant, and executive coach, the conventional wisdom about cutting back on Netflix binges is "a preposterous suggestion for hard-charging professionals." We've already pared down our calendars to nothing. We respond to voicemails while driving home from work, listen to audio books while doing the dishes, and respond to emails while in line at the grocery store. There is no longer any efficiency to be extracted from the corners of our existence.
Rather, you "have to learn how to say no to good things," according to Clark. Setting professional priorities, estimating the time commitment in advance if you agree, and weighing the potential, physical, and psychological costs of taking on additional responsibilities are all necessary for doing so successfully.
To effectively prevent burnout over time, two strategies are needed.
"If people believe they can influence their environment, they usually take the necessary steps to reverse the factors which got them [to burnout] in the first place," says Zaria Gorvett of the BBC. Gorvett is informed by psychologist Stela Salminen that although "individual changes and mental shifts" are necessary for some portion of the rehabilitation process, chronic stress will persist in the absence of changes to the workplace, such as lighter workloads.
Is burnout unavoidable?
Although it's not always the case, burnout is always a possibility. Employees must take the initiative to prevent burnout, and in order to manage the stress that causes it, they require assistance from governments and companies. This assistance will help alter cultural norms. For instance, Iceland went from experimenting with reduced workweeks (without lowering compensation) to enacting them permanently for 86% of the working population. Not only was output either unchanged or increased, but work-life balance and employee wellbeing also improved.
Additional time off and remote or flexible work choices should be part of the strategies that American businesses devised during the epidemic to prevent employee burnout. For example, some companies are implementing paid time off in addition to mandatory company-wide shutdowns.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the journey through understanding and addressing burnout has been a long and evolving one. From the realization of its multifaceted nature to acknowledging its impact on different demographics such as women, we've come to understand the intricate interplay of individual boundaries and systemic factors in its development. As we navigate through strategies to combat burnout, it's evident that a holistic approach is necessary, involving both personal accountability and structural changes in workplaces and societal norms.
From assertive communication to advocating for policies like reduced workweeks and flexible schedules, the solutions lie not just in managing symptoms but in reshaping the environments that breed burnout. By fostering cultures of support, prioritizing well-being, and embracing innovative approaches like remote work, we pave the way towards a future where burnout is not inevitable, but a preventable and manageable challenge. It's a journey that requires collective effort—from individuals to organizations to governments—but one that holds the promise of healthier, more sustainable work lives for all.
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