Take This Job! Dealing with Job Burnout

Although job burnout is not an official disorder recognized by the medical community, it is a condition that causes exhaustion and mood changes. According to a survey from Indeed, more than half of the participants (52%) experienced job burnout in 2021.

How do you deal with job burnout without shutting down physically and emotionally?

Why You Might Have Job Burnout

If you work in a demanding career, you may be exhausted in every way possible: physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Demand and supply can create job burnout as excellent workers try to manage a shortage of employees and meet a higher demand for their services. Even if you love your job and have always considered it a dream job, you may still reach serious job burnout.

There are other causes of job burnout:

• Working long hours or overtime.
• Feeling unappreciated, unacknowledged, or used.
• Working a demanding job with no evident reward.
• Not achieving family and work balance.
• Stress from other areas of your life.
• Symptoms from a mental health condition.
• Feeling as if your life is out of your control.

Do any of these sound familiar? You might be dealing with job burnout.

How Job Burnout Affects Mental Health

Job burnout takes a toll on your mental health. You can feel emotionally exhausted, depressed, angry, and irritable. You might struggle with insomnia and fatigue. Some people choose damaging coping mechanisms, like alcohol and substance use. Others turn to food for comfort and binge eat. as they spend every evening escaping into the television.

You may not realize what is behind your recent mood swings or negative behaviors. Could it be that your job is causing more stress than you realize? Getting help from a licensed mental health care practitioner may break down what is subconsciously sabotaging you. They can help you find ways to manage the stress.

Job burnout is not something people talk about as much as other mental health conditions. However, it can have a similar impact. You no longer want to go to work. You find yourself short with people or not talking as much. You rarely smile as you used to, and it feels forced and fake when you do. That is not thriving behavior, but rather surviving behavior. You were created for more.

Managing Job Burnout

Even if you love your job, constant pressure, long hours, feeling unappreciated or misunderstood, and struggling to balance your family with your work can cause job burnout. Your mental health must come first. If you pour from an empty cup, you cannot give your all to your family, career, or responsibilities. Job burnout will empty your cup quickly if not stopped.

Refill your cup so you can manage the day-to-day demands.

Check yourself first

Sometimes job burnout results from our actions and is not due to an external factor. This will require you to delve deep internally and accept personal responsibility for where you are. Are you feeling job burnout because the boss seems demanding every morning and micromanages everything you do? Could it be because you arrive fifteen minutes late for work every day?

Accepting personal responsibility for your decisions and actions signifies emotional maturity. Your work should exemplify a strong work ethic and productivity. If you realize that your stress is due to something you are doing (or not doing), try to make amends as quickly as possible. Read your job description and ensure you are hitting all the bullet points.

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving. – Colossians 3:23-24, NIV

Research internal support services

If you work to the best of your ability and know you are experiencing job burnout, check with your company’s human resources department. Many companies now encourage mental wellness checks and offer support services. Some companies keep a counselor on hand or pay for mental health services.

If you are embarrassed to ask, remember that the company would not invest money into these resources if they did not believe that employees needed this kind of support to do excellent work and retain workers. The answer will always be no if you never ask. Your company may offer counseling sessions, massage appointments, or gym memberships, but you will never know if you do not ask.

Make time to exercise

Exercising is an excellent way to manage stress. Working out releases endorphins and stimulates bodily systems to make you physically and emotionally healthier. It increases serotonin in the brain resulting in you feeling happier. Muscles in your body will relax and stave off headaches brought on by tension.

Wondering how you are going to fit in exercise around your work schedule? You do not need hours of training in a gym to reap the benefits of body movement. Try to take short walks throughout the day. Three ten-minute sessions can give you results. Wake up fifteen minutes earlier and practice yoga to get the blood flow moving and lubricate your joints. You will be surprised at how a few minutes of exercise can change the tone of your day.

Try stress-reducing activities

If yoga is not something you want to try, plenty of other activities will lower your stress levels. Try Pilates, stretching, Tai Chi, golf, reading, knitting, or painting. Brainstorm a list of activities you like that will help you shut off the distractions and focus on the peace within.

Do something fun

Make a separate list of activities you can pull from when you need to blow off steam. Is there something you like to do for fun? Think about the activities you do while on vacation. Do you take a trip to the beach, fish on a pier, hike in the woods, or float around in a pool? Consider making these activities part of your weekly or monthly plans. These do not have to be week-long vacation trips. Make plans for mini vacations.

Think about the activities you can do after work, such as minigolf, swimming laps in the pool at the local gym, or cycling through a city or county park. At the beginning of each month, schedule mini vacations for yourself. If you schedule it, treat it as an appointment. These appointments with yourself are as necessary as the ones you keep with your primary care physician.

Make sleep a priority

Job burnout leaves you exhausted. You do not want that exhaustion to worsen with fatigue from sleep deprivation. If you are dealing with insomnia or having trouble staying asleep, build more exercise into your life. More physical movement produces more energy, which can leave your body with a suitable type of tiredness at the end of the day. Your body and mind will respond with restorative rest.

In some cases, you may need professional help to sleep through the night. You may need to participate in a sleep study if you suspect you have sleep apnea, and your stress is making it worse. Your physician can rule out any medical conditions that may be keeping you away from a good night’s sleep.

Seek outside support

If you are overwhelmed at your job, reach out to our offices today and we will connect you with a Christian counselor from our registry. Your counselor can help you work through the signs of burnout and also develop personal and professional skills to cope with your job and make it life-giving rather than stressful. They may even help you discern if a different kind of work or setting is best for you.