Burn-Out at Work

Burnout- Work conflicts and Burn-Out have become more common due to the fast paced work environment and increasing demands placed on us. It is a state of emotional, mental, and physical exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. You may feel your productivity, motivation, and energy are reduced which often leads to feeling helpless, hopeless, cynical, and resentful.

PEOPLE WHO TEND TO BE MORE SUSCEPTIBLE ARE THOSE WHO ARE DEDICATED, RESPONSIBLE, HARDWORKING, DRIVEN, AND SENSITIVE TO CRITICISM, UNDERVALUE THEIR SKILLS, AND BELIEVE IN FAIRNESS.

Some of the questions to ask yourself include:

  • Do you constantly feel fatigued?
  • Do you drag yourself to work?
  • Are you irritable, impatient?
  • Are you not getting satisfaction from your achievements?
  • Do you feel disillusioned by your job?
  • Are you beginning to devalue your own worth?
  • Are you using food, drugs, or alcohol to simply not feel?
  • Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?
  • Do you suffer from headaches, backaches, or other physical complaints?
  • Are you working longer hours to compensate for decreased memory and concentration?
  • Have you become cynical at work?

In the current economic climate, people compete for limited opportunities, power, and professional recognition. Conflicts are caused by interpersonal, organizational, and external factors. Reorganizations and restructuring are commonplace and greatly increase lack of job security leading to greatly increased personal stress.

Conflicts also erupt when proper communication channels have not been established often leading to avoidance of conflict and aggression. Those who express different viewpoints can feel victimized. The workplace is experienced as intolerant, exclusive, and void of compassion and sincerity. The absence of conflict recognition and resolution can cause feelings of dissatisfaction, hopelessness, anger, and emotional turmoil leading to burnout.

Compassion fatigue is a form of burn-out involving physical, emotional, and spiritual symptoms. For those in “helping professions”, the burn-out symptoms will lead them to work
harder, feel vulnerable, and experience an inability to recover quickly from work.

 

Sessions include:

  • Identification and understanding of work related stress and working environment dynamics
  • Personal history and values: impact on approach to work
  • Clarifying values regarding work-life balance
  • Identification of strengths and contribution to workplace
  • Evaluation of match between skillset and demands of work
  • Practical strategies to approach conflict
  • Personal coping mechanisms to address conflict
  • Identification of triggers to burnout
  • Self-care and burnout prevention