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Burnout At Workplace: Causes And How To Get Over It.

BY DEORAO K.

Burnout at the workplace is not uncommon these days. No matter which company you work, in what position you work, what facilities you have got, how good you are at work, how good work culture is; the day comes in the life of every employee that they start feeling burnout.

Burnout is also common in founders, co-founders, and small business owners, especially in startup culture.

These days managers are getting more and more aware of the burnout of employees at the workplace and working on eliminating the reasons but still significant numbers of employees’ are experiencing it.

The study conducted by Gallup suggests that at least 28% of employees experience burnout on regular basis and at least 76% of employees claim to experience burnout at the workplace intermittently or at least once. Studies further suggest that Employees who frequently experience burnout at the job are 63% more likely to take sick leave and 23% more likely to visit the emergency room.

The above study suggests that burnout is still a significant problem and cannot be neglected at any cost.

Let’s dive deep into this topic, first, we will understand the meaning of burnout,

WHAT IS BURNOUT?

The simple definition of burnout is feeling exhausted, drained, unsatisfied, and stressed at work. In this case, you don’t feel excited going to work, you may skip going to work, feel stressed even thinking about work, can’t focus on work, and feel trapped and unsatisfied with work.

These are common symptoms of burnout at the workplace. If you are experiencing the same lately, maybe you are suffering from burnout and need to do something to counter it.

Those who work in service jobs are more likely to experience burnout. For example, those working in hospitality, sales, caregiver, medical personals, etc. Also, it is most common in the corporate world for example salespeople are also most likely to experience burnout than other people, which could be because of a lot of work and a short deadline.

Small business owners and startup founders have more chances to experience burnout than medium and large-scale owners in the initial days. Because of fewer employees founders end up taking all the responsibility and work pressure on themselves to save money and time without earning a penny for days. This way burnout in startup workers has become common.

TYPES OF BURNOUT: –

You may find a variety of different classifications for types of burnout but I find the following more simple and easy to understand,

1. ACUTE BURNOUT: –

In this case, the person experiences burnout for a short period of time. i.e. for a few days to a few weeks. This is the commonest type and I believe every single employee has experienced acute burnout at least once in life.

 2. INTERMITTENTENT BURNOUT: –

I this case person experiences burnout intermittently. For a few days to weeks followed by a gap of a few days to weeks. That means people experience burnout on and off.

3. CRONIC BURNOUT: –

In this case, the person experiences burnout continuously for a longer period of time. Maybe for months or years. This is the most important and damaging type of burnout. Chronic burnout is responsible for all health-related issues.

Also, read 6 HABITS WILL INCREASE YOUR PRODUCTIVITY AT WORK AND LIFE And 7 Hacks To Take Your Conversation Skills To Next Level.

CAUSES OF BURNOUT AT WORKPLACE: –

1. OVERWORK: –

Working extra hours for days can cause physical and mental exertion. Workers may feel drained, saturated, and nervous with overwork as they have the pressure of finishing work from management or self-inflicted.

Sometimes employees are forced to work more hours in view to finish the order, for that reason they end up working several extra hours. Overwork for days will cause burnout.

2. WORK STRESS: –

Stress causing burnout at the workplace is the commonest cause. The stress at work may come from several different things. For example, the stress of finishing a job on time, the stress of staying in the position, appraisal, traveling, meeting the needs of management and clients.

Also, people having low emotional intelligence are unable to manage high-pressure situations. They are most likely to experience burnout.

3. TOXIC WORK CULTURE: –

Toxic work culture contributes to burnout significantly. If people face discrimination, favoritism, disrespect, and micromanagement at the workplace. If they don’t get credit for their ideas and don’t get applause for hard work.

They will start feeling down and disconnected from that workplace. They don’t feel any connection with the company. They don’t like going to the job instead of having good pay and facilities. Burnout cause people to leave work and settle in low-paying jobs.

4. MISMANAGEMENT: –

Management can make or break the situation, good management focuses on keeping the spirit of employees high and on the welfare of the employee. This is what makes workers happy.

But if the management is rude, pathetic, doesn’t listen to ideas and solutions of employees, doesn’t appreciate their hard work, indulges in micromanagement, put undue pressure on them. Eventually, this all leads to burnout. End result of this is, either employee quit the job or his productiveness decreases greatly. 

5. NO JOB SATISFACTION: –

If you don’t feel satisfied going to a job, after a few days you start feeling burnout.

People often feel unsatisfied at their job when they are not able to meet family needs with current salary, toxic work culture, work stress, politics in the office, rude management, not getting a chance to do impact, not the following heart, and doing something different than what they like.

6. UNREALISTIC GOALS AND DEADLINES: –

Unrealistic goals and deadlines can cause burnout at the workplace. If management sets goals and gave the deadline that is in no way manageable. This can put employees in work related stress, and cause mental and physical exertion due to hard work being done to meet deadlines.

This is more common with people working in startups.

EFFECTS OF BURNOUT ON PHYSICAL AND MENTAL HEALTH: –

Burnout for a long time can have a detrimental effect on physical and mental health. WHO has accepted burnout as an occupational hazard and a source of several diseases.

Effects of burnout on physical health are people may develop heart conditions and high blood pressure because of stress which gives rise to other diseases. They may get insomnia, headache, and saturation of the head.

They often procrastinate and avoid going to work. If anyhow he goes to work, they may experience decreased productivity. People with burnout have more chances that they will visit the emergency room than other people. They also have less life expectancy than other people.   

Effects of burnout on physical and mental health are People feel stressed, nervous, drained, irritated. You get angry over small things. Then extreme cases they may get anxious and panicky or sometimes depressed. This can influence your family life.

YOU CAN TRY THESE HACKS TO GET OVER BURNOUT.

1. TALK WITH MANAGEMENT: –

If you are feeling burnout at your job try to talk with your management or leaders, explain your problem. Chances are they may help you to eliminate the root cause responsible for your burnout.

2. SELF IMPROVEMENT: –

Try to find out what is making you stressed. For example, an excess load of work, non-empathetic management, colleague causing trouble, family problems, monitory problem or not liking what you are doing. Once you are able to diagnose the problem it becomes easy to tackle it.

Focus on self-improvement. You can take help from seniors and associates in your work. Try to learn new skills required for your job, learn to manage time and work.

3. FIND YOUR SOCKET: –

Every single person is special in different skills and passionate about different-different works. No matter where you work you have to find out whether this job is suitable for you. Do you feel comfortable and peaceful working here? If yes, ask yourself do you like working in this department? If the answer is yes, then this socket is made for you. You can continue working but if the answer is now find your socket. I.e. change the department or change the job.

4. CHANGE OF JOB: –

Forcing yourself to go to a job you dread causes burnout. If you think you are not interested in your current job you can always change it. If you want to stay productive as well as satisfied with what you do, you can always change the job. Maybe you will get less money and facilities but you will be happy working there.

5. THERAPIST: –

Taking help from a therapist will surely help in this case. Though nothing is wrong with you, you have to learn to manage your stress.

6. MANAGEMENT AWARENESS: –

This is especially for managers. As per one research, most of the employees leave the high paying jobs and settle for less paying jobs just because of toxic managers and toxic work culture.

If you are a manager or leader, you have to treat your employees like your children. You have to listen to them with empathy, try to find out what problems they are facing, and help them to solve them. If you take care of them they will take care of you and your whole organization.