Let's Talk About Burnout
Put a hand up if you have ever been at work, feeling completely exhausted, consumed, hopeless, and just have no desire to get anything done. And when you think back, you think "I wasn't always like this" because at one point you gave it your all and you might have even felt like a rockstar at what you did. I think most of us at one time or another have felt like this, and what I am describing is known as burnout. While we may have heard of this term and may have experienced it, how many of us really understand what this means? Did you know that there are stages to burnout? Symptoms?
Well let's explore this!
What is burnout?
Burnout is described by David Ballard from the American Psychological Association as "an extended period of time where someone experienced exhaustion and a lack of interest in things..." Burnout can be made of mental, emotional, and/or physical exhaustion as a result of long-term, unresolved stress.
Burnout is actually quite common with a study in 2019 showing that more than 9 out of 10 Canadians feel burned out. This number in itself seems obscene, but what was more crazy was the recognition from 96% of senior managers believing that their staff were experiencing burnout. They recognized it, but didn't seem to take any action to fix this. Furthermore, the study found discrepancies between by senior managers felt their staff was burnt out versus what staff felt was burning them out.
Symptoms
Symptoms of burn out can include but are not limited to:
- Physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion: exhaustion is a huge tell. You will often feel completely spent and tired all the time.
- Cognitive problems: finding it difficult to concentrate or pay attention? Stress trains our brain to primarily focus on the negative element in our lives that we may perceive as a threat. While this at one time was a useful skill for survival, our brain has not better adapted this. Our bodies and brains were only designed to handle this function in short term bursts and then return to normal functioning. When our stress becomes more chronic, this narrowing of our focus continues for a long time, making it difficult to concentrate on anything else.
- Time away from work: We may notice we are calling into to work more or looking fo any reason not to go in. On the other hand we might also be using our time away from work to stress more about work. It is easy to fall into the habit of mulling over your job and everything you need to do. Heck you might even bring your work. But what ends up happening is now our work is interfering with our ability to recover from a potentially stressful day and that stress response never shuts off.
- More health problems: chronic stress has been shown to cause a lot of health related issues such as digestive issues, heart diseases, depression, and obesity. It also means you might be more likely to get sick with the flu or common cold as stress also has been shown to lower our immune response!
- Frustration and experiencing more negative emotions: Do you feel more pessimistic than normal? That what you are doing does matter anymore? Is this moving beyond work into your personal life?
- Detachment or demotivation from your work: finding it hard to wake up in the mornings and get going? Feel like you are dragging yourself to work everyday? Don't feel enthusiastic about anything anymore?
- Detachment in personal relationships: even when we are physically there with people, we might find ourselves tuned out and elsewhere. You can become withdrawn from those around you, or swing the opposite way and find yourself consistently getting into conflicts with those around you.
- Lower productivity: is your job performance slipping? Compare your performance from months to years before? Notice any changes?
- Lack of self-care: When we become burnt out it is easy to sometimes engage in behaviours we might not have turned to before to cope. This can include drinking excessively, self-medicating, smoking, not moving enough, eating foods that may be considered more unhealthy, or not getting enough sleep. We start to notice that we rely on some of these things just to help us get through our days that turn into weeks.
Difference between Stress and Burnout:
While at first glance it may feel like these are interchangeable terms, it's important to recognize that there is some distinct differences between the two. Stress usually is about too much: too many demands, too much on the go, and too many pressures affecting you physically and emotionally. However, normal short bursts of stress are normal, and once we feel that we have gotten everything under control, that stress generally goes away. However, this distinction is important: chronic stress can lead to a lot of physical symptoms that if left unattended can lead to some serious health complications.
Burn out can be thought of as not enough: not enough hours in the day, not enough of you to get it all done, not enough support, not enough energy. It means that we feel empty and exhausted and to the point that we struggle to motivate ourselves. While it can fuel stress, burnout tends to hard our emotional selves more.
Stress:
- Overengagement
- Overreactive emotions
- Produces hyperactivity and urgency
- Loss of energy
- Leads to anxiety
- Primary damage is physical
- May kill you prematurely if left unattended
Burnout:
- Disengagement
- Blunted emotions
- Produces helplessness and hopelessness
- Loss of motivation, ideals, and hope
- Leads to detachments and depression
- Primary damage is emotional
- May make life seem not worth living.
Causes of Burnout:
Burnout typically extends from our jobs, keeping in mind that parenting is considered a job as well! Anyone who feels overworked and undervalued is at risk of burnout. Factors that could contribute to burnout include:
Work Related:
- Feeling like you have little control over your work
- Lack of recognition or reward for your work
- Unclear/overly demanding job expectations
- Doing work that's unchallenging or monotonous
- Working in a chaotic or high-pressured environment
Lifestyle:
- Working too much without enough down time
- Lack of supportive relationships
- Taking on too many responsibilities
- Not getting enough sleep
Personality
- Perfectionist tendencies
- Pessimistic view of self and the world
- Need to be in control
- Reluctant to delegate tasks
- Type "A", high achieving personality
What are the 5 stages of burnout?
