Let’s Explore Workplace Burnout!
- mp50081
- Jan 3, 2022
- 4 min read
The Great Resignation is a phenomenon that involves millions of people resigning from their jobs. Is it because of COVID-19 related burnout or is it due to a bigger problem? Now, Let’s Explore Workplace Burnout!
What Is Burnout?
Burnout is a physical, mental as well as emotional response to long-term or repeated stress.
It can feel exhausting, cause feelings of cynicism as well as feelings of detachment from the job. Burnout causes you to have a sense of ineffectiveness as well as lack of accomplishment.
Burnout is technically not a medical diagnosis, but it can be the result of a bigger problem such as depression.
What Are The Signs?
Let’s explore some signs of workplace burnout.
Signs Of Burnout:
Sense Of Self-Doubt: Self-doubt happens when you no longer feel confident in yourself. It can be a sign of emotional exhaustion brought on by burnout.
Loss Of Motivation: Lack of motivation is a feeling that happens when you don’t have the will or the energy to accomplish something. It’s one of the most common signs of burnout.
You’re Becoming More Cynical And Negative: Being more cynical and negative toward your work is a burnout red flag. At one point, you were more upbeat but now you feel that there’s no point in putting in the effort.
Feeling Exhausted All The Time: Are you feeling exhausted all the time? Chances are you’re facing burnout.
The Causes And Effects Of Workplace Burnout!
Let’s explore the causes and effects of workplace burnout. They’re different for everyone, but they all end up with the same result.
Causes
Workplace burnout has many causes. It can caused by lack of control in the workplace, unclear job expectations, toxic workplace dynamics, lack of support as well as lack of work-life balance.
Lack of control comes from the inability to influence decisions that affect you at work. For example, you may not have control over your schedule, your assignments or your heavy workload.
Unclear job expectations include not knowing what amount of authority you have. Also, you’re not sure what supervisors or others expect from you. As a result, you don’t feel comfortable at work.
A toxic workplace dynamic happens when there’s an office bully or you’re undermined by your colleagues. Also, a toxic workplace can be a result of toxic bosses micromanaging everything you do at work.
A lack of social support at work as well as in your personal life can make you feel isolated and depressed.
When work-life balance is not considered, most of your energy is put into your job. As a result, you have no time and energy for spending time with loved ones or even for self-care.
Effects
Workplace burnout is something that creeps in overtime. It can be having an effect on you without even noticing it.
Overtime, you may start noticing chronic fatigue as well as lack of quality sleep. Also, you’ll notice that you’re getting more headaches as well as stomach aches. Also, you can feel anger, isolation, irritability as well as anxiety and depression.
Burnout is caused by chronic as well as repeated stress, it causes your body to produce more of the stress hormone cortisol.
What Is Cortisol?
Cortisol is a stress hormone that acts as nature’s built-in alarm system. It gets released into the bloodstream as a response to any kind of stress or danger.
When cortisol is released, your body uses more glucose, controls blood pressure as well as reduces inflammation. As a result, it protects your body against the effects of stress.
However, when you’re faced with chronic stress because of burnout, your body produces too much cortisol.
Burnout causes too much cortisol to be released and as a result, you can have health problems. Problems include insulin resistance, high blood pressure, weight gain as well as getting sick more often.
Let’s Explore The Great Resignation
It’s been reported that COVID-19 related burnout is the biggest cause of the Great Resignation. However, many workers have felt job-related burnout long before 2020.
Worker Burnout Existed Long Before COVID-19
Many workers have felt some form of burnout long before COVID-19. For example, many have felt stuck in limbo for a long time.
For years, many workers have had to deal with stress related to underemployment, stagnant wages and also feeling like their lives have hit a dead end. All of this despite going into debt to go to college, working hard as well as playing by the rules.
Most workers already had to put up with unclear job expectations as well as very toxic workplaces which added to their stress and anxiety.
A lack of social support at both work and their personal lives didn’t help their mental health at all. Also, a lack of work-life balance was the reason why workers faced burnout.
A lot of workers stuck around hoping things would get better. However, it resulted in more stress and anxiety which eventually eroded their mental health. The rise of COVID-19 was the straw that broke the camel’s back, which resulted in a lot of good workers walking away.
Here’s a related post: “Are You Reaching Your Breaking Point?”
COVID-19 Added Fuel To The Burnout Fire
Workplace burnout was already a huge problem, then COVID-19 hit. Chronic stress due to burnout was made worse by problems caused by the pandemic.
Along with the fear of getting sick, more pressure put on essential workers and others being out of work because of the lockdowns caused many workers to reevaluate their lives. They began to question whether it was worth staying at a job that was burning them out or move on altogether.
The Great Resignation is one of history’s largest movements, millions of people do not want to go back to things were before. It was one of 2021’s defining moments and it’s going to continue well into 2022 and beyond.
Did You Resign From Your Job Because Of Burnout?
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