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Job Burnout: Something Like A Phenomenon Part 2
Halfway through the presentation you feel more relaxed, and afterwards all of those pesky fight or flight sensations have been suppressed.
Now let's say that your boss springs a scenario on you like this at regular intervals throughout the year. Additionally, she informs you that if you do not perform well, you will not receive a raise. On top of this, you witness a colleague receiving a promotion for no reason, and your work involves a lot of cranky clients.
I'm sure you can imagine what happens when the sympathetic nervous system is asked to work overtime. Do the following scenarios sound familiar?
Your Mind Goes Kablooey
You find yourself forgetting little things...a celebrity's name, a friend's birthday. Perhaps the situation is rather more dire, and you find yourself standing in front of the fax machine wondering "What the heck is this weird-looking thing?" Lack of focus is a harbinger of job burnout.
Your Body Goes Kablooey
Your formerly predictable bowels decide to surprise you----often. Since you haven't experienced a truly restful night of sleep in months, you have plenty of time to contemplate said rebellious bowels. You arrive at worked fatigued and hoover up a couple of sugary donuts and a vat of black coffee to give your body a jolt of energy to stay alert. Oops, there goes that gut of yours again. The sugar crash from your breakfast leaves you irritable and heavy-lidded, so you hurry back to get some more...
Your Relationships Go Kablooey
When your friends asks if you can help him move, you accuse him of being a demanding and selfish nitwit, only to remember that he helped you move six months ago. Your partner cowers whenever you discover that a light was left on, or a cereal box is empty. Your kids gape in disbelief when you burst into tears over a health insurance commercial. You begin to feel isolated as all of your people clear the path and run for cover from your ungovernable mood swings. Yes, job burnout claims innocent bystanders.
If you identify with many of these scenarios, consider this a red alert, a potentially hazardous scenario that needs your immediate attention! Repairs are in order, but to mend effectively you must identify the specific sources of workplace strife, and eventual job burnout. Here's a list of some common culprits.
You may be vulnerable to burnout if:
· Your workplace has a flat hierarchy with few opportunities for promotion
· Decisions made by the management aren't transparent ("Why on Earth did they give HIM that project?") and management will not explain decisions when confronted
· Your work is deadline-driven
· You are in a caring profession
· The company you work embraces different values from your own
· Your occupation is a poor fit for your values
· You struggle with saying "No."
· Your boss is highly critical, and you rarely receive positive feedback for your work
This list could be longer, but I'm sure you get the picture. Situations where you feel powerless tend to promote job burnout. While you are definitely NOT responsible for unfair work conditions that contribute to job burnout, unconscious choices are also behind those feelings of powerlessness. Developing some basic job burnout prevention tools will be useful in preventing job stress from developing into job burnout, or coping with your current state of burnout.
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Job Burnout: Something Like A Phenomenon Part 1
Since a hefty majority of Americans report grave dissatisfaction with their jobs, I am guessing that you're not surprised to hear that burnout in this country has become an epidemic problem. Lest you think that I am inflating the possible impact of widespread job dissatisfaction, consider this: If somebody spends their work day simmering in a toxic brew of repressed anger and helplessness, what impact does this have on their life outside of work? For example, during the painful crawl of an afternoon commute home or when they are faced with an indignant child or three?
Anyone who has spewed fountains of bile at a fellow driver for pausing .7 seconds after the light turned green knows the answer to that question. So what is it about work that can reduce us to this miserable state? Why are we such a wild-eyed and thin-skinned bunch, ready to fight or sob over seemingly small-scale work issues?
Well, beloved reader, it's because work issues are often closely tied to our sense of identity and self-worth. They bleed into every facet of our lives. We simply undermine their importance.
