As working professionals, we often hear about the importance of work-life balance.
Why?
Well, we’re all human and going to the extreme can prove to be an unhealthy experience.
If we play too much, we end up wasting time, squandering our potential and not achieving our goals. Similarly, if we work too hard, we risk losing time with our loved ones as well as job burnout.
What is job burnout?
Job burnout occurs as our body’s response to prolonged stress. It describes a situation where our energy levels have plummeted so low, that the capacity to perform is essentially gone. This goes further than what most people feel at the end of a normal work day. Burnout goes beyond tiredness. It is a condition where one’s health is compromised due to intense, ongoing and unresolved stress.
What are the signs of job burnout?
There are multiple ways job burnout can manifest in a person. Often, an individual may be experiencing job burnout when he or she displays the following.
Extreme exhaustion
When workers perform their responsibilities at a slower pace, experiences bodily pains or displays poor physicality throughout the workday, this could be a sign of burnout. Tasks which were once manageable have become increasingly difficult. Additionally, a worker experiencing job burnout may have difficulty staying awake, experience constant forgetfulness or have poor movement coordination.
Frustration & Irritability
Burnout can reflect in one’s personality. Individuals exhibiting extreme bout of frustration, anger, cynicism or insubordination may be experiencing burnout. This type of behaviour usually means the employee is not happy within the company and something or someone could be adversely affecting their motivation.
Inefficiency & decreased performance
If top-performing employees’ performances have been waning and there is a noticeable decline in enthusiasm and collaboration, this is a sign that employee is experiencing burnout.
Given these job burnout effects, it is critical to identify possible reasons as to why this occurs.
Possible causes of job burnout
Team members can experience job burnout for the following reasons:
Unrealistically heavy workloads
If an individual has to manage unrealistic work demands consistently, without additional resources or assistance, burnout is likely to happen. Hectic work schedules, unreasonable work deadlines, increasing job responsibilities, increasing sales targets, irate clients on a daily basis and lack or organisational support all can contribute to prolonged periods of stress, fatigue and eventual burnout.
Lack of job security
Employees who constantly feel anxious about possibly getting fired or laid off usually experience mental stress. This stress may affect their performance and drive. If an employee no longer has any drive or motivation in their workplace, burnout may likely be the end result.
Toxic work environment
A common saying across many industries is that, “People don’t leave bad companies; they leave bad bosses”. Usually, poor leadership, strained managerial relationships and micromanagement are some negative management practices that lead to employees feeling disfranchised, frustrated and burnt out.
Lifestyle factors
In some instances, job burnout may not have to rest entirely on the organisation. Many professions do involve some degree of minor stresses and unpredictable situations occasionally. However, these situations can become unmanageable if an individual is conflicted with ongoing personal problems, health hazards or engages on destructive behaviours such as alcohol abuse.
These factors often have adverse consequences to both the individual and organisation. They include:
Consequences of job burnout
High turnover
Where toxic work environments lead to their job burnout, turnover within that organisation will be extremely high.
Poor corporate image
A company that has gained notoriety for causing employee burnout will earn an unfavourable corporate image.
Physical effects
It’s no secret that stress affects the body physically. Many of the effects of job burnout can manifest through a number of ailments such as high blood pressure, muscle aches, chronic fatigue and even worse conditions such as heart attacks.
Mental decline
Job burnout negatively affects the psyche and manifests through depression, anxiety, irritability, mood swings, nervous breakdowns and low self-esteem. These conditions also contribute to negative impacts on the organisation through loss in productivity and performance. As business experts have suggested, employee burnout inevitably affects customer service and profitability.
Relationship breakdown
When employees suffer from burnout, very often this stress spills over into their personal lives as well. It is not uncommon for employees to bring the stresses of the workplace home. As such relationships both within and out of the work environment become affected for the worse.
How to recover from burnout without leaving the organisation?
When suffering from job burnout, the automatic response may be to leave the company. However, if leaving is not an option, preventing job burnout can be accomplished by:
Taking care of yourself
You may be an employee but you are the CEO of your body, mind and spirit. Managing your stress levels is a critical skill, particularly given the global economic climate. As such, it is essential to care of your body to function at its optimum.
Some of these essential things to manage stress include incorporating exercise, eating healthy, scheduling breaks throughout the day, getting sufficient sleep and taking vital supplements for added nutrition.
Make time for the things you enjoy
It is important to schedule time to partake in activities that you enjoy to manage your stress levels and preserve your mental and physical health.
Talk to your superiors
Particularly for scenarios where your job burnout may be as a result of your workload, speaking to your manager about additional resources, arranging your deadlines or organising your schedule would be a good idea.
How to prevent burnout from affecting you?
Know when to unplug
As a hard-working professional, part of your self-care is knowing when to step back and take time to rest, recover and rejuvenate yourself. Take vacations days as you see fit. Have some personal errands piling up that you need to take of? Apply for that personal time off. Take the time to relax, feel great and then back to the daily grind!
Practice mindfulness
To maintain a calm and steady mind, you can practice different forms of mindfulness – meditation, breathing therapy, mental exercises and prayer to keep your mind at ease.
Don’t keep things bottled up.
As human beings, building connections and conversations is also essential for health. You can always reach out to someone or invest in therapy if you need to, to ensure negative emotions don’t take hold of you and lead to chronic stress.
