Job Burnout (Transcription)
Hi, everyone and happy Tuesday! Sorry, I was not here last week to give you some tips, but I am back with some more tips on mental health. So today I’m going to talk about work stress and, more specifically (i) job burnout, (ii) how you know that you’re burnt out and (iii) what you can do to help job burnout. So some signs of work burnout are you may be very negative where you’re talking about a lot of negativity. You’re not really seeing the glass half full, your are just having issues with remaining positive, whether it’s work and then it may spill over into your personal life – where you’re doing that at home as well. Another one is that if you find yourself with a cold for a very long time that kind of lingers, or you feel like you’re getting sick very often that can also be a sign of burnout / inefficiency at work.
So you find that the work that you’re doing is just not as efficient as it typically is. And just lack of motivation and energy altogether. So you’re just feeling really drained about work. Again, that’s typically spilling over into your personal life, if you’re at the point of burnout. So your personal life, you’re just finding that lack of energy – on your weekends you might want to sleep more and do nothing. So those are kind of some of the signs of job burnout or that you’re feeling really stressed with work. I think right now, especially with the pandemic – we’ve been doing this for almost a year now, which is crazy – but we’ve been working from home or had kind of a shift in schedules or just a shift in work expectations in general. And that can cause a lot of stress, even though it’s been almost a year, it doesn’t mean that we’re all used to it at this point.
We’re still in that kind of transitional period. So you might be feeling it more now, too, especially coming up on the year. It might be even worse because you’re thinking it’s been a year. Why am I still feeling like this? I should be adaptive by now. So those are kind of all the things that you want to look out for that show you i am stressed, I’m burnt out at work and it’s spilling into my personal life. So some things that you can do to help with this burnout is start with a ritual that is relaxing for you every day. So every day that you have work. So typically let’s say Monday through Friday, you’re working and starting off with a relaxing ritual. So do something for yourself – have your morning coffee at home with your spouse, significant other, or just by yourself, if that’s what you prefer just have that cup of coffee, just kind of relax, get ready for the day.
Mindful meditation is a great way to start your day off. It can just give you some energy and some good feelings all together. Just have something in the morning that is a ritual that makes you feel good. That gives you you time to get ready for that day. What you don’t want to do is just wake up, go straight to work and feel that negativity. You want to kind of get yourself prepared for the Workday and put yourself in a good place to start. The next would be to exercise – make sure that you’re exercising. You’re taking time for your physical body because physical health can also help with mental health. So, you know, if it’s running in the morning or after work walking even can be really helpful. Anything that you can do to get yourself up and active can help with that lack of energy and motivation and get you to feeling a little bit more energy.
The next is to set boundaries. I know this is difficult. If you’re working from home, make sure that when you are clocking out of work, whenever that time might be, you are done with work. You leave your laptop where your workspace is and you are out (unless you are someone who has to be on call twenty-four seven – which most professions are not – all of your work should be left in that office or workspace that you’re creating for yourself). At home, if you’re going into work, then make sure you’re setting boundaries. So you’re not thinking about work after you get home. Something I like to tell people to do, and this is just on a regular basis as well. Not just with the pandemic. If you’re going to work when you come home, sometimes it’s helpful to, if you’re driving, just sit in the car for five minutes before you walk in, take a deep breath, start thinking about things that you want to leave in the car or leave at work.
And just kind of relax for five minutes before you go into the house. This can be really helpful because you’re allowing yourself to leave that work at work, and then you’re able to be more present at home. When you walk through that door, another thing is change your clothes when you get home. I know that sounds kind of silly, but when you’re in your work clothes, even if it’s not something that is super formal like a suit, if you’re in those clothes that you were in all day at work, sometimes it’s helpful to just physically change what you’re wearing into something more comfortable, and it can allow you to, again, leave that work out out the door and allow yourself to be present with this new transition of now you’re at home. Now you’re in your comfort zone and try not to think about those work tasks.
If you feel like you’re a type of person that constantly thinks about all the things they need to do the next day for work, do that in your car. When you have those five minutes, keep a pad of paper and pen in there, write down the things that you want to remember for tomorrow, leave it in your car. So that way you’re not ruminating about all the things that you have to do the next day. And again, you’re being more present at home with your family, your spouse, yourself, whatever your pets whoever that may be, you’re being more present and you’re not taking that work with you. And as far as the negativity goes, I know it’s really hard to force yourself to stay positive. But you have to really try and train yourself to think more positively.
So something that’s helpful is at the end of your day, think of three positive things that happen to you at work that made you feel good. Even if they’re small things like I got this task accomplished, or I had a good conversation with a coworker or whatever that might be, try to think of three positive things. There’s research saying that if you do this on a daily basis and you think of these positive things, then it’ll change the way that you think to be more positive versus negative. My last step I can tell you for work stress or work burnout is find your why. Remember why you joined this profession in the first place, remember good memories or good things that you had about this profession and try to get back to that place. Sometimes finding your passion again, can be really helpful in getting you back into a good place with your job.
A lot of times when we’re doing the same thing over and over and over again with work, if you’re doing the same thing every day, day in and day out, you get that burnout. It’s just natural. So you forget about those, you know, why am I doing this? You know, sometimes if I’m feeling burnt out, I go back to, why did I want to be a counselor in the first place I wanted to help people. I wanted to make people feel good about themselves and their situations and learn new ways of doing things. So I go back to that, why, and it sparks that that passion again. And so sometimes that’s really helpful. So I know that work stress is a huge topic. I could probably go on and on about this. But hopefully some of these tips have helped.
And I know that everyone’s stressing right now with the pandemic and, you know, hopefully we’re on the right tracks to get in a better place, but right now, all you could do is focus on what you’re doing right now to help you in this moment. Try not to think too far into the future because that can cause unnecessary anxiety that you just probably don’t need right now. So thanks so much. And if you have any other things that you want me to talk about on these talk about Tuesdays, feel free to message me or write on one of my posts, whatever you want to do, you can do that and I’d be happy to answer. Have a good rest of your week!