Do you feel constantly tired and unmotivated? Do you regularly feel overwhelmed and suffer from mental exhaustion? You may be dealing with burnout and work-related stress.
Burnout, unfortunately, has become more commonplace among the mental health conditions affecting our current workforce. With ever-growing demands, new technological advancements, and the need to always be ahead of the game, job burnout is no longer a rarity.
If you suspect you may be suffering from burnout, then we have got you covered. In this blog, we’re going to look at what burnout is, the signs and symptoms of the condition, and what to do about burnout when it occurs. Read on now to learn more and feel better in no time.
What is Burnout🥱?
Source: Mayo Clinic
Burnout is a state of chronic and emotional exhaustion brought on by excessive and prolonged stress. It has physical and mental symptoms and often occurs in workers with heavy workloads, long hours, little to no control over their work, and a lack of work-life balance.
According to the Mayo Clinic, burnout doesn’t just happen suddenly. Instead, it takes a long time and a range of conditions that contribute to burnout before a person may realize they are suffering from job-related burnout.
Thankfully, employers can make themselves aware of the physical and emotional signs of burnout to identify employees who are at risk and put measures in place to support their employees’ well-being. We take a look at the signs of burnout in the next section.
Signs of Burnout 🔎
As an employer, becoming well-versed in the signs of burnout can help make your workforce happier and more productive. If you notice the signs that can lead to burnout and identify individuals you think may be suffering, you will be able to implement measures before things get too difficult and they have to take time off.
Below is a list of the key signs that someone is experiencing burnout.
Symptoms of Burnout 🤒
Stress is common for most people at some point in their lives. In fact, stress is an evolutionary response to danger. Back when we were hunter-gatherers, the stress response made it more likely that we would outrun a lion 🦁 or other predator by giving us a shot of adrenaline.
However, in the present day, where roaming lions are, thankfully, much less common, the stress response can be triggered by innocuous events and go on for much longer. Chronic stress is when your body is in the fight-or-flight response for a prolonged period. This state can wreak havoc on not only your physical wellness but your mental wellness, too.
Below, we have covered the symptoms of chronic stress, or work burnout, so you can better understand how much harm it can cause.
1. Physical Symptoms 🩺
The stress response causes a release of cortisol into your body, but prolonged exposure to cortisol can have many physical effects that damage the body. Physical symptoms of stress include the following.
- Tiredness/drained
- Headache
- Muscle tension and pain
- High blood pressure
- Digestive complications
- Reduced immunity
- Prone to illnesses
- Change in sleep habits and appetite
2. Emotional Symptoms 🎭
Burnout typically presents itself through emotional signs and symptoms. While stress is the cause of burnout, it is the emotional toll that is most likely to be spotted in employees. Emotional symptoms include the following.
- Emotional exhaustion: This refers to extreme emotional depletion where you don’t have the energy to socialize, delegate work, and control conflict.
- Loss of motivation: Feeling unmotivated to work because your mind and body don’t have the stamina.
- Loneliness and detachment: People who are more exhausted tend to feel lonelier and more detached.
- Low self-esteem and more self-doubt: When you can’t work properly due to burnout, you may start to have self-doubts, and your self-esteem may decrease.
- Reduced satisfaction and accomplishment: This is related to the previous one. You won’t feel satisfied and accomplished because you’re not working at your best.
- Cynical and negative outlook: This is when you don’t want to ask for help or work with others. You look at life negatively.
- Feeling trapped, helpless, and defeated: This is when you feel like you can’t do anything to change the situation that you’re in.
3. Behavioral Symptoms 👀
Another way to identify burnout in yourself or your employees who are suffering from burnout includes looking out for behavioral symptoms. These can include the following.
- Decreased productivity
- Withdrawal from responsibilities
- Self-isolation
- Procrastination
- Releasing frustration to other people
- Skipping work or working shorter hours
- Overeating or undereating
- Angry outbursts
- Drug or alcohol misuse
How to Recover From Burnout 🧘
Burnout can have tremendous impact, not only on your work life but also on those around you, your relationships, and your physical health. Below are a few steps you may want to take to try to elevate feelings of burnout. Additionally, employers may use the following steps to implement a plan to help employees avoid burnout, too.
