The Link between Job Burnout and Stress
Job burnout occurs after a prolonged period of stress, which is likely to be directly to do with your job, but could also be the result of stress in your personal life. Job burnout can be healed if you take the time to reassess your priorities and ensure you have some time out from your job. However, if you don’t,job burnoutcan increase your stress levels.
Every day is a challenge
If you are burned out, you will find that every day is a challenge. Just getting up in the morning and going to work can seem like a major hurdle that you need to overcome. You may find yourself crossing off the days on the calendar, longing for the weekend and holidays. Trying to pull yourself together so that you can do a day’s work will be exhausting. Job burnout generally means that you are devoid of emotion and just don’t care anymore, but if you pile the stress of trying to cope on top of that, you can do your emotional and mental health a great deal of harm.
You are overwhelmed
Work-related burnout can leave you feeling overwhelmed. You may find your job boring and monotonous and are quite likely to wonder if there is a point to you even bothering. You will need to hide this if you want to keep your job, which in itself can be stressful. Colleagues may pile extra pressure on you if they don’t understand what you are going through. They may become resentful that you are not pulling your weight. In time, the enormity of simple tasks may become too much for you and you are likely to burst into tears at the least provocation.
Nothing seems important
Unfortunately, job burnout can spill over into your private life so that even when you are not at work, you feel like nothing is important. This could become so severe that you start thinking about taking your own life, because you can’t see the point of carrying on. You will hopefully realise that those feelings are to do with exhaustion and won’t act on them. Nevertheless, dealing with feeling so miserable every day is very hard and will increase your stress levels. You are also less likely to exercise, which means you don’t have the chance to burn off stress.
Relationships suffer
When you are miserable and feel unimportant, you may not realise the effect that your behaviour is having on other people. Sadly, even loved ones will find it hard to cope with your moods or apparent lack of interest in everything around you. You may find it hard to explain exactly how you feel too. Over time, people may start to withdraw from you, preferring to spend their time with people who are a bit more easy-going. That in itself can be very damaging when you eventually realise that no one seems to enjoy your company any more. If your other half leaves you, your stress levels will soar.
Your health suffers
Job burnout is really more of an emotional and mental health problem. However, you are likely to neglect your health. You probably won’t care much about your diet and getting exercise and, if you do start to feel ill, you may not get the treatment you need quickly enough. On top of that, you probably won’t be getting enough sleep and may turn to substance abuse to help you get through life. At the very least, you are likely to feel tired and run down, which, if not addressed, can lead to more serious health problems. That will make you feel even more stressed than you were already.
Low productivity
The side effects of job burnout, including a lack of interest in your job, neglect of your health and exhaustion, are more than likely to lead to low productivity. You may start taking time off work, claiming that you are sick. Everyone has down days, but if you start to have down months, your lack of productivity is bound to be noticed. If you can’t explain to your managers why you are not performing to the best of your ability, you may be criticised and pressured to address the issue. Feeling overwhelmed and unable to work harder, plus the fear of losing your job, will lead to even more stress.
Job burnout can be part of a vicious circle. It is generally caused by stress, but it can also add to your stress levels. Take a long hard look at yourself and make the decision to ask for help before you spiral too far downhill to do anything about it.
