Have you ever felt like you’re carrying the world on your shoulders and that no matter what you do and how hard you work, you just can’t seem to get ahead of your daily to-do list? Does work sometimes leave you feeling intensely demotivated and overwhelmed? Answered yes to any of these questions? You could be heading toward burnout. We recommend you continue reading to discover how learning more about yourself can help prevent burnout.
What is Burnout and What are the Warning Signs?
What is burnout?
According to the Oxford Dictionary, burnout can be defined as “physical or mental collapse caused by overwork or stress” and according to a recent survey by Indeed, many people are feeling the pressure. The report shows that 52% of all workers are feeling burned out, up +9% from pre-pandemic times.
What Are the Warning Signs of Burnout?
Apart from the obvious symptoms like exhaustion and anxiety, burnout can present itself in many shapes and forms. Understanding the symptoms and knowing what to look out for can help prevent you from burning out.
7 signs you may be experiencing burnout at work:
- You are constantly tired and can’t seem to get enough sleep! Even if you go to bed at a decent time, you wake up feeling exhausted. This symptom of burnout typically goes hand-in-hand with waking up feeling anxious and on high alert.
- Low motivation. You just can’t get into the swing of things. Even if you know exactly what you need to do to get through your day, it feels like you can’t find the motivation to start ticking off items on your task list.
- Decreased productivity. You’re used to operating at a certain level of efficiency, but lately, you’ve noticed that even the simplest of tasks take longer than expected to complete.
- Lack of creativity and general brainpower. You find it difficult to generate new ideas, find solutions to problems and in general, think creatively.
- A change in your mood. You’re not feeling like your usual sunny self.
- You’re feeling anxious. Anxiety can show up in different ways and may be related to something more serious. If your job or work environment triggers your anxiety we recommend speaking to your direct manager or seeking professional help.
- Panic attacks. Just like with anxiety, this is a massive red flag and should set off all of your warning signs that something is not right.
How to Stop Yourself from Getting Burnout
Prevention is the best cure! The easiest way to prevent burnout is by nipping it in the bud and self-awareness is the best way to go about it.
Check Up on Your Mental Wellbeing
You know yourself better than anyone else. The first step in keeping burnout at bay is to check in with yourself. How are you coping at work? Are you feeling stressed out? Are you getting enough sleep? How are your anxiety levels? If just the mere thought of these questions gets your heart racing, it might be worth taking a closer look at your mental wellbeing.
Our free mental wellness assessment allows you to identify your wellbeing strengths and growth potential, assess your personal wellbeing drivers and equip you with actionable insights into your mental health. Self-awareness is incredibly powerful and can help you manage stressful situations and a highly demanding job with a seemingly never-ending to-do list.
We’ve developed the test in partnership with Welliba, a leader in workplace psychometrics. The short assessment helps you to understand what drives you and how you can fuel your positivity and confidence levels.
Is Your Current Job the Right Fit for You?
The reason why you’re not coping at work might be because you’re following the wrong career path. Think about it; if the thought of speaking in front of people terrifies you, you might not be the best person for a job in sales, but perhaps that’s the career path you’re following. So – what is the link between work satisfaction and burnout? A study conducted to determine the relationship between burnout syndrome and job satisfaction among mental health workers found that “the highest degree of correlation was found between emotional exhaustion and pay and rewards dissatisfaction, which indicates that workers who are less satisfied with their pay and rewards report a higher degree of emotional exhaustion.”
Just like with your mental health, empowerment starts from within. A personality test, like our free Workplace Personality Assessment, can help you determine your natural strengths and weaknesses and give you insight into why you do the things you do. The test will also tell you which jobs you will be naturally good at. A job matched to your strengths and weaknesses will in return lead to higher job satisfaction and lower your chances of getting burnout.
6 Ways to Prevent Burnout
- Speak up. If you’re feeling the pressure, let someone know!
- Ask for help.
- Take a break – especially if you work in front of a screen for most of the day.
- Power up with a healthy diet.
- Keep your stress levels low by exercising.
- Switch off during non-working hours.
Self-knowledge is key – knowing your own limits and personal drivers is vital in fighting off burnout. Remember that you are only human and even if we would all like to have them, you don’t have superpowers.
