07.11.2017

Running on Empty? How to Recognize When You’re on the Road to Burnout


You may be on the road to burnout if:

  • Everyday is a bad day.
  • Caring about your work or home life seems like a total waste of energy.
  • You’re exhausted all the time.
  • The majority of your day is spent on tasks you find either mind-numbingly dull or overwhelming.
  • You feel like nothing you do makes a difference or is appreciated.

Read on to learn more about:

Signs and symptoms of burnout

Burnout is a gradual process. The signs and symptoms are subtle at first, but they get worse as time goes on. If you ignore them, you’ll eventually burn out.

Physical signs and symptoms: Emotional signs and symptoms: Behavioral signs and symptoms:
·  Feeling tired and drained most of the time ·  Sense of failure and self-doubt ·    Withdrawing from responsibilities
·  Lowered immunity, getting sick a lot ·  Feeling helpless, trapped, and defeated ·    Isolating yourself from others
·  Frequent headaches or muscle pain ·  Detachment, feeling alone in the world ·    Procrastinating, taking longer to get things done
·  Change in appetite or sleep habits ·  Loss of motivation  
  ·  Increasingly cynical and negative outlook  
  ·  Decreased satisfaction and sense of accomplishment  


The difference between stress and burnout

Burnout may be the result of unrelenting stress, but it isn’t the same as too much stress. Stress, by and large, involves too much: too many pressures that demand too much of you physically and psychologically. Stressed people can still imagine, though, that if they can just get everything under control, they’ll feel better.

Burnout, on the other hand, is about not enough. Being burned out means feeling empty, devoid of motivation, and beyond caring. People experiencing burnout often don’t see any hope of positive change in their situations. If excessive stress is like drowning in responsibilities, burnout is being all dried up. And while you’re usually aware of being under a lot of stress, you don’t always notice burnout when it happens.

Stress Burnout
Characterized by overengagement Characterized by disengagement
Emotions are overreactive Emotions are blunted
Produces urgency and hyperactivity Produces helplessness and hopelessness
Loss of energy Loss of motivation, ideals, and hope
Leads to anxiety disorders Leads to detachment and depression
Primary damage is physical Primary damage is emotional
May kill you prematurely May make life seem not worth living

Causes of burnout

Burnout often stems from your job. But anyone who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk for burnout—from the hardworking office worker who hasn’t had a vacation in years, to the frazzled stay-at-home mom struggling to care for kids, housework, and an aging parent.

Your lifestyle and personality traits can also contribute to burnout. What you do in your downtime and how you look at the world can play just as big of a role in causing burnout as work or home demands.

Work-related causes of burnout

·       Feeling like you have little or no control over your work

·       Lack of recognition or reward for good work

·       Unclear or overly demanding job expectations

·       Doing work that’s monotonous or unchallenging

·       Working in a chaotic or high-pressure environment

Lifestyle causes of burnout

·      Working too much, without enough time for socializing or relaxing

·      Lack of close, supportive relationships

·      Taking on too many responsibilities, without enough help from others

·      Not getting enough sleep

Personality traits contributing to burnout

·  Perfectionistic tendencies; nothing is ever good enough

·  Pessimistic view of yourself and the world

·  The need to be in control; reluctance to delegate to others

·  High-achieving personality


10 Keys to Deal with Burnout

  1. Turn to other people. Social contact is a natural antidote to stress. Invest in your closest relationships, such as those with your partner, children or friends.Make friends at work.Having strong ties in the workplace can help reduce monotony and counter the effects of burnout.  If you have to work with a negative person, try to limit the amount of time you have to spend together.
  2. The power of giving. Being helpful to others delivers immense pleasure and can help to significantly reduce stress as well as broaden your social circle.
  3. Reframe the way you look at work. Try to find some value in what you do.Even in some mundane jobs, you can often focus on how what you do helps others, for example, or provides a much-needed product or service.
  4. Take time off.If burnout seems inevitable, try to take a complete break from work. Go on vacation, use up your sick days, ask for a temporary leave-of-absence—anything to remove yourself from the situation.
  5. Set boundaries.Learn how to say “no” to requests on your time. If you find this difficult, remind yourself that saying “no” allows you to say “yes” to the things that you truly want to do.
  6. Take a daily break from technology.Set a time each day when you completely disconnect. Put away your laptop, turn off your phone, and stop checking email.
  7. Nourish your creative side.Creativity is a powerful antidote to burnout. Try something new, start a fun project, or resume a favorite hobby. Choose activities that have nothing to do with work.
  8. Set aside relaxation time.Relaxation techniques such as yoga, meditation, and deep breathing activate the body’s relaxation response, a state of restfulness that is the opposite of the stress response. Get plenty of sleep. It will help you to stay calm in stressful situations.
  9. Make exercise a priority. Aim to exercise for 30 minutes or more per day. To maximize stress relief, instead of continuing to focus on your thoughts, focus on your body and how it feels as you move—the sensation of your feet hitting the ground, for example, or the wind on your skin.
  10. Support your mood and energy levels by healthy diet.

Glossary

mind-numbingly dull Смертельно скучный drown in responsibilities Тонуть в обязанностях
makes a difference Иметь значение be dried up Быть истощенным
overwhelming Непомерный overengagement Чрезмерная вовлеченность
subtle Тонкий, незаметный disengagement Отчужденность
feeling drained Чувство опустошенности blunted emotions Слабые эмоции
feeling trapped Чувствовать себя в ловушке anxiety disorders Повышение тревожности
detachment Отстраненность stem from Произрастать
sense of accomplishment Чувство выполненного долга feel overworked Перетрудиться
procrastination Откладывание feel undervalued Чувствовать недооцененность
unrelenting stress Непрекращающийся reluctance to deligate Нежелание делегировать
devoid of motivation Демотивированный have strong ties Иметь тесные/прочные связи
beyond caring Вне интересов и забот mundane job Рутинная работа
have nothing to do with work Не иметь ничего общего