Could you be burning out? If you feel worn out, overburdened, and depleted at work, maybe you’re burning out. It’s not uncommon for professionals to struggle with workplace burnout, particularly those in demanding finance and accounting roles. In this article, we’ll explore what burnout is, how to spot signs of burnout, and, most importantly, some proactive and reactive ways to deal with workplace burnout.
Regardless of your age, career stage, or how resilient you’ve always been, you may not necessarily be 100% immune to burnout. I’m not sure any of us are. Boost yourself up by understanding more about what burnout is, and put helpful techniques into play like the ones we will discuss here. Now, let’s talk about overcoming workplace burnout and succeeding in your career.
What Is Workplace Burnout?
We often hear the term burnout, but what does it mean, and how do we know if we are in it? Workplace burnout is a condition of extreme physical, mental, and emotional tiredness that frequently happens due to ongoing stress and excessive workloads. It’s a condition of tiredness that goes beyond simply being fatigued; it can cause headaches, sleep difficulties, and diminished motivation, in addition to lower productivity. Although workplace burnout can happen in any kind of work, it’s more likely in high-stress sectors like finance and accounting, where employees are subjected to long hours, strict deadlines, and hefty workloads.
Identifying signs of workplace burnout is the first step in finding a solution. Feeling overburdened, worn out, or detached from your work may indicate that you are approaching burnout.
How Do You Recognise The Signs Of Workplace Burnout?
As a professional, how do you know whether you’re experiencing workplace burnout? Let me start by sharing a little of my own experience. Although I am not sure if I have technically “burned out” before, I know I’ve been close. Note that the signs or symptoms of burnout can be different for everyone. For me, I felt “out of control,” almost a bit “dangerous” compared to how I normally feel. Time also felt like it was running away, and I was just about able to keep up with life, but barely. Maybe this is just me, but I felt like I may have missed the warning signs and that I was somehow responsible for this happening to me.
Generally, these are other signs of workplace burnout:
- Reduced motivation
- Making silly mistakes or errors of judgement
- Not being able to think straight or process information as well normal
- Increased absenteeism – through stress or other health issues
- Decreased work output
- High turnover
What Can We Do To Deal With Workplace Burnout?
So, we probably don’t want to be in this situation too long. Let’s start with some reactive ways of dealing with workplace burnout. If you feel that you’re approaching burnout (or could even be already in it), we want you to do what you can to alleviate the current situation. Here are a few practical things that you could do:
- Be honest with yourself about where you’re heading or maybe already at. There is no shame in where you find yourself and the sooner you acknowledge this, the sooner you can improve the situation.
- Slow down: this can be hard to do or even see the possibility of doing when we’re in the thick of everything. But it is essential to be able to see more clearly and to be able to move beyond your current situation.
- Distance yourself physically and emotionally from the situations causing you burnout within your work. These could be work-related or they might be something else e.g. the commute or certain people that trigger intense responses in you.
- Ask for or accept help. If we’re honest with ourselves there’s often more help or support available than we might be taking advantage of. Explore what’s available and dip your toe in while you can.
- Get out of your head by listening to or talking to others. Journalling can also help with getting things out of your head and onto paper.
- Take some positive steps that make you feel better. These could be directly work-related or something more personal, but often positively impact different parts of your life.
How Can You Manage Workplace Burnout?
You are much more likely to be proactively keen to avoid workplace burnout if you are aware of it, either through previous personal experience or through people you know who have experienced it. Consider taking some of the following steps:
- Look out for early warning signs: these signs might indicate more intense feelings than normal or a risk of things spiraling out of control.
- Understand your triggers: these can be things that are quite personal to you, but can include working hours, days in the office, and interactions with certain people or groups, etc.
- Be clear of your boundaries: different people will have different limits on different things, but taking time to evaluate what’s important to you and then honoring these can be crucial. Sharing your boundaries or targets with trusted colleagues can also help with your accountability.
Don’t forget that workplace burnout can be a severe challenge that can harm your general well-being, and slow down your career. You may effectively deal with burnout and prosper in your career by trying out some of the measures in this article. Also, you may want to know how to deal with other career challenges generally by reading our article on overcoming workplace challenges.
Try to resist anything that may stop you from taking actions you feel could be helpful to you. Furthermore, you could alleviate workplace burnout with the aid of our online course on Dealing With Overwhelm
