How to Survive Burnout
Back to the Beginning
I’ve been trying to trace back to when my ultimate mental breakdown began. What were the edges that started to fray before everything completely unraveled? I made a makeshift timeline of the events from the past year and a half. I wrote out the contributors and the symptoms that seemed to culminate one Tuesday morning, resulting in me escaping the office and running for the cover of home.
After recording and processing all of it, I had one question, “Now that I’ve gone through this, how can I help someone else to not get as far down the road of burnout as I did?”
Defining the Symptoms
And then, I googled the definition of burnout. Sometimes, I think we throw around that term as if it’s a normal state of being and is just part of having a job. I never had really thought of what the term means though. In case you haven’t either, here’s the definition I found, according to the World Health Organization:
“Burn-out is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions:
feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job; and
reduced professional efficacy.”
After reading that and a few other sources, I was shocked at how accurately they described the past year of my life. Here are the main things from my timeline that now are shouting “BURNOUT” at me:
Feeling micromanaged
Feeling like I’m not meeting expectations
Feeling like I’m not part of something that is important to me
Lacking the energy to be consistently productive
Difficulty focusing on each work task
Taking Action
Experiencing these feelings at certain times can be defined as stress, but constantly living with these feelings about work is when stress turns into burnout. And apparently, I’ve been living in burnout all of 2022. Although I wasn’t hyper aware that that’s what was happening, the actions I took, whether I knew in my gut I needed to take them or whether trusted mentors recommended them, line up with what my Google research shows for how to deal with burnout.
Book the vacation. Sometimes, you just need a break from the constant going. My girlfriend prompted us to book a beach trip several months out, which we were so thankful for when the time came.
Log the feelings. Writing my thoughts helps me to process. And if I continuously write when I need to process, those thoughts become a log that I can look back on and check for any recurring themes.
Have the conversation. My closest friends started noticing a theme when I would vent to them about work. And as I look back in my log, a theme was there, too. I couldn’t deny any further that if I wanted to improve the situation, I had to tackle the frustration head-on by discussing it with my boss.
Love the self. When I felt like work stole all of my energy, I listened to myself. Knowing that I’m an introvert, I was more strategic about when and with whom I would spend my energy. Sometimes, I needed to be with people to know that I’m not alone and that life can be fun. Other times, I needed to be alone so that I could rebuild the energy reserves. And during my alone time, I tried to be intentional to do the things that I knew truly restored me.
Using the above tools to deal with my burnout truly did help. I got to a stronger mental place, knowing that I was doing what I could to not let my job control my life. But sometimes, one more tool is needed: quit the job. (Please don’t do this though without another steady stream of income ready to support the loss of that paycheck.)
In my case, I needed this last tool. But that’s a story for the next post. Stay tuned.