Part III: Reducing & Recovering from Burnout

Burnout affects your work performance, job satisfaction, and home life.  Burnout can lead to impairment in your social and interpersonal relationships if left untreated.  The sad part is that many people do not have enough self-awareness to realize they are burned out!  If you took the quiz in Part II and had a high level of burnout, here are some tips for how you can get back on track and demolish your burnout.

Since burnout stems from mainly 3 areas: personal, environmental, and organizational, the first step to combat burnout is to identify where your burnout is coming from our if it is balanced equally between these facets of your work life.  After you have identified what is draining your energy, you can see about making a change in that area.  At this time you may also want to become aware of your values and beliefs to make sure they are aligned with your goals.  This is when some "soul searching" may be beneficial to assess whether or not you are in the right job or career path.  After you have re-aligned yourself, you need to use SMART goals to make changes in your life. (See chart for creating SMART goals)

By creating specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals, you will be able to set yourself up for achievable success instead of disappointing failure.  Through achieving goals, your confidence should pick up and you should be headed on the path to recovery from burnout. In addition to making changes in your life, you should seek out some self-care activities to give yourself the time and space necessary to heal and recover.  Self-care techniques include exercise, meditation / relaxation exercises, walking the dog, hot bubble bath, etc.  So often when you are burned out, you do not take care of yourself and you are just taking care of everyone else which creates a vicious cycle that must be broken by healing from within first.

Other Tips:

• If you can delegate responsibilities or advocate for help within your field, now is the time to do it! Don't make yourself a martyr to your workplace.
• Take a break during your work day.  It's important to get up and move around, take a 5 minute walk around the building or do some stretches in your cubicle to get the blood flowing.
• Schedule time for co-workers, family, and friends who can help support you through a difficult time.
• If your burnout is particularly surrounding your job, it may be time to look for something else more fulfilling or a similar position with a different company.
• Finally, anyone who is suffering from burnout might find it beneficial to seek professional help where they can explore the root causes of burnout with a counselor and practice new coping strategies to utilize when these feelings persist in the future.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Part II: Signs & Symptoms of Burnout

Based on research by Maslach, burnout is based on 3 areas of work:

• Emotional Exhaustion: Emotionally over-extended feelings create work exhaustion which is a depletion of energy causing distractions and mental fatigue.  Emotional exhaustion is a sign of distress in demanding work.
• Depersonalization: The feeling of detachment at work which creates impersonal responses to your work and a lack of care and commitment.
• Lack of Personal Accomplishment: The feelings of success and perceived competence at work are lacking which creates frustration.  

You may be wondering what Emotional Exhaustion, Depersonalization, and Lack of Personal Accomplishment look like in actual people... So here are examples of signs of burnout:

• Physical Signs: 
• Low energy
• Headaches
• Fast heart-rate
• High blood pressure
• Upset stomach
• Rashes
• Muscle tension
• Sleep issues: either too much or too little
• Appetite issues: either too much or too little
  
• Emotional Signs:
• Boredom
• Loss of control
• Resistance
• Lack of concentration
• Frustration
• Overwhelmed
• Anxiety
• Forgetful
• Incompetence
  
• Behavioral Signs:
• Lack of production
• Increased use of alcohol/drugs
• Increased use of sick days
• Withdrawn from activities
• Change in relationships
• Unresponsive

If you feel that you have some of the above symptoms, you can go one step further and take a self-assessment.  Here is a wonderful quiz to find out if you are burned out or not: http://psychologytoday.tests.psychtests.com/take_test.php?idRegTest=1303.

If you have found out that you are burned out, you may want to seek support from family, friends, and even a counselor to help you manage your feelings, and to potentially look more deeply into your career and other available options.  Burn-out can be cured, but the first step is awareness and recognizing within one's self these feelings.  In my next post, I'll share some prevention strategies and coping strategies to combat burnout.

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

Part I: Defining Burnout in the Workplace

Burnout is becoming a common word in the world of the work.  With longer hours and electronic access 24/7, people are getting "burnt-out" or "fried." But what does that really mean?  Well, read below for more information regarding the definition of burnout.

