Do you drag yourself to work every morning? And then find it hard to get started because you do not see the point in anything? The stress caused by your job is making life hard for you and those around you, but you cannot pinpoint exactly what is wrong. You can now put a name to those elusive symptoms: burnout. Let’s find out what it is and what you can do to ease and prevent it.
What Are the Causes of burnout?
Burnout is tricky to diagnose because the symptoms can mirror those of depression. However, it has specific causes. According to the experts, burnout is caused by chronic stressors, like heavy workloads, intense time pressure, or lack of control over your job. Other causes include a dysfunctional workplace with unhealthy dynamics and the lack of social support that make you feel isolated at work. However, the most common cause seems to be the imbalance between work and personal life.
Burnout affects the employee and those around them, like friends, colleagues, and family. Managers should pay special attention to this phenomenon, recognize it, and act. According to a survey by Deloitte, the biggest driver of employee burnout are lack of support or recognition (31%), unrealistic deadlines (30%), and long hours during the week and working on weekends (29%).
Can You Relate to These Burnout Symptoms?
There is a wide variety of burnout symptoms, some of which you may recognize. You feel detached and negative about work, you don’t take pride in it anymore. Also, you think you’re not productive and don’t achieve much. You lack motivation. Finally, your sleeping habits have changed, you don’t feel rested in the morning.
Other signs of burnout include irritability and using food, drugs, and alcohol to make yourself feel better. This podcast from the Cleveland Clinic discusses burnout. It includes a transcript, so you can read along as you listen.
“Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes… including you.” — Anne Lamott (American novelist and non-fiction writer.)
How Can I Beat Burnout?
A drastic measure would be to leave your job, but that’s not always possible. Failing that, here are some ideas:
- Prioritize your mental health. Self-care is very important. See a therapist, practice mindfulness, exercise, hang out with friends, take up a hobby or activity that gives you pleasure, like learning a language.
- Find work-life balance. Easier said than done, right? Set up boundaries so one doesn’t dominate the other. For example, let colleagues know you won’t be available after 6pm or at weekends.
- Reduce stress at work. Again, easier said than done. But there are a few things you can do, like resetting expectations of clients and colleagues, and setting up guidelines for working together.
- Seek out others for meaningful interaction and mutual support.
- Establish a daily routine. And stick to it!
Personal and Professional Growth Is Key
Continuous personal and professional development help beat burnout. This is where English Services can help your employees. Our corporate language training solutions and double impact programs apply techniques like gamification, mind mapping, and the neurosciences to our blended lessons (real-time lessons and a 24/7 learning platform).
Find out more about our services here.
