Emotional burnout is an extreme degree of fatigue and emotional exhaustion. A burnout employee is like a fleeing bomb. At any moment he can drop out of the work process, which negatively affects the business. And the person himself in such a condition is not sweet.
Approximately 57% of specialists face professional burnout – this was the statistic revealed in a survey of more than 11,000 employees of leading Silicon Valley companies.
The problem became so big and serious that the syndrome of emotional burnout was included by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the latest version of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11).
Symptoms of emotional burnout
Feeling of fatigue that does not disappear even after a rest;
Feeling of complete emptiness;
Feeling of boredom from everything that is going on;
Apathy, indifference to what used to bring joy;
Feelings of helplessness and loneliness in the world;
Difficulty in concentrating; Memory problems;
Increased number of mistakes in work;
Frequent procrastination;
Decreased social activity;
Elimination from colleagues and friends;
Manifestation of potato syndrome (constantly wanting to lie down and have no one touch you);
Sleep problems (insomnia, waking up often, can’t wake up in the morning);
Change of appetite (always want to eat or don’t want to eat at all);
Decrease in libido to the total unwillingness to have sex.
Some of these symptoms are also inherent in depression, and be attentive to your emotional state, because war is a severe test for the most resilient psyche.
Burnout or just fatigue?
Fatigue goes away as soon as you give yourself a rest. A weekend is enough for some, a 2-3 week vacation for others. But if even after that you feel emotionally drained, depressed and unwilling to return to work – it is worth seriously analyzing your condition.
How burnout occurs and how long it lasts
Burnout is not a one-day process, it can take months to develop. And everyone “burns out” in their own way. The WHO defines this syndrome as a result of prolonged stress.
In simple words, doing something, you spend your energy resources (let’s call it motivation), as a result of which you want the same energy (motivation) return. If the payoff is more than what you put in your energy, you’re full, you have more energy, and you’re even more motivated to do something. If the payoff is less or none at all, then you gradually go broke, you start working on “reserve” energy and willpower, but at some point these reserves are also emptied. Everything becomes uninteresting to you, you are no longer excited about anything. This is burnout.
Causes of burnout and what to do
Constant overload
There is more and more work to do.
Constant or frequent overtime.
Irregular working hours.
Tight deadlines, constant urgency.
Perfectionism, wasting time and energy on achieving a perfect result.
Work in an emergency mode creates strong emotional stress. In such conditions even an employee with iron nerves will give up. As a result: nervous breakdowns and burnout.
What to do: Learn to correctly estimate the time for completing the task. If the estimates come from above, give your own estimate of time and communicate the real terms to management. Clearly define your working hours, try to eliminate overtime or at least keep it to a minimum. Try to do work of good enough quality, but enough to strive for perfection. Deal with your own time management (especially true for freelancers). If you are a workaholic by nature, be sure to include time for rest and sports in the list of tasks per day.