BURNOUT: how not to burn out at work?

Constant stress, anxiety, a feeling of an endless race, sleep problems, apathy - sound familiar? Emotional burnout is a common attribute of modern life. Typically, burnout occurs after 2-3 years of constant increased emotional stress amid the lack of opportunity to switch from work to personal life.

But there are ways to avoid it.

Spoiler alert - there's no need to choose between work, family, and hobbies.

We know how to unleash your potential and find resources so that you don't have to sacrifice the things that are important to you or keep up with everything to the detriment of your health.

We will help you reduce stress, cope with high workloads, identify hidden resources for further development and increase efficiency, and establish a clear boundary between work and personal life.

🚩 One of the main conditions for preventing burnout is a full and active life outside of professional activities. Family, close friends, hobbies, sports are the best support to compensate for the negative impact of prolonged stressful situations at work.

People who work in the human-to-human sphere, i.e. those whose work involves constant communication, are particularly susceptible to burnout. These are doctors, teachers, psychologists, social workers, volunteers, managers, executives in various fields, and others. The need to be constantly in touch, to listen to others and speak yourself, to follow important news, to give instructions to subordinates or vice versa, to carry out instructions from management, to try to meet someone's expectations, to outperform competitors, to demonstrate good performance - all this leads to the fact that at some point a person simply "runs out of batteries."

Back to top ↑

How does emotional burnout differ from overwork?

When you're just tired, you can get back to normal in a few days. Just get enough sleep, spend the weekend with your phone off to take a break from constant calls, switch to a good book, go to the gym or take a hot bath, and you'll be full of energy again.

If you have emotional burnout, you can't just get rid of it. Moreover, it only gets worse over time. Nervous tension and stress lead to poor sleep, increased irritability provokes conflict situations at work, and problems in the professional sphere affect family and personal relationships.

Back to top ↑

Symptoms of emotional burnout

According to the WHO, there are three main symptoms of emotional burnout:

1. Feelings of exhaustion or fatigue:leads to sleep disturbances, decreased immunity, and problems with concentration.
2. Intellectual and emotional distance from work:feelings of negativity and cynicism about work-related situations, isolation from the team, lack of motivation, and negative perception of reality.
3. Decreased professional efficiency:As a result, a sense of failure develops, and doubts about one's own abilities and competence arise.

Let's take a closer look at the main symptoms:

Back to top ↑

Psychophysical symptoms:

• A feeling of constant fatigue not only in the evening but also in the morning;
• Feeling emotionally and physically exhausted;
• Frequent causeless headaches, constant disorders of the gastrointestinal tract;
• Sudden weight loss or sudden weight gain;
• Complete or partial insomnia;
• Constant inhibited, lethargic state and desire to sleep throughout the day;
• Shortness of breath or shortness of breath due to physical or emotional stress;
• A noticeable decrease in external and internal sensory sensitivity: impaired vision, hearing, smell, and touch, loss of internal bodily sensations.

Back to top ↑

Social and psychological symptoms:

• Indifference, boredom, passivity, and depression;
• Increased irritability to minor events;
• Frequent nervous breakdowns (outbursts of unmotivated anger or refusal to communicate, withdrawal);
• Constantly experiencing negative emotions for no reason;
• Feelings of unconscious restlessness and increased anxiety;
• A sense of hyper-responsibility and a constant feeling of fear;
• General negative attitude towards life and professional prospects.

Back to top ↑

Behavioral symptoms:

• The feeling that the work is getting harder and harder to do;
• An employee significantly changes his or her working hours (increases or decreases working hours);
• He constantly and unnecessarily takes his work home, but he doesn't do it at home either;
• It is difficult for a manager to make decisions; a sense of futility, disbelief that things will improve, a decrease in enthusiasm for work, indifference to its results;
• Failure to fulfill important, priority tasks and getting hung up on small details;
• Distancing from employees and customers, increasing inadequate criticality;
• Alcohol abuse, a sharp increase in cigarettes smoked per day, and drug use.

The factors that influence burnout are individual characteristics of the nervous system and temperament. Employees with a weak nervous system and those whose individual characteristics are not combined with the requirements of person-to-person professions burn out faster. According to the model of the burnout syndrome proposed by American women researchers christina maslach and susan e. Jackson, "professional burnout" is interpreted as a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and reduction of personal achievements

Back to top ↑

What causes emotional burnout?

• Long-term work in a tense pace
• High stress, including emotional stress
• A difficult team and contingent of people
• Lack of proper remuneration for work
• The crisis of values

The World Health Organization considers work to be good for the mind, but negative working conditions can lead to physical and emotional health problems. Taking care of your mental state is extremely important, even if you consider the problem from the point of view of economic impact: every year the world economy loses 1 trillion dollars due to loss of productivity as a result of depression or burnout.