Next Stop, Burnout
Wednesday, October 13, 2021 - Joe Kiedinger
We’ve all been there. Your plate is too full, juggling meetings, emails, office conversations, kid pickups, yard work, family obligations. Sometimes it gets to be too much and if we don’t take decisive action to seek help or lessen the load, we can crack. When life gets to be too stressful for too long, we just cannot sustain it.
It’s called burnout.
Burnout is a state of emotional, mental and often physical exhaustion brought on by prolonged or repeated stress. And it’s on the rise. According to a Mental Health America survey with FlexJobs, 75% of U.S. workers have experienced burnout at some point. About 40% of those people experienced burnout as a direct result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Chances are, someone in your care is feeling the burn right now. Maybe it’s your teenager, maybe it’s your spouse, maybe it’s an employee. Do you see it? It can look like a lack of motivation, tiredness, cynicism, negativity, a lack of emotion or way too much emotion.
Burnout may be easier to identify than to prevent. It starts with small steps. According to Dr. Lucy M. McBride, MD, “Taking charge of our own lives. . . can restore our sense of agency and self-determination. Reassessing and simplifying our home life, work and relationships can be a good place to start. With limited space in our schedules and brains, we must populate our calendars with intention. Setting realistic expectations for ourselves, erecting boundaries and asking for support are some of the ways to find calm amid chaos. We need to acknowledge the toll of constant vigilance and hold ourselves accountable for what we feed our eyeballs and brains.”
It all starts with awareness.
JOE KIEDINGER
ACTION PLAN: We’re helping leaders and companies reduce burnout but teaching them how to reduce stress, improve conflict resolution and improve culture. Interested? Learn more at learn.dignify.com