If the work you used to love is perceived as a torture, you feel exhaustion, irritation and anger even at the thought of work duties – these may be signs of professional burnout. In order not to aggravate the situation, not to reach a critical point, you need to immediately get rid of this state. How to do it? How to defeat and prevent burnout? Why does it occur? We will tell you how to recognize professional burnout in its initial stages, how it differs from ordinary fatigue and what you need to do to cope with this problem.
Make to-do lists for each day in the planner LeaderTask, break them down into subtasks and form a tree structure for more successful completion of complex tasks. The app will keep you on track by letting you know your plans and progress for the day.
Burnout at work is a real scourge of our time. According to numerous surveys and studies, up to 80% of working people have experienced this problem. Every third of them noted such symptoms as lack of desire to go to work, a constant feeling of guilt, the appearance of absent-mindedness, decreased concentration, rapid fatigue and sleep disorders. In 2019, occupational burnout syndrome was included in the International Classification of Diseases, although in essence it is not a disease, but a set of factors that lead to the development of more serious problems, such as depression or chronic stress.
The condition was first described in 1974 by American psychiatrist Herbert Freidenberger. Later, psychologist Christina Maslach from the University of California at Berkeley joined the research and presented the syndrome in the form of a three-component model.
According to the World Health Organization classification, burnout is “a condition that develops with the progression of chronic stress”. It is characterized by the following features:
Burnout develops gradually and is always related to work activities. At first, work gradually crowds out all other aspects of life. A person literally lives it, “burns”. After a while, the favourite work ceases to bring joy and satisfaction. Already after waking up you feel tired, you start your duties “through force”, and every action is given to you with incredible labour. As a result, you are not interested in interesting and profitable projects, and your colleagues are irritated.
It is very difficult to recognize burnout, it develops gradually. When you are building a career and want to become successful in business, delays and overwork seem quite normal. But, in the absence of rational self-organisation, the boundary between working and personal time is erased. As a result, work completely consumes your life, you have no time for a normal rest or holiday, and the number of urgent tasks that require immediate solution only increases.
The following categories of people are more prone to burnout syndrome than others:
The condition is also often related to the level of the specialist and the profession. According to the surveys, the most frequently encountered phenomenon is:
Occupations involving constant contact with people, followed by emotional overs train, are also at risk. Burnout is a dangerous condition, the consequences of which can be loss of ability to work or problems at work, up to and including dismissal. And it takes a long time to get rid of the syndrome: from several weeks to a year or more.
The causes of burnout can be external and internal. External factors are:
Internal Causes:
Long-term activity in one position, in one place can also be added to the causes of burnout. Psychologists recommend changing the sphere of activity every five years. This advice should be heeded. Imagine: you perform the same task year after year, sitting in the same workplace. At some point you will want to drop everything and get out of the boring routine. But if the attempt will be unsuccessful, you will experience dissatisfaction, boredom, a sense of unrealized. And this will be followed by burnout.
The danger of emotional burnout lies in the imperceptibility of this phenomenon. It occurs gradually:
Each of these events can be compared to a small pebble, the weight of which you will not even notice in your pocket. But over the years of work, they make up whole mountains, crushing a person with their weight. That is why it is better to prevent burnout than to treat it later. For this purpose it is necessary to be able to define burnout, to distinguish its stages and manifestations.
Psychology distinguishes three types of burnout, each with its own causes:
The symptoms of burnout manifest themselves on a physiological, emotional and behavioural level:
Physiological signs | Emotional attributes | Changes in behaviour |
---|---|---|
Feeling of exhaustion; Lack of appetite; Disorder of sleep and rest; Headaches, muscle pains; Decreased immunity; Disorders in digestion. | Loser’s syndrome; Low self-esteem; Low motivation; Cynicism towards others; Satisfaction; Disengagement; Sense of loneliness. | Isolation from people, isolation; Procrastination; Decreased performance and productivity; Anxiety; Alcohol or drug abuse. |
Surprisingly, chronic stress at work and the professional burnout that follows it most often develops in people who genuinely love their work. It does not happen overnight. This process consists of several stages.
Stages of professional burnout:
The main difference between burnout and normal fatigue is the duration. This process doesn’t just go away on its own in a couple of weeks. It is prolonged and complicated. If a person cannot relax even after a holiday or weekend break, is in a depressed state – this indicates emotional burnout.
A huge number of people have experienced burnout. What to do in this situation? How to help yourself or a close person who has faced this problem? Some companies have in-house psychologists to whom you can turn for help. But if there is no such opportunity, you will have to take appropriate measures on your own.
Different methods will be effective for each stage:
Preventing professional burnout can help prevent many problems. It includes detecting and eliminating energy leaks, keeping a mindfulness calendar and analysing your weaknesses and problem areas.
One of the effective means of prevention is the introduction of time management techniques and technologies for planning and rational time management. In order not to be overloaded at work, you should not strive to fulfil a huge number of tasks of various importance at the same time. It is enough to select the main ones among them and complete them first.
The functional cross-platform LeaderTask application helps to make any plans clear, realistic and achievable. In it you can create to-do lists, tasks, manage projects, interact with other executors, monitor progress and the degree of task completion. The app will keep your important information safe and secure.
You won’t have to remember which tasks need to be done right now and which ones should be postponed until tomorrow. With the help of colour labels you can easily distribute your tasks by importance, due date and priority. The service will timely remind you of a new task or any changes in the project. It will notify you about the approaching deadline for task completion. You will be able to use a full set of time management tools, including David Allen’s GTD methodology, Pomodoro timer, informative kanban boards to display all work tasks.
You can use the app on any digital device, even without an internet connection.
To avoid burnout, learn to plan and organise your life. Make a list of things you like to do every day and a list of irritating, negative factors and get rid of them without regret. Lead an active lifestyle, take up sport. Regular physical activity will protect you from stress and help distract you from gloomy thoughts. Sleep well, even in the busiest day leave yourself time to rest. If you feel you can’t cope with a problem on your own, seek support.