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Are You Experiencing Job Burnout?

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• Are you regularly experiencing fatigue and low energy levels at your job?
• Have you become more cynical or bitter about your job, your boss or your company?
• Are non-work relationships (marital, family, friendships) affected by your feelings about work?

Job burnout is a physical and emotional response to work that leaves you feeling fatigued, drained, frustrated, unmotivated, powerless and hopeless. It is brought on by experiencing prolonged and constant high levels of stress. It is important to take time to recover and heal from burnout because these stress reactions can result in levels of depression and unhappiness that eventually threaten your job, your relationships and your health.

Early warning signs of job burnout

How do you know if you, a loved one, or someone who reports to you is suffering from job burnout? Review the early warning signs below:

1. Emotional and physical exhaustion
2. Increased cynicism, negativity, and irritability
3. Apathy, not caring about your job
4. Anxiety and reluctance to go to work
5. Declining work performance
6. Excessive absences or lateness
7. Difficulty sleeping
8. Frequent headaches or gastrointestinal problems
9. Easily angered at seemingly inconsequential things
10. Edginess and quickness to blame others
11. Weight loss or gain
12. Mood swings, feelings of helplessness and depression

Beating Burnout

Job stress is something we all face as workers, and we all handle it differently. Learning how to deal with and manage stress is critical to preventing or overcoming job burnout.

The first step toward coping with burnout is defining the problem. Is the situation itself stressful? Is there something about your situation that you can change? Changes in both you and your environment can help prevent burnout.