Burnout is the result of continuous, intense, and work-related physical, emotional, and mental stress. This feeling can affect your overall happiness and health, as well as other areas of your life, including your career. Understanding and recognizing the signs and causes of burnout can offer defense against its consequences, as well as a chance to reevaluate your priorities.
This article covers job burnout, identifies nine causes of burnout, describes what it looks like, and offers some workflow tactics you may use to lessen and manage burnout symptoms.
What is burnout exactly?
Dissatisfaction that results in physical, mental, and emotional reactions is called burnout. Burnout has emotional effects like disordered eating and excessive sleeping, as well as physiological effects like elevated blood pressure and weakened immunity. Examples of mental reactions include forgetting and procrastination. Additionally, burnout could make you feel defeated or alone because burnout is bad for creativity. Your ability to focus and feel motivated is affected, as well as your cognitive performance, physical, psychological, and emotional wellbeing.
Major causes of burnout
Burnout can result from a number of things, such as:
- Having to manage challenging responsibilities
In cases of burnout, a hard workload can disrupt the balance between work and life. Burnout can also result from repetitive work. In an ideal world, the amount of work you do should be in proportion to your ability to complete it, but persistent overload throws the system out of balance and boredom saps drive. Prioritize your tasks before you start your day to prevent burnout caused by workload. Plan your workload and schedule periodic breaks. As much as you can, assign chores to others and ask your boss or coworkers for help.
- A lack of restraint
If professionals lack resources or find it difficult to participate in decisions relating to their jobs, they may feel out of control. They might also feel like their efforts aren’t valued or that their managers don’t respect their abilities. People may feel out of control if their professional priorities frequently change, making it difficult for them to concentrate on desired initiatives or limiting their possibilities of promotion.
Make a thorough note of the things you have no control over in order to get around this. Then, decide how to approach each item on the list. Check to see if you are expressing your requests clearly, and if not, talk to your supervisor about things you can control, including work hours, breaks, and projects, to come to an understanding or establish boundaries.
- Getting few prizes
Working has its perks, but when they are few or nonexistent, it can be difficult to feel appreciated, which can lead to burnout. Perhaps the benefits don’t match your time and effort, and the ROI isn’t inspiring you to put up additional effort. Find out what a reward means to you first. It can be a pay raise or positive comments from superiors or coworkers. Then ask for it. Ask your manager for a raise, get helpful critique from a coworker, or devise your own system of rewards.
- Experiencing unfair treatment
Feelings of unfairness have an impact on motivation and work performance, and they commonly result in burnout. Maybe your manager always approves another coworker for deadline extensions, or maybe one coworker gets credit for a team achievement. You have the opportunity to speak up now and want to be recognized. Deal with unfair treatment as quickly as you can, without bias.
Guidelines for addressing and overcoming burnout
The following methods can be used to prevent burnout before it gets worse:
- Know the proper way to refuse. Establish clear boundaries and be aware of your limitations to prevent overextending yourself. Saying no to one thing paves the way for saying yes to another.
- Start a thankfulness journal. Put more emphasis on what is good for you at work, which can help you feel less stressed and be healthier. Every day, write down two or three things for which you are thankful.
- Look for outside help. To solve work-related issues or voice concerns, ask for assistance from coworkers, mentors, or family members. You can overcome obstacles with the help of a supportive network, leading to both career and personal fulfillment.
- Make parts in your room. Practice returning everything to its proper place so that your home life does not affect your work life. Create a plan to attain your personal and professional goals in order to prioritize what is most important.
- Maintaining oneself is crucial. You may take care of your health and your hobbies by practicing self-care. Eat well, get plenty of rest and exercise, and regularly partake in favorite activities or interests.
