Burnout and how to recover from it

"Burnout? This is not about me," I thought.

Until I caught a cold 3 times in 2 months.

Until I was getting tired of work by Wednesday.

Until it became difficult to concentrate.

Until I became forgetful (once I forgot to lock the car), irritable, and worried.

Until my sleep worsened.

Until I procrastinated most of the time and didn't have the energy or desire to try anything new.

I didn't notice exhaustion behind my enthusiasm for work for a long time. I forgot what it's like to relax and not think about work. And without quality rest, it became harder and harder to work.

That's how I got stuck in a burnout cycle.

I've really dived into understanding burnout. Through professional courses and extensive research, I've gained some valuable insights into what exactly burnout is and how you can either cope with it or, even better, prevent it altogether. Let's dive into it together.

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What is burnout?

The World Health Organization describes burnout syndrome as an individual “response to long-term stress at work that has not been successfully managed”. Burnout is not a medical condition or mental disorder, but it can cause damage at a cognitive, emotional, physical, and behavioral level, which translates into a negative attitude towards work, colleagues, clients, and the professional role itself.

Graham Greene was the first author who used the term burnout in his novel “A Burnt-Out Case” in 1961 when describing the story of an architect who found neither meaning in his profession nor pleasure in life.

Later, this term was picked up by American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger, who observed the volunteer staff (including himself) at a free clinic for people with drug use issues. He defined burnout as exhaustion, fatigue, and frustration resulting from work's excessive demands and physical symptoms such as headaches and sleeplessness, "quickness to anger", and closed thinking.

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Burnout symptoms and signs

Burnout isn't just about feeling tired or overworked. It can have many signs, but three key dimensions help to differentiate burnout from other conditions:

• feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, both emotional and physical;
• feeling disconnected, negative, or cynical towards your job;
• reduced sense of professional efficacy

Burnout is often mistaken for stress and, in severe cases, can even develop into depression. So, how can you tell if you or someone close to you is experiencing burnout? Keep an eye out for these signs:

Exhaustion

You might experience a lack of emotional and physical energy for your daily tasks. Work might leave you emotionally drained and used up at the end of the day. You might find yourself tired already in the morning when you have to face another day on the job.

Self-control issues, such as emotional outbursts or uncontrollable expenses, could arise. Coping through food, drugs, or alcohol may occur.

Look out for symptoms like low mood, increased anxiety, unexplained physical pain, stomach or bowel issues, and difficulty concentrating, as they may indicate fatigue.

Job disconnection and negativity

You may witness a decline in interest and enthusiasm for your work.

Experience impatience, or irritability toward your co-workers, customers, or clients. Prefer to focus solely on tasks without social interaction with your colleagues.

You might encounter negative thoughts or make cynical remarks/jokes about yourself, work, and colleagues.

Additionally, you might feel dissatisfaction with work outcomes and their significance.

Reduced performance

You might feel ineffective in problem-solving, disconnected from the organization's goals, and that you are lacking a sense of accomplishment in your job.

Doubts about your competence and effectiveness in getting tasks done may arise.

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Consequences of burnout

Burnout doesn't go away on its own. It worsens unless you address the root causes. Ignoring burnout symptoms could damage your physical and mental health even more. Besides, you could also lose your ability to meet job demands effectively which could negatively affect other areas of your life.

Mental health consequences

In different studies burnout is associated with:

• Concentration and memory issues
• Difficulties with decision-making
• Decreased ability to handle life events
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Dissatisfaction with life
• Low self-esteem
• Insomnia
• Irritability

Other researchers indicate that burnout can pose a significant suicide risk.

Physical health consequences

Several studies conclude that people with a higher level of burnout are more likely to experience: muscle pain, gastrointestinal issues, headaches, cardiovascular disorders, increased vulnerability to infections, insomnia and chronic fatigue.

Additionally, burnout can dangerously elevate blood cortisol levels and is a risk factor for the development of type 2 diabetes.

These symptoms can show up differently in different people, and not everyone will experience all of them.

Behavioral consequences

Burnout can lead to:

• Feeling unhappy or dissatisfied with work
• Losing interest or commitment to your job
• Being absent from work a lot or being present but not really doing your tasks because of health issues
• Thinking about quitting your job
• Not being able to work as effectively as before
• Feeling more aggressive towards coworkers or clients
• Drinking more alcohol or smoking more
• Misusing company resources, or even stealing from work

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The causes of burnout

Two primarily categories that can trigger burnout are organizational and individual factors.