Since conscious career choice can liberate us from crummy jobs that feel meaningless, job burnout is truly the result of unconscious choices. And since unconscious choices occur, by definition, in the absence of self-awareness, you may be far along the road to burnout before you realize that anything is wrong at all. Most people aren't aware how dire the situation is until they fly off the handle at a staff meeting, or worse, find themselves suffering from a serious health condition. Please folks, learn to heed the early signs so that this doesn't happen to you. The first step is learning to distinguish between job stress and job burnout, and understanding what workplace and personal factors contribute to stress and burnout. Then you can focus on job burnout and job stress treatment.
Job Stress vs. Job Burnout
Not all job-related stress is bad for your health or leads to job burnout. When you are staring down a deadline, the extra rush of adrenaline you experience may actually help you perform your job better.
One of the great feats of my life was juggling two part-time jobs while writing 175 pages of text for a book with a three-month deadline, and trying to sell my house in a buyer's market! That was definitely a memorable time. While I certainly experienced isolated moments of despair, my focus became arrow-sharp, penetrating through the usual fog of aimless thoughts and fantasies and targeting specific actions that needed to be taken. I'm sure you have had the experience of performing better under unusual pressure.
The difference between this kind of healthy drive and burnout is simple: Job stress is temporary. When you sustain job stress over a long period of time, you may experience job burnout. To illustrate this point, let's take a look at what happens as your body responds to stress.
Let's imagine that your boss informs you last-minute that you will be presenting the results of a recent project to an audience of 150 peers.
Assuming you aren't a highly confident public speaker, a complex series of actions start to take place in your body. Your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight response) kicks in, and:
· Your heart rate accelerates and blood pressure rises
· Your pupils dilate
· You begin to sweat excessively
As you begin to associate this reaction with performing badly as a presenter, you decide to counteract these unpleasant symptoms by funneling your nervous energy towards practicing for the presentation. The day of the presentation, you feel a resurgence of nervousness, but it endows you with the razor-sharp focus you need to do an excellent job.
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Career Development Counseling 101: What Every Client Should Know
Why should you seek career development counseling services? The reasons may be numerous, the obvious answer is that we will likely spend the majority of our lives at work. Work will define our days, shape our lifestyles and play a significant role in how content we feel.
We have a tumultuous relationship with work. We view work as a sacrifice we make to meet our basic human needs, and a burden that draws us away from other activities we’d rather focus on. Work can be a positive force that allows us to make a personal imprint on the world and promotes our sense of self-efficacy, yet for many, the mere idea of work being stimulating, enjoyable even, is inconceivable.
In other words, if work could take a human form, most of us would have a pretty dysfunctional relationship with our jobs. Imagine what a conversation with your job would be like…
Person: “You are so demanding! You take me away from the other people I care about.”
Job: “Yes, but you need me. Who do you think bought you that nice sedan and three square meals a day? I think that you are the demanding one.”
Person: “I guess that’s true. I just wish that we had more in common. I wish that you didn’t drag me into so many boring conversations on topics I just don’t care about.”
Job: “Hey, YOU came to ME, okay, buddy? I didn’t tell you to choose me. You were there, waving around your resume and talking about how great you are. Sheesh, you’re really sending me mixed messages…”
And so on….
Would you actually want to stay in a relationship like this?
Yet, stay we do. And while most of will jump from job to job over the course of our lives, each new scenario yields a similar result. Our unconscious career choices mean a lifetime of co-dependent relationships with jobs that fail to inspire us, reflect our talents, and help us effect change in the world. That’s where career development counseling comes in…
Just like you might consider seeking personal counseling for a romantic relationship, you can seek counseling services for a tumultuous “relationship” between you and your job. With the assistance of a properly trained career development professional, you can gain the courage to abandon inspiration-crushing jobs, discover destructive patterns that prevent you from finding meaningful work, or mend your ailing relationship with your current job. Think of your career counselor or coach as an insightful collaborator who can help interpret your story and translate your experiences into new pathways.
Choose the wrong career development professional, and you could be rolling snake eyes; thousands of dollars poorer, and none the wiser.
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