TELLTALE SIGNS Of Job Burnout (Plus Solution)

I used to work in a market research company, where my manager worked 70 hours a week (yep – that’s twice as much as you and me).

We live in the era of, “yes, I can”, where we tell ourselves that we can achieve anything if we work hard enough.

And glorification of busyness isn’t helping this madness, either.

Today, half a million people in the UK suffer from work-related stress.

Stress levels are now past breaking point in the UK and US.

The World Health Organisation predicts that work-related stress, job burnout and depression will top the list of the world’s most prevalent diseases by 2020.

While the term job burnout is often thrown around interchangeably with stress, they are actually quite different.

The difference between burnout and stress

Experiencing some manageable stressors, with recovery in between, is actually necessary and even beneficial in life.

When we experience stress, our brain gets a surge of adrenaline, which can lead to quick thinking and creative solutions.

Stress is a normal reaction to positive or negative situations in our lives, such as starting a new job, asking for a raise or the death of a loved one.

Acute, short-term stress keeps us engaged with the world.

Burnout, on the other hand, is caused by repeated, unmanaged and chronic stress, that exceeds our ability to cope and causes our whole system to shut down, resulting in overall apathy and detachment.

The biggest difference between stress and burnout is that stress makes us feel frantic and anxious; burnout, on the other hand, makes us lose interest in our relationships, our work, and ourselves — leaving us to feel isolated and alone.

What are the signs of burnout?

Burnout has a tendency to creep up without warning.

It can be difficult to recognise when chronic stress turns into burnout.

A general sign of job burnout is when you feel like you simply can’t motivate yourself to care about your work anymore.

More specific symptoms include:

Feeling physically & emotionally exhausted

A common sign of burnout is unusually low physical & emotional energy.

If you’ve been constantly feeling exhausted & have no energy to do anything, even the things you used to enjoy, like seeing friends, hobbies, then this may be a sign of burnout.

You may also feel unmotivated or defeated in general, feeling less confident about your abilities to improve your situation.

Physical & emotional exhaustion can manifest in chronic fatigue, insomnia, moodiness, pessimism, detachment from personal relationships, weight gain or loss of appetite.

Lowered immunity to illness

When stress levels are high for a prolonged amount of time, your immune system becomes weakened, making you more vulnerable to immune-related illnesses like flu.

Falling ill, is your body’s unconscious defence against burnout – a way of telling you that something needs to change.

Difficulty concentrating

When you’re stressed over a long period of time, your overworked brain stops taking on more information, which makes it a real challenge to focus, remember things, and make decisions.

It may seem like no matter how hard you try, things keep slipping past you.

Your work performance is suffering

Ironically, working so hard may actually make it more difficult to meet expectations at work.

Despite long hours at your desk, chronic stress prevents you from being productive, which often results in sloppy work or incomplete projects.

NB! Our bodies and minds are clever in that they do give us warnings before it’s too late.

If you are experiencing some of these symptoms above, this should be a wake-up call that you may be on a dangerous path.

Lifestyle choices that can prevent burnout

Burnout can happen to anyone.

Asking for help and taking care of yourself is not an admission of defeat or a sign of weakness.

Rather, acknowledging that you need support is a sign of strength and wisdom. Identifying the problem at the early stage and seeking for help, is a positive first step to getting back on track, recovering your energy and enthusiasm.

For a healthy balanced life, here’s what I recommend to make time for these activities every day:

Play: doing something for the pure pleasure of it

This involves stimulating the brain in new ways, like learning a language, or playing a music instrument, pottery, drawing – anything you enjoy.

Taking up a hobby, that isn’t related to your work, is great for your mental health.

Down-time or me-time

Our brain needs to recharge on a daily basis.

This may mean actually going for a walk on your lunch break instead of gulping down your meal in front of the computer; or taking a long candle-lit bath after work to relax or reading a book instead of spending the evening surfing the web or drinking in a pub.

Jaimie is great at coaching you on how to always find time for daily down-time by enforcing boundaries.

Start saying “No” more

When we are burned out, we often feel that we have no control of our schedule – and that’s because we don’t know when to say “no.”

Occasionally, saying “yes” to things you don’t want to do can be a healthy compromise; constantly feeling pressured to say yes to things you don’t want to, deteriorates self-worth and mental wellbeing.

Being able to say “no” in a direct but diplomatic matter is the quickest way to avoid burnout –says Jaimie.

Unlike many other online coaches, I can definitely recommend Jaimie.

As someone, who has survived a burnout herself and is now thriving in a new career, she is not only an inspiring coach, but also a certified psychologist with 9 years of real life experience in business management, so she knows exactly what’s it like to be in her client’s shoes.

With her no BS approach to coaching, Jaimie takes a holistic view of your situation, helps you identify the areas you’d like to work on and uses proven coaching frameworks that achieve real, lasting change.

Jamie is currently opening up few new coaching slots for people who feel stuck and unhappy at work.

Book a free introductory call with Jaimie by clicking here now.

A certified counsellor can help support you as you navigate these feelings and help you to recover a healthy balance in your life, so you can happily and healthily pursue your potential.