Rengganis Rizka Prasanti Some days we may find ourselves unable to be as productive at work as we wanted.
No matter how hard you’ve tried to pick yourself up, it’s tough to find that motivation to keep going. Before you know it, your Monday blues have turned into one whole week of stagnation.
If you currently feel that way about your job, be mindful; it might be a sign that you’re experiencing workplace burnout.
What is Workplace Burnout?
In the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), the World Health Organization (WHO) defines burnout as a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.
From this definition, we can see that burnout is widely known to be an occupational phenomenon. Burnout starts from prolonged workplace stress that has not been handled properly, which can end up spreading to other aspects of your daily life.
According to the ICD-11, your condition can be characterized as burnout if you have seen these three dimensions happening:
- 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
- A sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.
To understand more about burnout, we need to examine what factors may influence or trigger this condition to appear.
What Causes Workplace Burnout?
According to studies compiled by Edú-Valsania, Laguía and Moriano (2022), since burnout is a condition relating to workplace stress, it is also triggered by certain situations at work, such as workload, structure, or relations with customers, clients, or supervisors and subordinates.
Read more: What Are The Most Common Sources of Stress?
Different situations may cause workplace burnout to appear, but here are some of the most common triggers.
Work Overload
Heavy workload is one of the main causes of workplace burnout. Both qualitative or quantitatively heavy workload requires more energy, more effort, and longer working hours.
This excessive mental and/or physical exertion can end up impacting your mental and physical health as well, including burnout.
Lack of Support
Social relations with coworkers or supervisors at work also have a significant influence on workplace burnout.
The lack of social support, or worse, conflicts with coworkers or supervisors is known to have triggered burnout. On the other hand, social support at work can mitigate or lessen the effects of workplace burnout.
Heavy Emotional Labor
Earlier studies on burnout are focused mainly on caregiving professions, such as healthcare workers like physicians, nurses, or therapists, and customer-facing jobs such as those in the hospitality or tourism industry. These professions are known to also involve emotional labor at work.
Emotional labor is when someone is required to regulate and express their emotions according to what’s required at their job (Xiong et al., 2022). The pressure to constantly suppress and control emotions to match the expectations at work is known to cause fatigue, burnout, and mental issues.
Unclear Working Hours
Unclear working hours, such as long working hours, shift work, or the constant pressure to work while working remotely can also be the cause of workplace burnout.
Longer working hours mean less time to rest and decompress from work demands. It also means more difficulty in finding time for personal matters, such as spending time with family and friends or taking part in hobbies.
Less time for self-care can translate to a number of health issues, both physical and psychological.
Preventing or Overcoming Burnout
Burnout is a quite common outcome of prolonged stress, but it’s not a condition that cannot be prevented or relieved. Some solutions require change from the organization, but there are other strategies within our control to try that are better than temporary relief.
These strategies can be classified into coping techniques aimed at the job itself and the ones aimed at improving ourselves.
Work-Oriented
Work-oriented coping strategies help us find ways to improve our work environment to lessen the impact of work stress on our health.
One of the ways to prevent burnout is to adjust the way to perceive our work more meaningfully. Job crafting is modifying how to do our work to our preferences, skills, knowledge, and abilities. By focusing on the self-development that comes with our work, workplace stress will become more manageable.
Another strategy commonly applied to deal with burnout is to improve our time management. Sorting our tasks with a priority matrix may help with how we organize which tasks to finish first. Communicating to coworkers to delegate our tasks can also help us manage our stress better.
Personal-Oriented
Workplace burnout may stem from issues at work, but not all of its prevention methods have to do with our job. Taking care of ourselves, both physically and emotionally, can also help with managing our stress.
For example, physical exercise is known to alleviate the effects of burnout, especially when combined with practicing mindfulness training (Ochentel, Humphrey & Pfeifer, 2018). Exercising regularly can increase your energy and help you rest better, which can improve your overall physical well-being.
Keeping track of the situation around you to stay aware of possible burnout will also help in preventing burnout from happening. Journaling and keeping a diary helps you observe symptoms and overall mood, along with how to cope with them.
Having support through your journey to overcome burnout can help you conquer it with ease. Reyo brings to you a safe space to reflect and share your story, completely anonymous and free to use.
References:
Edú-Valsania, S., Laguía, A., & Moriano, J. A. (2022). Burnout: A review of theory and measurement. International journal of environmental research and public health, 19(3), 1780.
ICD, W. (11). for Mortality and Morbidity Statistics. Factors influencing health status or contact with health services. Versión, 5, 2021.
Ochentel, O., Humphrey, C., & Pfeifer, K. (2018). Efficacy of exercise therapy in persons with burnout. A systematic review and meta-analysis. Journal of sports science & medicine, 17(3), 475.
Xiong, W., Huang, M., Okumus, B., Leung, X. Y., Cai, X., & Fan, F. (2023). How emotional labor affect hotel employees’ mental health: A longitudinal study. Tourism Management, 94, 104631.
