Chapter 5: Dealing with Burnout the Smart Way
“Burnout is what happens when you try to avoid being human for too long.”
(Michael Gungor)
Your ability to stay concentrated on a given task or goal will be negatively impacted if you are experiencing burnout. It will impede your progress when you’re striving for self-mastery, and it will be very difficult to maintain a level of discipline.
If you are having problems coping with stress in the workplace, then you may be at risk of burnout. Burnouts can be quite challenging since they can leave you unable to cope with the demands of life.
I know, and I have been there. It affected my family life, and it definitely hit my work performance hard. I’m telling you, it’s not just some random stuff that you come up with in your head. A burnout will feel as real as anything.
You feel empty and exhausted, and it may even be accompanied by physical and mental health symptoms too. But what is a burnout and how do you deal with it? You don’t want it in your life, but at some point you will experience it and you will have to deal with it.
We’ll cover the nature of a work burnout in this chapter. We will also go over some powerful tips and strategies that you can do to cope with it as well. A lot of the tips I will provide here has helped me get back up to my feet after having several burnout episodes in my life.
What is a Work Burnout Exactly?
According to the Mayo Clinic, job burnout is a special kind of work-related stress [52]. However, they also point out that it is not a medical diagnosis. What that means is that it isn’t exactly a condition like depression.
It’s not on the same level. But burnouts can still hit you hard. It affects people so much that experts recognize them as a type of occupational hazard [53]. The ones who are most susceptible to this experience are those in professions that require people-oriented contact.
If you’re in human services, health care, customer service, or even in education, then you are highly susceptible to work burnouts. Any job description that requires a level of emotional and personal contact with others is included.
So, how do you define work burnout?
Burnout can be simply summarized in one word—exhaustion. This isn’t like the regular exhaustion that you feel when you get tired after a hard day’s work or after you went out for a run or lifted weights at the gym.
Three Types of Burnout
Experts have identified three different types of burnout syndrome. Dr. Christina Maslach, the one who formulated the Maslach Burnout Inventor, has identified them as the following:
  1. Organizational Burnout
This is a type of burnout that is caused by poor organization. It can also come out of any extreme demands on your time. Another possible cause of this type of burnout is getting unrealistic deadlines at work.
Having these things will give you that feeling that your employment status is in jeopardy. Other than that, these conditions will also make you feel inadequate and that you aren’t hitting your organization’s goals all the time.
  1. Interpersonal Burnout
This type of burnout is caused by getting into difficult relationships. This can happen in any of your relationships, both personally and professionally. If you are experiencing this, then a boss that is too aggressive can add to all the stress that you are already experiencing.
Having co-workers that intimidate or challenge you also adds fuel to the anxiety that you may already be experiencing. A spouse (or partner) that doesn’t seem to appreciate you will make you feel unloved or unappreciated and may also contribute to interpersonal burnout.
  1. Individual Burnout
This is a type of burnout that occurs on a personal level. A huge part of this type of burnout is the negative self-talk that people often do to themselves. Sometimes when you have set a rather perfectionist standard for yourself, it can also lead to this type of burnout.
Some people experience a certain level of neurosis when they experience an individual burnout. This can often lead people to a belief that all the things that they do can never be good enough even though they have already accomplished much.
Different Modes of Measuring Exhaustion and Burnout
Burnout is exhaustion that is physical, mental, and also emotional all at the same time. It is something that you will eventually go through after getting continual exposure to a lot of stressful situations.
Exhaustion from a researcher’s point of view is measured differently, of course. When identifying the cause of burnout, you need to determine whether you’re dealing with cognitive weariness, emotional exhaustion, or just physical fatigue [54]. That is the standard for the Shirom‐ Melamed Burnout Measure.
Another way that researchers measure the type of exhaustion that one may be experiencing is through making a distinction between psychological exhaustion and physical exhaustion [55], which is how the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory evaluates a person’s condition.
Exhaustion also has a lot of other dimensions, and they are measured by other burnout measures/standards. Some experts check a person’s enthusiasm in his or her job, levels of guilt, efficacy, adequacy in the workplace, and indolence.
These are all different measures, but they all boil down to one thing—when you’re burned out, you are exhausted in more ways than one. Because burnouts are heavily caused by stress, psychiatrists Gail North and Herbert Freudenberger have classified burnouts as a type of stress syndrome.
A Short History about the Concept of a Burnout
Long story short, a burnout zaps out the joy in your life, and it will haunt your family and personal interactions, your friendships, and it can have a negative influence on your career. It happens after working long hours, getting upsetting news, having a sick family member, school or work safety issues, and other possible causes.
We’ll go over the causes later on.
The word “burnout” was coined in the 1970s by Herbert Freudenberger [56]. He described it as a condition that involves a severe amount of stress. This highly stressful and prolonged condition then leads to an equally severe emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion.
If you have experienced burnout, you know that it is a lot worse than any regular kind of fatigue. If you’re going through one, you will find it challenging to deal with your day-to-day responsibilities.
