Burnout
Let us start with what google says is the definition of burnout.
ruin one's health or become completely exhausted through overwork.Burnout in any profession or even personal life is very common. Anything which started as a hobby or a job can turn into something which will stress you out and you will one day reach a stage where you do not enjoy doing it anymore. It is really important to identify at the earliest and take some steps to avoid reaching this extreme state. Chances are you realize that you reached this state once the damage is done. Remember that you are not alone in this and it can happen to anyone. There is nothing wrong in admitting when you are not well.
Identifying burnout
Below are a few pointers to identify if you already reached this state.
- Lack of interest: You no longer have the interest or excitement to do your work. You wake up and feel irritated or frustrated about starting your day.
- Procrastination: You keep delaying what you are supposed to do. It need not be something related to work. It can also be something in your personal life. Eventually, you will miss deadlines. This can even hit your confidence level.
- Ineffective: You end up spending more time on work that you earlier were able to finish in much lesser time. Work which takes a few minutes to finish will take hours. You may do silly mistakes and end up spending more time overall doing and fixing them.
- Exhaustion: You feel tired both physically and mentally. This will take a toll on your sleep cycle as well.
- Irritability: You just feel irritated all the time. Even a simple mail or message from someone might irritate you.
Recovering from burnout
- Take time out to talk to your friends about what is going on. If possible, try and meet more people outside work. Sometimes just meeting them will help you a lot.
- Talk to your manager. Ask for a break. You need some time off and distance yourself from the environment. Taking a break will give you time to introspect and think about what you really want and what you need to do for the same.
- In the case that break is not possible, make sure you do not work after your office hours until and unless it is a very pressing issue. Try to avoid mails, calls, and messages after office hours and during weekends. Do not overdo anything.
- If none of these work and quitting is not an option, try switching company. Change of environment, work, people you work with will give you some breathing space.
- Go and pick up the hobby you left a long time back. Can be anything that takes your mind off work.
- Try to organize your day. Maintain a fixed time for work, sleep, and personal time.
Start making some basic changes in your work life. These are just a few things, to begin with.
- Start saying no.
- Stop getting involved in what is not your work.
- Learn to delegate.
- Prioritize the work and avoid multi-tasking.
- Inform your colleagues not to call/message you until and unless heaven is falling down.
Sadly there are people who feel burnout is just an excuse and mock people. To those people out there, burnout has been officially named a medical condition. It is time for organizations to take it seriously when an employee comes up with such an issue.
