Is your job putting you under a lot of stress? Do you feel drained of all the life pleasures? Does your job feel extremely boring and painfully empty? Does life feel stressful and unbalanced? If so, you may be struggling with job burnout which makes your job look dull and drains all your enthusiasm.
Job burnout can affect everyone at one point or another. It doesn't matter if you are a blue collared worker, senior management or even the owner of the company. Demands of the work place can affect an individual both mentally and physically. Many people are working extra hours and bearing the brunt of the same. In such fast paced time, job burnout has become the number one cause for employee attrition.
What is Job Burnout?
Job burnout (or job depression) is a state of physical, emotional and psychological fatigue caused by long-term exposure to demanding work situations. In extreme cases, your work performance, health, and personal life suffer. When a person has suffered job burnout he/she will have feeling of cynicism and negativity. Even people with extremely high motivation have fallen prey to this 21st century disease.
What are the symptoms of Job Burnout?
As job burnout is more of a mental state, a lot of its symptoms are also more mental than physical. But extreme cases of job burnout also show physical signs of it.
Inability to concentrate
Occasional feelings of frustration and dissatisfaction
Anger, depression and anxiety
Emotional fatigue and depletion of energy
Feeling of no control over your work or life
Insomnia
Forgetfulness
Low productivity at work
Frequent headaches, back pain, muscle aches
Change in appetite or sleep habits.
What are the causes of job burnout?
There are many causes of burnout. The major ones are related to the job itself. Here are a few:
Lack of recognition or rewards for the work done
Vague or extremely demanding job expectations
Dull and Monotonous work day in and day out
Lack of breaks or vacations
Insufficient salary and other rewards
Being stuck in the wrong job.
It is a known fact that job burnout (as the name suggests) happens at the job. However, there are various lifestyle factors that can lead to it as well. For instance:
Lack of personal and supportive relationships
Working too hard in fear of mass layoffs
Not getting enough of sleep
Irregular diet
Certain personality traits also contribute towards your experience of stress, making you more susceptible to burnout. While much of ones personality is inborn, it's important to be aware of how your personal tendencies can contribute to your stress response, so you can adjust accordingly:
Perfectionistic tendencies; nothing is ever good enough
Reluctance to delegate to others; the need to be in control
Pessimistic view of yourself and the world
Type A personality; being impatient with people and life's minor hassles, and having trouble keeping from lashing out at people.
Job burnout is not excessive stress. Stress is a major contributing factor but not the whole story.
You may realize that everything at your job is going smoothly and you have cordial relationship with your boss but you may still feel a burnout.
Stress is a result of excessive job involvement but burn is a result of job disengagement. Stress will result in loss of energy but a burnout will cause a loss of motivation.
What should I do about it?
Recuperation from job burnout is possible, but it requires changes and takes a lot time. If you feel that the above symptoms are quite true to yourself and think that there is an impending burnout, here are a few tips that you can implement:
Take a vacation from work. Sometimes job burnout is a result of constant work and no play. In such a situation, it is better to take a break and do something else.
You can also set a time each day when you completely disconnect. Turn off your phone, get away from your laptop/computer, and stop checking email.
When you wake up in the morning, take 10 to 15 minutes to sit in silence each morning. During this time, breath deeply and write in your journal or read something that inspires you.
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