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Burnout

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Burnout: An Occupational Meltdown

In today’s society, stress and work are commonly associated with each other. When work stress is prolonged, it will result into a stress response called “burnout”. Burnout is defined as an emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. (Help Guide.Org). It is a stress response resulting from working with emotional demanding situations. Burnout can impact your job performance, your physical and mental health negatively.
Burnout is a very familiar topic to me. I was working as a Senior Administrative Supervisor. The organization I was working with had consolidated offices and in result, my workload had increased. I ended up supporting seven regional managers and forty case managers all over California on top of seven direct reports. My direct supervisor was based in Maryland so I barely had a physical contact with her.
In my collage, I illustrated the feelings I had when I was burnt out. There are a couple of comic strips that showed a smoke detector and the sprinkler system going off due to employee burnout. There are a couple of quotes that described my feelings best when I was stressed. One talks about being so stressed out the “I can’t even remember why I am so stressed out and it is stressing me out” and the other one talks about paper clips being replaced by a heap of twisted metal, which I mostly did during these stressful times. Other photos in my collage shows people screaming, crying, pulling their hair out, etc. which best describe the feelings of a burnout.
The book, Discovering Psychology described three components of burnout. These components are people feel exhausted, people feelings of cynicism and people feel a sense of failure. (Hockenbury). These components best described my feelings and how it affected my job performance. I remember feeling the lack of energy and I ended up doing as little as possible to make it through the day. There were days when I failed to come in to work because I was feeling exhausted. I also felt detachment to my team and the organization. I lost my trust to the people that I worked with which affected one of my strength, which is teamwork. Lastly, I was very negative which decreased my productivity. My frustration grew because I was unable to take any type of criticism from my direct supervisor. I was unable to accept that my decreased productivity is my fault. I thought that my work was just never good enough for my supervisor.
Burnout had affected my physical health. Burnout is an excessive and prolonged stress and stress is linked to many physical consequences such as increased high blood pressure, any type of pain such as back pain and headaches and heart problems. Some study also link stress to weight gain. During my tenure at my previous organization, I experienced chronic migraines. At first, it started randomly and as my stress continued, I experienced migraine once a week. At one point, I also experienced heart palpitations. Due to these health issues, it pushed me to see a doctor who diagnosed me with chronic stress. Being burned out also affected my immune systems. I had developed allergies and I was also sick whether it’s a cold, a cough or flu.
Lastly, being burned out from my job affected me mentally. During that time, my drive to work was the worst time of my day because all I thought about was excuses not to make it in the office. There were times in the office when little issues pushed me in tears. On weekends when I drove by the vicinity of my office, I will be very angry. The feeling that I was having affected my personal relationship with family and friends. Most of the people around me did not want to hear how bad my work was and how I did not want to be there. I felt bad because I felt like I was a broken record so I detached myself from mostly everyone. There were days when I did not answer any phone calls because I did not want to have any type of interaction with anybody. I became really depressed and it even caused a significant amount of weight gain because I stayed away from any physical activity. I was mentally exhausted.
I stayed at that job for five years because I was prideful. I told myself that I could handle my workload even with little or no directions due to my direct supervisor’s lack of presence and direction. It took me a while to realize that my work took over my life. I was in denial for a long time.
When I realized that I needed to do something, I took several steps to help me handle the burnout. First, I talked to my supervisor and communicated that I needed help and direction. I took advantage of the resources available to me to help me sort through all the mental and emotional exhaustion I was feeling such as the Employee Assistance Program. I also took a few weeks off of work to help me restart my thoughts. However, after going through all those steps, it was too late for me to restart my attitude. The only option that I have is to leave that organization. It took a few months and I finally left my employer. I realized that it was not worth all the physical, emotional and mental outcomes that I had experienced.
It is most important to identify the stress at the early stage to prevent a burnout from happening. Discussing concerns to a direct supervisor immediately and working together to change expectations will help lessen the stress and anxiety. If stress at work is recognized, take a few days off of work to refresh the mind. It will help one to think clearly and come up with a solution to help prevent the burnout.
I had colleagues who experienced burnout due to boredom. Some had it due to lack of control and lack of support. I also knew some people who are working at a fast-paced and demanding office and enjoying what they do because they have a great support system. It proves that a positive environment can be a factor preventing a burnout in high-stress occupations.
Currently, I am working in an office that has a lot of demands. However, I enjoy the colleagues that I work with and the support from my director. There are times when demands are high and it becomes really stressful but due to my experience, I learned how to take a step back and take a breather even if it is a day or two. I know now how to control my stress levels and the I will not experience the burnout again.

References
Help Guide.Org. (n.d.). www.helpguide.org. Retrieved from Help Guide.org - A Trusted Non

Profit Resource: http://www.helpguide.org/mental/burnout_signs_symptoms.htm

Hockenbury. Discovering Psychology.

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