Is There a Way to Handle Job Stress and Burnout?

 

Workplace stress affects the majority of American workers, leading to serious consequences. These include loss of productivity due to stressed employees taking sick days, ill health and job burnout. Ironically, people in the caring professions, like teaching, counseling, and medicine show the highest levels of job-related stress. The question of how to recover from exhaustion is an important one for workers as well as employers. Achieving a work life balance, and giving workers greater control over work conditions and scheduling, can be the key to reducing job stress and its consequences.

Causes and effects of job burnout
Job stress affects the majority of Americans. It can be caused by a number of factors, including conflicts with mangers and co-workers, disharmony between personal goals and the workplace, and a mismatch between skills and the job requirements. Heavy workloads and extended schedules add to the problem.
The first sign that people are suffering from job stress is when they start taking sick days even though they’re not ill. As many as a million people do this each day in the U.S. The majority, or two-thirds, of all workers feel that they suffer from job stress. Other signs of job burnout include listlessness, exhaustion, cynicism about work, and about the individual’s ability to make a meaningful contribution. Ill health and addictions are also possible consequences.

The most stressful jobs
Physicians have the most stressful jobs, and experience burnout at higher rates than the general population. According to a recent study, as many as 48.5% of all physicians show one or more burnout symptoms. Physicians are also twice as likely as the general population to be dissatisfied with their work-life balance. Family life suffers as a consequence and physicians have a divorce rate that is 10 to 20% higher than the general population.
Younger physicians experience higher stress. Studies report a burnout rate of 44% for physicians under the age of 35, compared to 32% for the professional overall. Women in the medical professions self-report higher rates of stress than men. Medical students likewise report high depression rates that are 15 to 30% above those experienced by the general population.

How to recover from exhaustion
There are no easy cures for job stress and burnout. Individuals can make an effort to deal with stress by living a healthy lifestyle with a balanced diet, exercise and enough sleep. Finding a work-life balance can help reduce the effects of job stress.
Employers are experimenting with giving workers more control over their working conditions and schedules. This has shown significant improvement in workers’ experience and perceptions of their jobs.

For workers and employers alike, the problems caused by job stress and questions about how to recover from exhaustion are of crucial importance. There are no easy solutions, but individuals can try and reduce the effects of stressful jobs by creating a better work-life balance. Changes in workplace conditions and giving workers more control over scheduling can also help in easing the symptoms of job burnout.