Freudenberger (1974) defined burnout as “to fail, wear out or become exhausted by making excessive demands on energy, strength or resources” (p. 159). Burnout develops over time and is based on interpersonal and institutional variables (Galek, Flannelly, Greene, & Kudler, 2011). According to Remley and Herlihy (2010), burnout is a process, not a state or condition. Maslach (2003) defined burnout as “a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do ‘people-work’ of some kind” (p. 2). Furthermore, burnout occurs when there is a significant mismatch between the nature of the job and people in six different areas: work overload, lack of control, insufficient rewards, breakdown of workplace community, lack of fairness, and value differences (Maslach, 2003).

Freudenberger (1974) first used the term burnout to describe a loss of will at work. Over the latter part of the 20th century, burnout has become a popular term to describe exhaustion and discontent at work (Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison, 2011). According to Maslach and Leiter (1997), burnout is more likely to occur when there is a mismatch between the nature of the job and the nature of the person doing the job. Seven sources of burnout from the workplace environment include workload, control, reward, community, fairness, values, and job-person incongruity (Maslach & Leiter, 2008). The workplace environment is often believed to be the cause of burnout, rather than the individual professional (Skovholt & Trotter-Mathison, 2011). Symptoms of burnout can include deficient energy, being easily irritable, sleep difficulties, headaches, feelings of hopelessness or helplessness, and increased dissatisfaction and depersonalization (Lambie, 2007; Moyer, 2011). These symptoms can lead to inefficient and negligent delivery of work services. Burnout is associated with low morale, increased absenteeism, exhaustion, substance abuse, and isolation (Florio, 2010; Maslach, 2003; Remley & Herlihy, 2010; Skorupa & Agresti, 1993).

Burnout occurs when the needs of the professional and the demands of the job conflict, and it can be defined by three key terms: (a) emotional exhaustion, (b) depersonalization, and (c) reduced personal accomplishment (Maslach, 2003). According to Maslach and Leiter (1997), burnout occurs when professionals experience an erosion of engagement and compassion in the work setting. Emotional exhaustion occurs when there is an over-extension in the job and is often the first reaction to stress of job demands (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). Depersonalization often transpires with emotional exhaustion, creating cynicism and negativity in the workplace which damages a professional's capacity to work effectively (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). Finally, reduced personal accomplishments occur from the feelings of ineffectiveness, inadequacy, and a loss of confidence in one's capabilities (Maslach & Leiter, 1997). As a result of these three processes, burnout impacts the professional, the client, and the work environment.

Now that you have an idea of what burnout is, my next post will explore how does one know if they're burnt-out in Part II and then Part III will explore self-care techniques that may reduce or prevent future burnout in the workplace!

Brought to you by Thrive Counseling Center LLC in Metairie, LA at www.thrivecounselingcenterllc.com.

References:

Florio, C. (2010). Burnout & compassion fatigue: A guide for mental health professionals and care givers. Lexington, KY.

Freudenberger, H. J. (1974). Staff burnout. Journal of Social Issues, 30(1), 159-165.

Galek, K., Flannelly, K. J., Green, P. B., & Kudler, T. (2011). Burnout, secondary traumatic
stress, and social support. Pastoral Psychology, 60, 633-649. Doi: 10.1007/s11089-011-
0346-7

Lambie, G.W. (2007). The contribution of ego development level to burnout in school counselors: Implications for professional school counseling. Journal of Counseling & Development, 85, 82-88.

Maslach, C. (2003). Burnout: The cost of caring. Cambridge, MA: Malor Books.

Maslach, C. & Leiter, M.P. (1997). The truth about burnout: How organizations cause personal stress and what to do about it. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass A Wiley Company.

Maslach, C. & Leiter, M. P. (2008). Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 93(3), 498-512.

Moyer, M. (2011). Effects of non-guidance activities, supervision, and student-to-counselor
ratios on school counselor burnout. Journal of School Counseling, 9(5), 31 pp.

Remley, T. P., & Herlihy, B. (2010). Ethical, legal, and professional issues in counseling (3rd
ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Skorupa, J. & Agresti, A. A. (1993). Ethical beliefs about burnout and continued professional
practice. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, 24(3), 281-285.

Skovholt, T. M., & Trotter-Mathison, M. (2011). The resilient practitioner: Burnout prevention and self-care strategies for counselors, therapists, teachers, and health professionals (2nd ed.). New York: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.