Stressful Job? 5 Stages of Burnout and Easy Was to Fight It

 

Job burnout symptoms and recovery methods come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Human beings are diverse like this, but it’s undeniable that workplace burnout is real and prevalent enough to impact huge amounts of the population. In the United States, it’s estimated that one million employees miss work every day due to job stress. Atop that little stat, two-thirds of men and women admit that the stress from their respective jobs has caused one in four–yes, 25%–to either call in sick or take a “mental health day” as a brief respite to job burnout.



These are alarming statistics that most workers have just been living with. There are ways to recognize when your job-life balance starts getting out of whack. It’s a lot easier to rebalance earlier, so you can avoid job burnout turning into life burnout. There’s research behind burnout symptoms and recovery and you’ll surely recognize times you’ve fallen onto this spectrum and where you might fall now.

5 Stages of Burnout

The first is the honeymoon phase. You can probably guess what part that is. You’ve just gotten an offer and started an exciting new job, you’re eager to jump into the work you’ll be doing each day, a little rush of intellectual dopamine. Some people have the psycho-emotional control to remain in this phase (lucky them), but many do not. Instead this phase fades into the day-to-day monotony, moving to the balancing act phase.



The honeymoon is over and you’re aware that it’s over in this phase. There are good days, bad days, and you’re becoming increasingly aware of the stresses of work that they begin to bleed into life outside of work. While in work, you may resort to activities of mental escape from your current position (phone zoning, daydreaming, long periods of inefficiency, etc.). This is often a part of any job, but when it intensifies and turns to the stage of chronic symptoms, the signs of job burnout begin to impact your physical being inside and outside of work.



The chronic symptoms stage is exactly what it sounds like. In fact, this third stage and the remaining two flow quickly into one another if the proper recovery steps aren’t taken. Physical symptoms begin to surface in the previous stage, but manifest themselves sharply in this stage, hence it becoming chronic. That nagging job dissatisfaction turns to anger, creeping tiredness turns to severe exhaustion and often into physical illness. Once here, the final two stages of crisis and enmeshment follow at breakneck speed.



Crisis mode is the slippery downhill slope of chronic symptoms. Physical illness may become more severe, thoughts darken and despair hits the mental forefront, all while still going through the motions of day-to-day work, largely finding solace in escapism.



Finally, enmeshment. A fancy term for not being able to separate your work from your life, along with the combined stresses. Sometimes the symptoms become so ground into life, they can lead to emotional/psychological instability beyond being referenced as burnout.

Yikes! How Do I Fight It?

It’s pretty easy. You have tools built into your jobs that are meant to avoid this. Take your vacation days! They’re meant for you use and there’s no shame in taking them. Talk to your boss. They’re there to help you and want to see you happy and healthy for work, keep that communication open. Most importantly, know yourself. You, of all people, will best know your burnout symptoms and recovery. No one will know better than you. Have the discipline to keep yourself healthy. Your body, mind, and job will thank you.