Reasons for becoming Burned out
Job burnout can have dramatic consequences for your family, your job and your life in general if you do not come to terms with it soon enough. Burnout is not quite the same as stress, although it is usually the culmination of a long period of stress. Whereas stress tends to make you hyperactive and overly anxious,burnoutis more likely to leave you feeling hopeless, helpless and lacking in energy. In time, you could become so disengaged from your everyday routine that you find it hard to get anything done at all. The reasons for burnout will, of course, be unique to each sufferer, but the major causes of job burnout are likely to include some of the following:
Prolonged lack of motivation
Everyone suffers from a lack of motivation at one point or another. However, when it becomes part and parcel of the job, it can become a real problem and a major cause of burnout. A job is something that you do for a large part of their week, and if you cannot summon up the motivation to do a good job, you are likely to find it very debilitating. Eventually, you may find yourself struggling to get up in the morning, turning up to work late and calling in sick more often than you should.
Long periods of pressure
Many jobs have periods of high pressure, but they are usually interspersed by down-times, when it is possible to catch up on paperwork and life in general. However, if you find that your job is so high pressure that you never have the chance to chill out for a while, you will eventually reach the point of burnout. Initially, you may find that you are full of energy and are thoroughly enjoying the challenge, but that can only last for so long. If you know that you are beginning to lose interest in your job after a period of high stress, then it may be time to take a break.
No clear goal
If you are career-oriented, it isn’t usually enough to do your job and go home; you want to actually have a challenge and a goal to work towards. However, on occasion, you may find that your goal is no longer so obvious and you start to wonder why you bother. For short periods of time, that is not a big issue – and you may be able to set things on the right track by having a break. However, if it continues for a long time, then it may be time to move on before burnout hits you completely.
Being overlooked
Quieter people who don’t like to push themselves forward may be more likely to suffer from burnout than others, simply because no-one notices anything is wrong until it is too late. Unfortunately, being overlooked can be a real cause of burnout, because you feel unimportant and under-valued. In time, you will begin to wonder why you bother when no-one notices what you do. You may carry on with the job for a time, but if you let burnout kick in, you may find you are being overlooked for a reason.
Too much responsibility
Everyone wants a little bit of responsibility in their job; it is inspiring to be trusted with something. However, too much responsibility is likely to lead to a lot of stress, especially if it means working with a number of people who challenge your authority on a regular basis. Initially, you may respond with gusto, but as time passes, you may begin to doubt yourself and your way of doing things, leading to burnout. Ideally, before you reach that stage, you should work out a way to delegate some of your responsibilities.
Too little responsibility
Some people dream of having a job where they get paid, but have very little responsibility. However, actually having such a job can be very incapacitating. You may compare yourself to co-workers who are trusted and have plenty of responsibility, believing that the reason for your lack of responsibility is because you are worthless. If you’re feeling reasonably strong, you can probably do something about it, but the lower that you feel, the more likely that you are to feel depressed, and, eventually, burnt out.
Poor compensation
There can be huge disparities between wages that different people earn, depending on their qualifications, where they work and what sort of job they do. If you are lucky, you will have a good job that is easy to manage and that pays well. However, if you don’t, you may well find yourself becoming depressed about the fact that you are working hard and only just managing to pay your bills each month. A wage increase could just lift you enough to stop burnout – but in the current financial climate, this may not be possible.
No personal control
Everyone likes to have boundaries and know exactly what their responsibilities are at work. If you find that you have no control over what you do and no-one listens to you when you complain, you may eventually reach the point where you just cannot be bothered to try. You may even be unsure of just what is required of you. This is really a sign of poor leadership, rather than your own failure, but if nothing is done about it, you may simply reach burnout and be unable to pull yourself out of the rut in which you have found yourself.
If you want to avoid burnout, then looking out for the above warning signs is a good way to do so. Once you are in the grips of burnout, it can be very difficult to pull yourself out of it, especially if taking a break from your job is not an option.