Your productivity will hit rock bottom. Your relationships with loved ones and friends will suffer. On top of that, you will find it increasingly more difficult to deal with the stress that happens in life.
Who Can Get Affected by Burnouts
Have you ever felt like you have nothing left to give? Have you ever experienced feeling that fear of leaving your bed and you just don’t want to get up in the morning when your alarm rings?
That may be a sign of burnout coming along. It will come with a feeling of hopelessness, and then you develop a rather pessimistic outlook in life. Now, here’s the scary part—a burnout never goes away on its own, and it can affect anybody.
If it is left untreated, it will lead to other medical conditions. It can develop into depression, and it can also contribute to diabetes and even heart disease.
As it was pointed out earlier, some people are more susceptible to burnouts. Here’s a partial list:
As you can see, any job that requires any form of direct interaction and providing service to others is a trigger for this type of condition. One study even suggests that you don’t have to be at the forefront of emergency care to rapidly experience a burnout.
Even being a father or a mother caring for a child can put you at risk for burnouts. In fact, parents, business executives, and even doctors are on the same level of potential risk for this condition [57].
Note that you don’t have to be a kind of service personnel to experience burnout. Anyone can experience it given certain conditions. We’ll cover the contributory conditions and factors in a later section of this chapter.
Be Aware of the Burnout Signs: Some Important Q&A
The following are the signs and symptoms of burnout. If you experience two or more of these signs, then you know that you are at risk of one coming up real soon. Take some alone time and ask yourself the following questions:
If you answered in the affirmative to two or more of these questions, then you have the definite symptoms of burnout.
In my case, I only noticed that I was having a burnout when my sleeping patterns changed. I often try to stay up late at night rushing to complete a project, only to fall asleep on my desk and struggle to stay up.
I ended up sleeping two to three hours a day. I then felt dissatisfied with my work—it’s work that I have been very good at, and I’ve been doing it for more than five years. I was snapping at my family and I couldn’t stand my co-workers.
If you are experiencing burnout, I strongly suggest that you talk to your doctor immediately. And I do mean immediately. You may get a referral to work with a psychiatrist or some other mental health provider, especially if your doctor suspects that your burnout may be related to depression.
List of Psychological Symptoms You May Experience
List of Physical Symptoms You May Experience
Now, we’ll go over the more serious symptoms in the next section of this discussion. We’ll cover that below.
Key Symptoms That You Should Look Out For
Here are the key symptoms that can help you identify whether you’re already experiencing burnout or not:
1. Exhaustion
This is usually one of the early signs that you will experience. When we say exhaustion, this is the kind that leaves you completely depleted. It’s not just an emotional or mental kind of exhaustion—this one is accompanied by actual physical symptoms.
Other than feeling tired and unmotivated without much gusto to carry on any further, you also experience certain aches and pains. You will get a loss of appetite. I have experienced stomach aches for no reason. I also had frequent headaches.
2. Frequent Illnesses
Okay, so this is a separate symptom altogether from the ones mentioned in item number 1 above. Remember that burnout is often related to long-term exposure to stress. When that happens, your immune system suffers.
The body becomes weak and eventually susceptible to many common illnesses. If you’re under constant stress for a prolonged period of time, then you will usually get flu-like symptoms, cough, cold, and other health conditions as well.
Since you will already experience some changes in your sleep patterns, you may already be going through the first few stages of insomnia. As your condition progresses, you may develop anxiety disorders as well as depression as well.
3. Irritability
Here’s a fact—burnouts can cause you to lose control. As the level of your anxiety increases, the more you become irritable. You lose your cool with your kids, your spouse or partner, and your co-workers as well.
You get easily irritated and you lash back at people quite easily. You weren’t always that way, but now you have become a hot-headed person. You can’t tolerate a lot of things and you tend to snap at other people over the smallest things.
As you go along, you find it more difficult to cope with the usual stressors in life, such as household tasks, caring for your kids, and even work meetings. When something goes wrong or some unplanned thing happens, you get irritated.
4. Escape Fantasies
People experiencing burnout will usually fantasize about going on a solo vacation or running away from their current situation in general. There are also extreme circumstances when they may turn to substance abuse to just numb away any pain they may be experiencing.
5. Isolation
When you are overwhelmed, you will feel isolated. Sometimes this isolation is self-imposed. Burned out people may stay away from people or just stop any form of socializing completely.
They stop confiding with friends and family. This is a critical sign, and when you notice it happening to you, then you must get help immediately.
Causes of Burnouts
It is important that when you notice that you have a burnout that you determine the possible causes with your healthcare provider. The following are some of the factors that can lead to work burnout:
When your work takes up a lot of your time, then you are on the verge of a burnout. Remember that human beings aren’t one-dimensional creatures. Our life at work is only one facet of the totality of our being.
We all need to have time for something else and other people. We need to spend enough time and energy for our family, friends, and other interests. Lack of work-life balance can easily lead to burnout.
Feeling isolated at work is a dangerous thing. Combine that with isolation and loneliness in your personal life can add to the stress that you are already feeling. You need to reach out and find friends pretty much everywhere.
