Did you take your vacation days?
Photo by @tangerinenewt on Unsplash
By Amanda Drum
We’re well over halfway through the year, eclipsing July and looking ahead to the back-to-school season, then Fall, then the start of the holiday rush. Feel panicky yet? If you do, chances are you tackled the first half of this year with the intensity of a bull run and no sign of slowing down.
But you have to slow down. Employee burnout doesn’t just affect the individuals who already know they’re stressed and physically spent. Even the plucky type-A overachievers who love their jobs may experience physical signs of burnout–or psychological symptoms they might attribute to other personal flaws–that can inject themselves into their day-to-day lives well beyond work.
Even the World Health Organization recognizes workplace burnout. They define the phenomenon as: “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” The symptoms are characterized by mental anxiety, like feelings of stress, anger, and depression, but also physical symptoms like heart palpitations, shortness of breath, insomnia, or lethargy, and even psychological signs like slipping confidence, cynicism (or depersonalization from your work), and imposter syndrome. The kicker? A weekend’s rest won’t break the cycle; the key tell between a brief stress spell and chronic burnout–or chronic anything else–is that short-term rest won’t alleviate the symptoms. The bad patterns persist once returning to work.
So, it’s not just “tired.” Burnout can hurt your career performance, personal life, and your company’s success in one insidious swoop. Once you know the signs, you can pump the breaks and start to rest and recover with a concerted effort and some pretty hefty lifestyle changes. Starting with:
- Admitting you have a problem. Always the first step.
- Reduce time blindness. If you’re an overachiever as mentioned above, you probably “over-yes” yourself: say yes to projects, deadlines, lunches, and events without much thought to what’s already piled high on your plate. You’ll make room, right? With only so many hours in the day, and fewer still in the workday, you do have a limit. Even getting close to the limit without much wiggle room can induce burnout in the best employees.
Some experts recommend making a list of all the commitments–work assignments included–you say “yes” to, paired with a list of which of those commitments were enjoyable or beneficial. Are you using your precious time wisely? If not, assess where and how to say “no,” or “no, but…”, to protect your peace and maintain the amount of time you can commit to doing your best job.
- Yes, even you can take a vacation. If you’re an employee, you’re a) entitled to vacation days and b) should not feel guilty taking them. If you work in an environment that attempts to guilt you for taking valuable time off, that’s their problem–and a bigger one at that. If you’re an employer, it’s easy to feel like the ship will sink without its valuable captain at the helm, but that’s what first mates are for. Short-term prep for what to expect while you’re away will pay dividends, and in future, consider long-term leadership training and crisis management coaching for your direct reports. Both can make the foundation of your role sturdier should you need to decompress beyond your office desk.
And I do mean vacation. Remember: burnout isn’t fixed by a long weekend. Recharging from chronic burnout requires at least a week unplugged from work, depending on how mired you are in your day-to-day grind.
If it sounds like my advice amounts to “do less” and “take a break”…that’s because it does. But hey, if you haven’t done either this far into the year, you’re due a reminder. And yes, I’m calling myself out in the process.