1. Monitor Your Stress Levels ✍️
There are many ways to analyze your own stress levels, but one really straightforward way is to look into well-being apps. Many apps feature stress monitoring tools where you can indicate how you feel daily. You may also consider journalling to note how you feel each day and what has happened to make you feel this way.
2. Analyze Your Stressors 📈
By journalling and keeping track of your stress levels, you can also make note of situations and environments that trigger stressful periods. Perhaps you always feel more stressed after interacting with particular colleagues or when working on specific projects. By identifying these triggers, you can put methods in place to cope with them and avoid burnout.
3. Maintain Work-Life Balance 👪
Since work is the main reason for burnout, you should do your best to maintain a work-life balance. After working hours, turn off your work devices, don’t handle work-related tasks, or answer work messages and calls. Take a vacation leave once in a while, and make sure that your weekends are entirely work-free.
Make sure that you spend time with your loved ones because they can rejuvenate your energy and enhance your health and well-being.
Source: NCBI
If you don’t feel you are able to take time away from work, then it is time you speak with a manager or supervisor to put plans in place to reduce your workload and give you the chance to switch off.
4. Apply Stress Management Techniques 🤸
Since people deal with stress in their own way, you should find the best stress management techniques for you. There are actually a ton of ways that you can reduce stress by small acts each day. These include the following.
5. Have a Support Group 🏋️
Just because burnout makes you feel alone doesn’t mean that you are. Spend time with your family and friends who can support you. You can discuss your worries with them if you feel like you can do so, and they may even be able to offer support with specific aspects of your workload. Speak with colleagues, too; they may know ways to spread out your deadlines and help you feel less stressed.
6. Ask for Help 🙏
There is no shame at all in asking for help when you are struggling. If burnout is having an impact on your daily life, then speaking with a doctor, therapist, or psychologist may help you to reduce stress and feel better once more.
You should also speak with your boss and let them know how you’re feeling. The chances are that your boss will want to implement strategies to make you feel better, as a burned-out employee is much less productive than one who is happy and well.
Types of Burnout Recovery 🫂
Everyone will have a different timeline in terms of recovery, but what’s important is that you’re doing your best to heal.
Burnout affects everyone in different ways. As such, there are many types of recovery to try. You may be experiencing a combination of symptoms, both internally and externally. You can use a combination of the above techniques to heal your body and your mind.
1. Internal Recovery 🧠
If you’re experiencing loneliness, low focus, poor memory, and emotional exhaustion, you can try methods that boost mental wellness and make you feel balanced and well once more.
You should try therapy, social bonding, journaling, and creative expression (such as art). Speak with your doctor to find a local therapist to support you and make sure to get some downtime with your loved ones in the diary as soon as possible.
2. External Recovery 🏃
Burnout can appear as a physical illness, such as headaches, chronic fatigue, muscle tension, and gastrointestinal issues. In cases like this, you should try recovery methods that make you feel healthy in a physical way.
You can heal by exercising, getting sufficient sleep, staying hydrated, and eating a healthy diet.
3. Daily Recovery 📆
Little things matter, and minor changes to your daily habits and lifestyle can go a long way to help prevent burnout in the future. Try implementing some of the following habits to avoid burnout and chronic stress and recover from burnout.
- Drink less caffeine
- Take morning walks
- Meditate
- Write in a diary
Final Thoughts
Burnout is common for many people. There’s no quick fix, but you can take some measures to help yourself recover from it. We hope that the information we mentioned will be helpful to you.
If you think you or an employee is experiencing burnout, there are methods that workplaces can put in place to help avoid chronic stress and burnout. MyTommy has many tools and features that support small and medium business owners and help them to have happy and productive staff. Contact us today for more information.
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UK 
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FR 
BR 
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IN