Handling & Learning of BURN OUT
If constant stress has you feeling disillusioned,
helpless, and completely worn out, you may be suffering from burnout. When
you’re burned out, problems seem insurmountable, everything looks bleak, and
it’s difficult to muster up the energy to care—let alone do something about
your situation.
The unhappiness and detachment that burnout causes
can threaten your job, your relationships and your health.
BUT BURNOUT CAN BE HEALED.
You can regain your balance by reassessing
priorities, making time for yourself, and seeking support.
Burnout is a state of emotional, mental, and
physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It occurs when
you feel overwhelmed and unable to meet constant demands. As the stress
continues, you begin to lose the interest or motivation that led you to take on
a certain role in the first place.
Burnout reduces your productivity and saps your
energy, leaving you feeling increasingly helpless, hopeless, cynical, and
resentful. Eventually, you may feel like you have nothing more to give.
Most of us have days when we feel bored,
overloaded, or unappreciated; when the dozen balls we keep in the air aren’t
noticed, let alone rewarded; when dragging ourselves out of bed requires the
determination of Hercules. If you feel like this most of the time, however, you
may have burnout.
You may be on the road to burnout if:
- Every day
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.
The negative effects of burnout spill over into
every area of life—including your home and social life. Burnout can also cause
long-term changes to your body that make you vulnerable to illnesses like colds
and flu. Because of its many consequences, it’s important to deal with burnout
right away.
Dealing with burnout: The
"Three R" approach
- Recognize –
Watch for the warning signs of burnout
- Reverse –
Undo the damage by managing stress and seeking support
- Resilience –
Build your resilience to stress by taking care of your physical and
emotional health
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. While
you’re usually aware of being under a lot of stress, you don’t always notice
burnout when it happens.
Stress vs.
Burnout
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Stress
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Burnout
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Characterized by overengagement
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Characterized by disengagement
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Emotions are overreactive
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Emotions are blunted
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Produces urgency and
hyperactivity
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Produces helplessness and
hopelessness
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Loss of energy
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Loss of motivation, ideals, and
hope
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Leads to anxiety disorders
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Leads to detachment and
depression
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Primary damage is physical
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Primary damage is emotional
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May kill you prematurely
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May make life seem not worth
living
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Source: Stress and Burnout in Ministry
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CAUSES
OF BURNOUT
In many cases, burnout stems from your job. Anyone
who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk for burnout—from the
hardworking office worker who hasn’t had a vacation or a raise in two years, to
the frazzled stay-at-home mom struggling with the heavy responsibility of
taking care of three kids, the housework, and her aging father.
But burnout is not caused solely by stressful work
or too many responsibilities. Other factors contribute to burnout, including
your lifestyle and certain personality traits. 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 rewards 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 relaxing and socializing
- Being
expected to be too many things to too many people
- Taking
on too many responsibilities, without enough help from others
- Not
getting enough sleep
- Lack of
close, supportive relationships
Personality traits can contribute 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,
Type A personality
Burnout is a gradual process that occurs over an
extended period of time. It doesn’t happen overnight, but it can creep up on
you if you’re not paying attention to the warning signals. The signs and
symptoms of burnout are subtle at first, but they get worse and worse as time
goes on.
Think of the early symptoms of burnout as warning
signs or red flags that something is wrong that needs to be addressed. If you
pay attention to these early warning signs, you can prevent a major breakdown.
If you ignore them, you’ll eventually burn out.
Physical signs and symptoms of
burnout
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Emotional signs and symptoms of
burnout
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Behavioral signs and symptoms of
burnout
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If you recognize the warning signs of impending
burnout in yourself, remember that it will only get worse if you leave it
alone. But if you take steps to get your life back into balance, you can
prevent burnout from becoming a full-blown breakdown.
Burnout prevention tips
- Start
the day with a relaxing ritual. Rather than jumping out of bed as soon
as you wake up, spend at least fifteen minutes meditating, writing in your
journal, doing gentle stretches, or reading something that inspires you.
- Adopt
healthy eating, exercising, and sleeping habits. When
you eat right, engage in regular physical activity, and get plenty of
rest, you have the energy and resilience to deal with life’s hassles and
demands.
- Set
boundaries. Don’t
overextend yourself. 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Learn
how to manage stress. When you’re on the road to burnout, you
may feel helpless. But you have a lot more control over stress than you
may think. Learning how to manage stress can help you regain
your balance.
Sometimes it’s too late to prevent burnout—you’re
already past the breaking point. If that’s the case, it’s important to take
your burnout very seriously. Trying to push through the exhaustion and continue
as you have been will only cause further emotional and physical damage.
While the tips for preventing burnout are still
helpful at this stage, recovery requires additional steps.
Burnout recovery strategy #1: Slow
down
When you’ve reached the end stage of burnout,
adjusting your attitude or looking after your health isn’t going to solve the
problem. You need to force yourself to slow down or take a break. Cut back
whatever commitments and activities you can. Give yourself time to rest,
reflect, and heal.
Burnout recovery strategy #2: Get
support
When you’re burned out, the natural tendency is to
protect what little energy you have left by isolating yourself. But your
friends and family are more important than ever during difficult times. Turn to
your loved ones for support. Simply sharing your feelings with another person
can relieve some of the stress. The other person doesn’t have to ret to “fix”
your problems; he or she just has to be a good listener. Opening up won’t make
you a burden to others. In fact, most friends will be flattered that you trust
them enough to confide in them, and it will only strengthen your friendship.
Burnout recovery strategy #3:
Reevaluate your goals and priorities
Burnout is an undeniable sign that something
important in your life is not working. Take time to think about your hopes,
goals, and dreams. Are you neglecting something that is truly important to you?
Burnout can be an opportunity to rediscover what really makes you happy and to
change course accordingly.
Recovering from burnout:
Acknowledge your losses
Burnout brings with
it many losses, which can often go unrecognized. Unrecognized losses trap a lot
of your energy. It takes a tremendous amount of emotional control to keep
yourself from feeling the pain of these losses. When you recognize these losses
and allow yourself to grieve them, you release that trapped energy and open
yourself to healing. These may include the loss of:
- Idealism
or dream with which you entered your career
- The
role or identity that originally came with your job
- Physical
and emotional energy
- Friends,
fun, and sense of community
- Self-esteem
and sense of control
- Joy,
meaning and purpose that make work—and life—worthwhile
Source: Keeping the Fire by Ruth Luban
The most effective way to combat job burnout is to
quit doing what you’re doing and do something else, whether that means changing jobs or changing careers. But if that
isn’t an option for you, there are still things you can do to improve your
situation, or at least your state of mind.
- Actively
address problems. Take a proactive rather than a passive
approach to issues in your workplace, including stress at work. You’ll feel less helpless
if you assert yourself and express your needs. If you don’t have the
authority or resources to solve the problem, talk to a superior.
- Clarify
your job description. Ask your boss for an updated description
of your job duties and responsibilities. Point out things you’re expected
to do that are not part of your job description and gain a little leverage
by showing that you’ve been putting in work over and above the parameters
of your job.
- Ask
for new duties. If
you’ve been doing the exact same work for a long time, ask to try
something new: a different grade level, a different sales territory, a
different machine.
- Take
time off. If
burnout seems inevitable, 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. Use the time away to recharge your
batteries and take perspective.
You want to know if you are in the BURNOUT ZONE or Having the SYNDROME, then take a test and find out: http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1303
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