Key point: burnout is more a result of workplace conditions than individual characteristics. Although organizational factors are capable per se of generating burnout, individual factors would play a moderating role.

Organizational factors

Usually, the type of work you do, how it's organized, and how you get along with your coworkers, supervisors, and/or clients can all be potential triggers or risk factors for burnout.

Work overload

Having too much work, both in quantity and complexity, requires significant effort and can make you feel exhausted and stressed out. It might even make you want to distance yourself from work to protect yourself from feeling even worse.

Poor working hours

A work schedule that hinders your work-life balance is another trigger of burnout, especially when dealing with: shift work, frequent rotations, night shifts, extended working hours or excessive overtime.

Additionally, these demanding schedules are linked to sleep disorders, heart issues, health complaints, job dissatisfaction, decreased attention and performance, and an increased risk of accidents.

Emotional labor

Imagine a situation when Hannah that works at customer support soothes an angry client who is not satisfied with their purchase. This is an example of emotional labor – the process of managing your feelings and expressions to fulfill the emotional requirements of your job.

Employees often need to control their emotions when interacting with customers, coworkers, and managers. This means suppressing feelings like anger, irritation, or discomfort to follow company guidelines. It also involves expressing emotions that might not be genuine, such as showing sympathy to clients or smiling to coworkers. Sometimes, it means appearing calm even when feeling scared.

Dealing with emotional labor often means handling extra stress at work. Several studies have found strong connections between emotional labor and burnout, particularly in fields like teaching and human resources.

Lack of autonomy and influence at work

Lack of freedom at in how you do your job, and the inability to influence decisions that affect your work are linked to increased burnout. On the flip side, having autonomy and control over your work can lower burnout levels and increase professional satisfaction.

Ambiguity and role conflict

When you're not sure what's expected of you or your role isn't clear enough, or when your tasks clash or create conflicting demands, burnout level increases.

Incompetent supervision and unfair treatment

Overly controlling and unjust supervision, fixated solely on mistakes without acknowledging achievements and efforts, or the opposite – complete lack of direction or having no clear leadership at all, increases the likelihood of burnout.

On the other hand, when employees are treated fairly, it leads to an increase in available resources, which helps to reduce emotional exhaustion and lowers the risk of burnout.

Lack of social support

Lack of support from colleagues or supervisors at work, along with internal conflicts among coworkers, can trigger burnout. Conversely, having social support acts as a buffer against this syndrome.

Individual factors

Personality traits

Your personality affects how you perceive work environment, how you cope and manage with work demands and resources.

One popular model of personality is the Big Five model. This model represents five major personality traits that you can remember using OCEAN acronym:

• *Openness vs. closedness to experience*
• *Conscientiousness vs. lack of direction*
• *Extraversion vs. introversion*
• *Agreeableness vs. antagonism*
• *Neuroticism vs. emotional stability*

Several studies conclude that personality traits in the Big Five model are significantly and differently associated with burnout.

Openness to experience means you're curios about both inner and outer worlds, creative, have active imagination, wide interests and willingness to consider new ideas. If you score high on openness it will be a protective factor against burnout as it is positively associated with the professional efficacy component of burnout and negatively associated with job disconnection.

Likewise, conscientiousness that describes careful, organized, thorough, efficient, self-disciplined and determined person, reduces the likelihood of burnout.

If you're more of an extravert – sociable, outgoing, energetic, adventurous and enthusiastic – consider yourself lucky as extraversion is another personality trait that protects you against burnout.

Similarly, if you're more-agreeable person who is altruistic, trustful, sympathetic to others and eager to help them, you will tend to experience less burnout than your less-agreeable colleagues.

Neuroticism or emotional instability is the tendency to experience strong emotions such as fear, anxiety, sadness, embarrassment, anger, guilt and disgust. A high score in neuroticism mean you often feel vulnerable, have difficulties to control impulses and coping poorly with stress. A low neuroticism score means you are emotionally stable – usually calm, contented, relaxed and resilient. As you probably guessed, more emotionally stable person is less likely to suffer from burnout and vice versa.

