How To Tell If You Are Burnt Out At Work
Job stress can quickly cause individuals to become burnt out at work. It affects an individual's physical and emotional state and causes mental exhaustion. They will begin to feel self-conscious about their ability to manage work and what value they bring to the workplace in general. Burn out at work can extend to an individual's family life and compromises their health. No one symptom can determine job burn out as the factors that brought individuals to this point are varying.
If an individual is not respected in the workplace and are taken for granted, this can cause strain. The pace of their work may be taking energy from them and causing tension in their body. If a workplace isn’t managed properly, many colleagues may also have a negative outlook, which can be contagious. Many of the reasons individuals become burnt out from work are the fault of management and owners.
If you’re experiencing more than one of the points below, it’s possible that you’re burnt out from work.
Inability To Relax
When you aren’t given the ability to have a say about decisions directly affecting your job, this can cause stress. Your body begins to respond to the chaotic nature of the workplace as it produces adrenaline, keeping you wired constantly. From the time you wake up to get ready for work until you go to bed at night, you may be feeling your body is constantly tense. You may have a high level of energy with no ability to focus on one specific task at a time. You may grind your teeth while sleeping or even during the day, or feel the need to constantly be doing something.
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Physical Manifestations
Burnout from work often goes unfounded for a long time as it’s not always easy to diagnose. If you’re not mindful about your surroundings and take the rest you need, you’ll start to feel the physical manifestations of the burnout sooner than you may think. These physical manifestations could come in the form of headaches, backaches, or pain in the shoulders caused by stress and tension. Even worse, you could become depressed, which has its own set of physical symptoms (including chronic fatigue), or develop thyroid issues. Weight loss or weight gain can be one of the symptoms to look for as well.
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Attitude At Work
An individual's attitude towards their work is crucial and can be a key indicator of work burnout in many instances. If you’ve noticed a major turn in your attitude at work towards the negative, be aware this the major symptoms of work burnout. Perhaps you were once helpful to other colleagues and have since stopped making any effort to be a team player. You may suddenly become highly critical of other’s work or cynical regarding any positive news. Your co-workers or even clients may become irritating for you to deal with, even if you previously found them wonderful. Any work achievements you do have will come with little satisfaction. In many instances, individuals with work burnout who experience a change in their attitude will also notice they are far less excited to go to work every day. be on the lookout for this as well!
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Negative Coping Mechanisms
Everyone will experience bad days at work. There is no avoiding this! Thus, most individuals have a set of coping mechanisms they can put into practice whenever they deem it necessary. This can include taking a relaxing bath, venting to a friend or significant other, read a good book, listening to soothing music, or countless other strategies. however, individuals dealing with burnout linked to their work may find they don't engage in healthy coping mechanisms. They may turn out negative coping techniques such as binge eating (stress eating), drinking excessive amounts of alcohol, smoking more than normal if they are a smoker, et cetera. If you find you consistently look for satisfaction in unhealthy practices, it is time to look for the deeper problem.
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Mental Health Issues
Stress due to work can quickly become chronic anxiety, particularly in cases of burnout. In these instances, your blood pressure often increases and you will have an increase in energy. You may even begin to lose weight as you stop eating and constantly move around. However, chronic anxiety can also result in jitters, spiraling thoughts, and it can also leak into other aspects of your life beyond work. Additionally, anxiety often appears alongside depression, which can make your workload quite difficult to sustain. This can turn into disorientation, an inability to concentrate, exhaustion, listlessness, and a lack of motivation.
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Persistent Exhaustion
Are you always tired? Do you wake up exhausted, even after a full night’s sleep? You might be experiencing burnout. Persistent exhaustion is typified by a state of endless fatigue. Consistent fatigue not only depletes physical energy, but also drains emotional capabilities. Several factors contribute to persistent exhaustion, including bad diets, excessive or insufficient exercise, certain medication use, drug and alcohol use, insomnia, and jet lag. If simple tasks become more challenging than normal, you may be experiencing burnout. It is important to note exhaustion is also a side effect of treatments for a variety of conditions. If fatigue persists for over two weeks, despite your efforts to change negative lifestyle habits, you should schedule an appointment with your doctor.
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Reduction In Motivation
After landing your dream job, reality sets in and you realize the workload is intense. In the beginning, motivation came with the territory. When you experience burnout, the motivation to get work done disappears. Finishing tasks may take longer to complete and the drive for success slows down. You are no longer excited to dive into the work you once found fulfilling. Although losing your job or missing deadlines may push you to complete work, a reduction in motivation preserves in a state of burnout. It is important to be aware of changes in your performance. Are you struggling to maintain or improve performance? A lack of motivation may be an influence, but workplace burnout is a likely culprit.
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Increased Reliance On Stimulants
Stimulant use is on the rise in the United States. Between 2008 and 2012, there was a fifty-three percent increase in the number of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder medication prescriptions. Increased reliance on stimulants has been chronicled throughout virtually every industry, as young professionals struggle to keep up with their job duties. The rates of stimulant abuse are alarming, and many consumers are unaware of the damage abuse can cause. The pressure to succeed leads to constant fatigue, which leads to higher consumption of stimulants. The trouble occurs once stimulants are abused. From caffeine to Adderall to cocaine, a dependence on stimulants to keep up with a heavy workload is a key indicator you are experiencing burnout.
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Increased Cynicism
Burnout can turn the happiest individuals into cynics. The high-stress demands on the mind and body, combined with extreme fatigue, can cause the very nature of your job to be frustrating and increasingly stressful. If you have feelings of emptiness and increased cynicism for your job and colleagues, you might be experiencing burnout at work. The activities that used to motivate may slowly become insignificant. You may feel as though there is no point in the things that you do. Other common signs of burnout linked to cynicism include retreating from work responsibilities, disinterest in hobbies, and physical and emotional withdrawal. Exhibiting any of these signs is an indication of burnout.
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Increased Irritability And Impatience
Increased stress and inefficient maintenance of stress causes increased irritability and impatience in individuals experiencing burnout. Irritability manifests towards colleagues and can develop into extreme outbursts and heated arguments. This irritability can often arise from feelings of worthlessness, as symptoms of burnout impact productivity and motivation. Irritability and impatience can become major stressors in personal and professional relationships. Stress can cause individuals to lose their cool and participate in unwarranted conflicts. These conflicts can have permanent detrimental effects on relationships, both at home and at work. Persistent feelings of irritability and impatience may grow over time, further perpetuating the damaging cycle of burnout.