How to Avoid Burnout on the Job

A Gallop poll from 2014 revealed that 78 percent of people were not engaged or did not find value in their jobs. This can create burnout. Burnout reveals itself as physical, mental or emotional exhaustion combined with doubt in one’s ability to do well at their job. Burnout not only wreaks havoc in your work life, it can cause health issues as well. PrideStaff Financial has some tips to prevent burnout before it happens.

Our bodies speak to us.

In order to prevent burnout before it happens, take stock of what your body is telling you. That’s right—our bodies speak to us, using various emotional and physical triggers to get our attention. Triggers like exhaustion, anxiety, extreme fatigue, nervousness and even anger are all signals from our body telling us what steps or actions we need to take. If you want stop burnout before it happens, learn to listen to your body’s signals. If you’re feeling anxious at work, ask yourself why? If you’re often late to work or feel fatigued before lunchtime, identify the cause. If you find you have a short fuse with colleagues, it’s time to evaluate what’s bothering you.

Identify your form of burnout.

According to the Association for Psychological Science, there are three forms of burnout: overload, lack of development and neglect. Overload involves employees’ who work toward success until exhaustion. These individuals might complain about management at work, feeling as though management is imposing limits on their goals and ambitions. Or they may feel the job duties are limiting their success. This may lead to the employee quitting to alleviate the stress they feel. Lack of development is typically under-challenged employees managing stress by distancing themselves from work; a strategy that leads to depersonalization, cynicism and ultimately burnout. Neglect involves the employee that gives up because of the stress. Even though these individuals want to achieve a certain goal, they lack the motivation to push through obstacles to get what they want. Or they feel that management is not being supportive enough to help them achieve certain goals. If any of these speak to you, nip it in the bud before it’s too late.

Downtime is a necessity.

Believe it or not, we all need downtime. To relieve pressure or stress, schedule downtime daily to refuel your brain and enhance your well-being. It helps rebalance the system, allows you to check in with yourself and gives your brain some much-needed shutoff time. It can be anything from meditation to a nap, a walk or hike during lunch, listening to relaxing music or simply turning off social media and mobile devices for a while. What helps you relax and de-stress? Once you have the answer, start doing it daily!

Burnout happens in work and in life. The more educated you become on how to deal with and manage stress and burnout, the more successful and fulfilled you’ll feel at work and in your personal life.

PrideStaff Financial is a 5-star diamond award recruiting firm. Our Staffing Consultants can offer the guidance you need. Contact us today to learn more.