Burnout 101
By: Govind Aadithya Sripada
Tags: Help, Burnout Prevention, Burnout, Burnout Syndrom, Work From Home

I have been hearing a lot of this since the month of April 2020, to be more specific since the ‘Work from Home’ started due to the ongoing pandemic.

A recent Monster survey, 51% of respondents admitted to experiencing burnout while working from home during the coronavirus pandemic.

The ever-curious side of me wanted to know what it actually is (not by experiencing it mind you!), how it happens, and more importantly — why it happens!

So… enough beating around the bush: What is burnout?

Burnout is nothing but physical or mental collapse/degradation caused by overwork or stress.

Maybe the definition does not make it sound serious — but it is something very serious impacting almost half of us; why even half of your team might be facing it.

“What causes burn-out… bro?

Causes are many — but I will put down the top 3 (just to keep the article short… hopefully!):

Lack of control: This could be the lack of control over your schedule, commitment to deliver which in turn increases your workload by several folds — which leads work-life imbalance and being in the “always-on” mode. Bad work dynamics: This usually happens when one is a victim of a “burned” out or a bully colleague/co-worker and/or happens when someone is trying to undermine your effort/work. Also might happen when your boss believes in micro-management. The answer to this would require your direct intervention to sort out the real problem. Lack of Social activity/Being always “On”: Did you get the “I am all alone” feeling when working on that midnight schedule? It is an extension of feeling lost or feeling the need for social interaction — simply put Man (or woman) is a social animal and needs to interact regularly with peers; lack of that fundamental element can wreak havoc in one’s system.

How do I know if I have it?”

No nose-swabs thankfully! (Pardon my PJ)

You will know — I mean it, you will have improper sleep, irregular eating habits, constant feeling of missing out on that “important” message/update and people around you know you as a “laptop” zombie.

The worse symptom is the constant feeling of irritation towards your co-workers, every time something wrong or if things go in a way not expected by you — you do a little explosion after your blood reaches the boiling point.

This is called an Emotional response in a place that requires Intellectual response; don’t mix them up — you will end up in a horrible place.

To simply put it “Respond, don’t react!”

If you have any of these “symptoms” — run and seek help (from friends, family, and/or superiors).

Last question bro… how do you avoid it?

It is something I personally employ and works wonders for me, but I suggest everyone take it with a bit of salt i.e., employ it in a way that works best for them while serving the purpose because implementing a method/system just so that it is “fad” is not a healthy model.

Do NOT emotionally react to anything that goes wrong Prepare a To-Do list which serves as a Checklist of activities tasks towards End-of-the-Day. I use Google Sheets to track all planned tasks.

Finally…

3. I stick to something commonly referred to as ‘Process Goals’ instead of having large-scale big goals.

A process goal is what you will actually have to do to achieve a larger goal. For example, instead of setting a goal to lose 10 kgs, you might set a goal to cut out unnecessary snacks throughout an entire month. Process goals will make you a lot more likely to achieve your creative (and larger-scale) goals.

Finally, I personally think it is all of our responsibility to help our fellow mates by all possible means from being “burned” out, by sharing their workload and asking them to log-off or maybe even as telling them that “it is ok to push things to back-burner based on priority” since tomorrow never dies (not the Bond movie!).

Please talk to all your colleagues and friends to find out if they are silently suffering and use anything mentioned above to help them!

Help put the smile back on someone’s face… it is free!