Stage 1: The Honeymoon Phase
This first stage can be a little tricky to figure out. All jobs seem to come with some level of stress to it and often we seem to accept this as a norm. In this stage we may be experiencing the predicted stresses of the job. Now the turning point is this. Don't ignore it. Acknowledge that stress is still stress. Don't gaslight yourself by saying that this stress is "not a big deal" "everyone goes through it" "don't be so weak". No! It's still stress and a sign that while it may be expected to come with the territory, our body is still telling us that at the end of the day it may need a little extra TLC to help recover from that stress. If we can nip it in the butt here and implement some good coping strategies here at this level, then we can stay at this level and operate more smoothly. Symptoms at this stage can include:
- job satisfaction
- readily accepting more job responsibility
- optimistic
- committed to the job at hand
- high productivity levels
- free-flowing creativity
Stage 2: Onset of stress
In this stage we are beginning to see that some days may be harder than others and our optimism is starting to waver. We may be feeling a bit more physically, mentally, or emotionally exhausted. Other symptoms can include:
- high blood pressure
- lack of concentration
- more irritable
- job dissatisfaction some days
- lack of sleep
- lower productivity
- lack of social interaction
- increase in depression or anxiety symptoms
- change in appetite
- fatigue
- forgetfulness
- head aches
- heart palpitations
- beginning to neglect personal needs
Stage 3: Chronic Stress
This stage is marked by changes in your stress levels where you go from motivation to experiencing stress on a more daily basis. You may also feel more intense symptoms from stage 2.
- Anger or aggressive behavior
- apathy
- chronic exhaustion
- lower sexual drive
- denial of problems at work/home
- feeling panicked
- feeling out of control
- increase in alcohol/drug consumption
- increase caffeine consumption
- lack or loss of interest in hobbies
- missed work deadlines
- persistent tiredness in the morning
- physical illness
- procrastination
- repeated lateness
- social withdrawal
Stage 4: Burnout
In this stage ew are really seeing burnout symptoms become more critical. When we think about burnout, this is often the stage we are referring to. Continuing as normal and denying the problem is not often possible at this point and it is key to seek intervention. Physical symptoms often experienced during this stage are due to ongoing chronic stress that has build up over time.
- behavioral changes
- chronic headaches
- chronic stomach or bowel problems
- complete neglect of personal needs
- desire to drop out of society
- desire to move away from work/friends/family
- feeling empty inside
- obsession over problems at work
- pessimistic outlook on work and life
- self-doubt
- social isolation
Stage 5: Habitual Burnout
At this point burnout is so embedded in your life that you are likely to experience a significant amount of emotional and physical problems as a result. It no longer becomes something you occasionally experience.
- burnout syndrome
- chronic mental fatigue
- chronic physical fatigue
- chronic sadness
- depression/anxiety
How can we deal with it?
Recognize: The first step is to become aware of the warning signs and address that you may be experiencing burn out. Learn more about symptoms and what this could look like for you
Reverse: Undo the damage by seeking support and learning to manage stress levels.
- Turn to other people: Social contact is so important and a proven way to help ease a lot of stress and anxiety. Even just talking to someone can change things. They don't necessarily have to fix the problem for you, because often times what we really need is for someone to just listen and validate our experiences
- Find balance in life: even if you cannot enjoy your work, find ways to look for meaning and satisfaction in your life elsewhere. Find it in friends, family, hobbies, or voluntary work. You don't have to love what you do to still have a meaningful life.
- Take time off: If you cannot get out of the cycle of burnout, remove yourself from the situation. Sometimes it only takes a day but sometimes it takes longer. What's important is recognizing that you need this time to recharge so you can go back more focused and ready to work. This includes weekends. Use your weekends to actually recharge. Don't always try to fill them with even more activities than you have going on in the week!
- Set boundaries: Saying no is often hard, but remind yourself that saying no allows you to say "yes" to the commitments you do want to make.
- Take a break from technology: set a time each day where you completely disconnect. Put away the phone and laptop and stop checking your emails and just be present in something that makes you feel good.
- Get plenty of sleep: being tired can make burnout a more difficult experience, often causing us to jump to conclusions and not think as rationally as we normally would. Sleep allows us to feel more prepared to remain cool in stressful situations.
There are tons of other ways that can help you manage burnout such as relaxation techniques, health eating, exercise, and so forth. Ultimately how you normally deal with stress is going to be your best first option and then build from there.
Resilience: Build your resilience up by learning to better care for you physical and emotional health. This investment in yourself will help you deal with any future stressful situations and allow you to stay more in the first stage of burnout.
So now that you know a bit more about burnout, let's all work together to make sure we can help change that number from 9/10 Canadians experiencing it to even making it 7/10! This is a global crisis and the only way it can change is if we begin to acknowledge that this is not okay.
YWC.
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