Locus of control

Meet Hannah, a customer support pro who believes client satisfaction is a result of her actions. Every challenge is a chance to learn, reflect, and proactively improve for the future. This commitment to growth earns her a stream of positive feedback from customers.

Conversely, her colleague Maria, thinks, "If people are upset, it's their problem". Feeling helpless, unlucky, and consistently dealing with tough clients. Maria believes she's got all the skills and sees no need for improvement of her communication.

The locus of control is the degree to which we believe our actions, as opposed to external factors, shape our lives. Developed by psychologist Julian B. Rotter in 1954, it's a spectrum from internal to external locus of control.

Hannah has a strong internal locus of control, attributing events to her actions. Maria's belief in external factors driving outcomes showcases an external locus of control.

A heightened external locus of control increases the likelihood of experiencing burnout, particularly in uncertain or unfamiliar situations where we feel we lack control even more.

Expectations

People's work expectations directly affect burnout levels: striving for higher goals often results in increased effort, yet it can also lead to emotional exhaustion and detachment from work.

The person’s level of involvement, specifically, over-involvement is also a potential trigger, especially when it may be impossible to achieve goals.

This mismatch between expectations and realities can lead to frustration and burnout in people.

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How to recover from burnout?

• I took a vacation, in my case, when physical health was already suffering, I couldn't manage without it.

• I prioritized sleep. Started going to bed by 11 pm, and tried to finish all entertainment and gatherings with friends by 9:30 pm. I say openly about when I want it to end (New Year's Eve was an exception).

  Two hours before bedtime, I turn off the bright white light and turn on warm night lamps. All screens are switched to night mode.

  I ventilate the bedroom and put on a sleep mask and earplugs. The three basic conditions for good quality sleep are darkness, silence, and coolness.

• I live by the principle – "If you're tired, rest." I take breaks in the middle of the day to lie on the sofa, hug my husband, watch funny videos, play with my cat Sima and dog Jamie, drink tea, meditate, water flowers, etc.

• I finish all work (consultations, supervision, training, creating posts, stories) by 6:00 pm, even if I didn't do everything I planned. I don't take new trainings if I feel a lack of energy.

• I don't like physical exercises, but I'm sleepy and irritable without them. I used to force myself to jog, but that didn't bring me joy either.

  I found my favorite yoga asanas and added a little warm-up instead. It takes only 15-20 minutes in the morning and this is just enough to release serotonin – a neurotransmitter that affects your mood, appetite and helps regulate sleep-wake cycles and the body clock.

  Once, instead of exercising, my husband suggested playing a Twister game, so I will tell you that it's not worse than asanas and even funnier.

  Every day I go for a walk for at least 30 minutes, I try not to use the elevator, and I walk when I talk on the phone. Sometimes I brush my teeth while standing on one leg (asana for balance). And since summer I appreciated cycling.

• Thanks to my husband, I added more variety to my everyday life: I started cooking new recipes. I learned (well, it was said out loud) to play poker and munchkin, thanks to my friends. I bought myself different types of flowers and started to experiment with style. Finally, we hung up the bird feeder, not even four years had passed since we created it. I saw a retro train. And in general, there is more spontaneity.

• I choose people who choose me. I spend more time with people with whom I feel good and minimize communication with those who drain my energy. I'm open to meeting new people, so don't hesitate to contact me if you feel up to it.

• I practice an information detox: I don't take my phone with me on weekends or during walks. I rarely read the news, there is not much of a positive, but enough disturbing texts. If I am tired and have some missing calls, I respond that I will call later, unless it is something urgent.

Here it is, my recipe for "burning up", hope you find it helpful. If you like my article I would be grateful if you share it with your friends

If you have any questions, ask me here: ✉️ : psychologist.olesya.b@gmail.com. I'll be happy to answer.

With love and kindness 🫶

Olesia Bobruiko

psychologist online

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Resources:

• Burnout: A Review of Theory and Measurement by Sergio Edú-Valsania Ana Laguía and Juan A. Moriano. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2022, 19(3), 1780; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19031780
• Explanations of personality traits: Rothmann S, Coetzer EP (24 October 2003). "The big five personality dimensions and job performance". SA Journal of Industrial Psychology. 29. doi:10.4102/sajip.v29i1.88
• "How Art Can Change Your Life" by Susie Hodge 2022