Remember that it is not the isolation that gets you. It is the stress that comes from a lonely life that will contribute to your stress levels.
Last time I checked, you’re not a machine. Look at yourself in the mirror and you will see that on the other side is a human being. You’re not built to do the same thing over and over again. It’s going to drive you into boredom or even chaos.
I find it very hard to remain focused if I keep repeating the same things over and over again ad infinitum at work. The first thing that will come is fatigue. You get tired of doing the same routine.
It will eventually lead to burnout. That means we should find time to break the monotony of our lives in order to derive more meaning into what we do for a living.
I never encountered any office bullies in my life, but I have been bullied at school, so I guess I know how it would feel like. But there have been people in the office that have undermined my work, and that felt almost like I was getting bullied.
I have also had a boss micromanage everything, and that can also contribute to dysfunctional workplace dynamics.
When the degree of authority that you are given (or someone who is supposed to be your superior is given), then you will feel uncomfortable at work. You won’t know what is appropriate and what is expected of you or your co-workers performance-wise.
When you feel like you have no control over your tasks, or your ability to influence certain decisions, then that might trigger feelings of insecurity.
Having no control over things like your workload, your work schedule, the assignments that you have to work on, and the unavailability of the resources that you need to fulfill your job can produce a lot of anxiety and thus contribute a lot to a possible burnout.
Burnout Prevention
Once you have identified one or two of the symptoms mentioned earlier, you should act promptly. Here are some of the expert tips that I have found useful when it comes to burnout prevention.
Increase Self-Efficacy
“Self-efficacy” is a technical term, and it simply means having that firm belief that you can accomplish things.
Experts also call it a “perceived capability”[59]. When you set these goals, they should be ones that are meaningful to you.
Experts have observed that the people who believe that they can achieve things tend to experience less stress. When people believe that they can overcome problems, then they find inner strength to overcome stressful situations.
According to Albert Bandura, the one who formulated this theory, there are four sources that drive this firm belief in oneself. They include the following:
  1. Mastery experiences
  2. Verbal persuasion
  3. Psychological and emotional states
  4. Vicarious experiences
You can use these factors to improve your state or level of self-efficacy.
Mastery Experiences
So, what are mastery experiences? A mastery experience is an experience where you take on a new challenge and then you succeed in it. This can be applied when learning a new skill or achieving a certain goal.
We improve our performance one step at a time, and we gain increased confidence as we master small steps toward a much larger goal. So, how do you do this?
  1. Find a task that you find challenging (e.g., increasing sales, creating a marketing strategy, ask someone out on a date, complete your research on a given deadline, etc.)
  2. Outline smaller tasks that will help you complete that task (e.g., design ads, send a text message, engage in small talk, etc.)
  3. Do one small task at a time until you have accomplished every single one of them. Observe how you feel after accomplishing each task. Know that you can do it if you try.
  4. After successfully accomplishing a task, perform a self-evaluation session. Find some quiet time—maybe 10 to 15 minutes—take the time to celebrate what you have accomplished. You can get a drink or maybe have a favorite dessert; any treat will be great. And then while you’re at it ask yourself, “I can do this, so what else can I do?”
  5. Move on to the next mini-task until you have accomplished the main task. Don’t forget to reward yourself at the end.
So, what if you encounter failure? The solution is to sit down and also do a self-evaluation. This time you will determine the factors that brought about your failure. Think about things that you would have done differently.
After that, determine your next course of action or an alternative action. And then go out and do it.
Vicarious Experiences
This is the second most powerful way to increase your self-efficacy. The word “vicarious” sort of sounds quite religious, but it means something very simple. What this means is that you should observe someone else who has already accomplished that thing you want to accomplish.
What you are looking for is someone to “model” how the task can be accomplished. For instance, if you don’t feel confident about selling (you believe yourself to be a bad salesperson), then find someone good at it.
Observe how it is done. Bandura says that seeing someone succeed is rather infectious. If they can do it, then that means you can do it as well.
The person who will serve as your model doesn’t have to be a co-worker, supervisor, or even your boss. It can be a grandparent, your siblings, an aunt, teachers, your coach, a local celebrity, or any mentor.
What matters is that you can vicariously envision yourself as succeeding using the method that they used to succeed.
Verbal Persuasion
There are some big reasons why people look for motivational speakers. People attend self-improvement seminars and mastery classes conducted by charismatic experts for a reason.
Motivational talks and even that little pep talk that you have with a close friend can help to raise your spirits and reduce stress. It has the same effect as a talk between a parent and a child. That trust and confidence communicated from a trusted person (e.g., the parent) provides solace and motivation for the recipient (e.g., the child).
Psychological and Emotional States
Your emotional state and psychological condition can also be a source of strength and provide you a big boost to one’s self-efficacy. It should be obvious that you can’t have a positive assessment of your own capability to accomplish anything if you’re suffering from depression and/or anxiety.
It won’t be realistic to presume that you can get your tasks done if you are currently suffering from a medical condition. A lot of times, when people get over poor psychological and emotional states, they bounce back and take on life with much-needed gusto. They see things as a new chance at life.