We all experience pressure from our jobs, and while a little bit of pressure can provide some motivation for us, however too much constant pressure leads to what is called burnout. In today’s fast-paced world, burnout is becoming more and more common, and this can seriously affect both mental and physical health. Levels of stress are high in the UK, with 91% of adults reporting that they experienced high or extreme stress and pressure at work in the past year. This blog will be sharing how to spot and prevent burnout from occurring to you.Â
What is Burnout?
Burnout is the name for emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion caused by experiencing too much stress for too long in a work environment. Burnout can feel like a constant drain on your life, making you feel empty, exhausted, and unmotivated. Additionally, burnout is not limited to only adults, children can also experience burnout at school and 94% of full-time students experienced high or extreme levels of stress and pressure, Read more about how stress at school can affect children’s mental health on our other blog post here.
Signs and Symptoms of Burnout
Some symptoms of burnout are ignored or attributed to stress, anxiety, or low mood. Being able to recognise that you are experiencing burnout early can help you to take preventative action to cope with stress.
Chronic Fatigue: Often the first sign of burnout is becoming both mentally and physically drained. Even if you are sleeping fine, you may feel like you can’t energise or recharge no matter how much rest you have.
Negative Attitude and Detachment: This can include minimising your successes and maximising problems, as well as jumping to negative conclusions. Emotionally, you may feel irritable and disengaged with work, relationships, or even hobbies. When you are experiencing burnout you can have no sense of satisfaction or achievement.
Emotional Exhaustion: When you are burnt out, you can find even minor challenges to be too much for you. This can result in decreased self confidence, which can lead to withdrawing from social interactions and self-isolation.Â
Physical Symptoms: Chronic stress can also cause physical symptoms as well as mental ones, these can manifest as headaches, muscle and joint pain, and low appetite. These physical effects can worsen the experience of burnout, creating a downward spiral if not dealt with.
Decreased Performance: During burnout your levels of focus and concentration can greatly decrease, making completing tasks at work more difficult and too overwhelming. People experiencing burnout can take much longer to complete tasks and seemingly have lower productivity than they did previously.
How to Relieve Burnout
If you find yourself experiencing burnout it is important to give yourself time to rest and recover to rebuild your energy. Overcoming a period of burnout can be a long process, but it is absolutely necessary for your wellbeing and mental health. There are multiple methods to alleviate burnout and it is important to find the one that works for you.
Step Away: Sometimes, removing yourself from the source of your stress can be necessary for relief. Time away from work, even for just a day, can be used to simply rest without pressure from workload or deadlines.
Set Boundaries: Ensure that others in the workplace have realistic expectations of you and clearly define both when and where you will be working. Try to avoid frequently working outside of your set hours and take breaks when you are working. Spending time away from your screen helps you to relax.
Manage Workload: One way to manage your time and reduce your workload is to use the four D’s – Ditch (does this task need to be done?), Defer (could it be done at a later date?), Delegate (could someone else complete it?), and Do. Always ask for help when you are struggling with a task instead of trying to do it alone.
Look After Your Health: From adding 5 minutes of movement to your daily routine to training for a marathon, physical exercise has undeniable benefits for mind and body. For example, a quick stretch before heading out in the morning instead of rolling out of bed could refresh and revitalise you.
Reach Out: Talking about the pressure you are under to someone at work, such as your manager or a colleague, can help them to provide support for you. However, you can also reach out to a friend or family member just to talk about what you are facing. You can also access free NHS talking therapies without needing to see a GP.
Prevent Burnout from Happening
There are preventative measures you can take to both remove the risk of burnout from your life and reduce your stress at work for better mental health overall. Keeping up strategies you used to alleviate burnout after the fact will help you to overcome high levels of stress and pressure.
Change your Mindset: Becoming more resilient to challenges can help you to resist burnout. The NHS recommends shifting your perspective, reframing negative thoughts and looking at problem solving in a practical way as good CBT (cognitive behavioural technique) skills.
Understand your Stress: Identify the most effective stress management strategies for you using a tool such as the Stress Bucket to help. Additionally, making sure you are aware of what good and bad mental health looks like for you, and also others, so that you can act during times of stress.
Build Relationships at Work: Have regular conversations and check-in with colleagues, especially when working remotely to reduce feelings of isolation. Ensure that you also have regular discussions with your manager about their expectations of you and your workload so that you can have support if you need it.
Practice Mindfulness: Journalling, breathing exercises and meditation are all mindfulness techniques that can help you to understand yourself and your stress better through paying more attention to your feelings and the world around you.
Burnout should not be ignored as it can have severe impacts on both physical and mental health as well as your life outside of work. It is a sign from your body that it needs a break and to take better care of yourself while working, which will have many benefits for your overall health. Both effort and patience are needed to overcome burnout, but you can recover your energy and wellbeing by following some of the steps listed here. Remember to talk to your GP if you need to.
References
https://www.nhs.uk/every-mind-matters/lifes-challenges/work-related-stress/
https://mentalhealth-uk.org/burnout/
https://www.who.int/news/item/28-05-2019-burn-out-an-occupational-phenomenon-international-classification-of-diseases
https://www.acas.org.uk/managing-work-related-stress
