Work burnout is a commonplace thing in today’s world, with ever-growing demand and quotas to be met. Still, a lot of the time it goes unnoticed and can progress to some far worse health or mental health conditions. This is bad thing to happen to an adult, never mind a young person.
What is Work Burnout?
But first I’d like to briefly go over what work burnout is and some signs of it. Work burnout is a condition where the person will feel sapped of their energy or weak and fatigued. This would all start because someone struggled to manage their workload correctly, or maybe they had just been given too much work. These are only two of the most common reasons.
If left untreated it can progress further and cause things such as anger, insomnia, sadness and even in much worse cases alcohol or substance abuse and even high blood pressure or heart disease.
Recognising Work Burnout
There is an easy system in place for recognizing work burnout, similar to the 5 stages of grief:
- The honeymoon stage – You work hard as you feel you need to in order to succeed in your profession.
2. The balancing act – The stress is getting to you, but you’ve made it this far without any mistakes. Signs of this stage are –
A. Job dissatisfaction
B. Work inefficiency
C. Avoidance of responsibility
D. Fatigue, both mental and physical
E. Sleep disturbance
F. Escapist activities (drinking, smoking, zoning out)
3. Chronic symptoms – this stage is very similar to stage 2 but more intensified. Also, at this point the person suffering from the burnout will be more likely to take part in escapist activities.
4. The crisis stage – the breaking point: the emotions and unending stress is too great for the person to deal with, so they start to break down. This can mean a lot of different things for different people, like acting out of place for attention or in some other cases purposefully secluding themselves.
5. Enmeshment – at this stage the person’s burnout symptoms are so great they do not fully realize it and its severity to their health. So, they continue without the help they need. This is what causes most problems and issues.
Avoiding Work Burnout
There are also many ways to help avoid work burnout. Some of the things you can do are –
- Spotting it Early. This can be a hard one to do but, if possible, try to help yourself.
2. Talking to Someone. It doesn’t have to be someone close, just someone willing to listen to you and hear your problems.
3. Make sure you have a manageable workload.
4. Do your work in intervals and on an easy to digest basis to ensure a good quality of work.
5. Always make sure to take time for yourself.
6. Make sure you take a break once a day to help ease your mind and to keep you ready for the task at hand.
In conclusion I find through my research on the topic that it affects working people of all ages and is an underlying issue in most workplaces. I hope this helps anyone who reads this and lets them know everything is okay.
This is the first instalment in our series “Health in the Workplace.”
If you enjoyed this post, learn the importance of managing your work-life balance in the post-Covid era here, and consider some other ways the mental health of young adults is declining, here.