Beat Burnout
Burnout is on the rise. In a recent survey over half of all workers reported that they were experiencing burnout (Threlkeld, 2021). Moreover, the number of people reporting burnout increased by nearly ten percent in the year between January 2020 and January 2021. The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the associated increase in economic and financial instability and the increasingly blurred line between work and home life, are all likely to be at least partly to blame for this steep increase in burnout. But what is burnout, this condition that more than half of all workers are reported to experience?
Put simply, burnout is a feeling of pervasive exhaustion that can result from extended exposure to stress. People who are burned out report feeling physically, mentally, and emotionally exhausted (Schaufeli & Greenglass, 2001) and are unable to find relief from this all-encompassing exhaustion. Traditionally, the exhaustion of burnout has been understood as resulting from too much stress at work (Freudenberger, 1974; Samra, 2018). However, more recent scholarship recognizes that stress coming from almost any source can make someone feel perpetually exhausted and burned out (Nagoski & Nagoski, 2020).
Burnout can cause a person to feel emotionally exhausted, cynical, and incompetent (Schaufeli et al., 2001; West et al., 2016). When you’re burned out you may feel that you don’t have any empathy or compassion available anymore. You may not care about some people, causes, or projects that you used to care about and that you feel you should still care about. You may feel that you’re no longer able to be effective or successful. In module 1 we’ll define burnout and talk about some of the causes of burnout in more detail.
The causes of burnout can be understood at a number of levels. At the biological level, burnout may be caused by a dysregulated stress response system. The human brain and body respond in predictable ways to stress. When you’re in a stressful situation, hormones including adrenaline and cortisol are released into your bloodstream (Black & Garbutt, 2002; Tsigos & Chrousos, 2002). These hormones increase your heart rate and blood pressure, getting more oxygen and energy to your muscles and brain. You become more alert, focused, and better able to withstand pain and exhaustion. All of your body’s resources become dedicated to keeping you safe. Anything not necessary for your immediate survival is put on hold. Cellular repair, reproduction, growth, and immune responses are all paused. When stress is short and temporary, these physiological responses are extremely adaptive, allowing you to rally all available resources to overcome a threat. When stress is persistent and ongoing, these physiological systems can get dysregulated, leading to symptoms of burnout including problems with sleep, digestion, mood, cognitive functioning, and emotional wellbeing.
At the psychological level, burnout is more likely when you feel that you don’t have the resources you need to meet a challenge (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984), or when you detect that you don’t have any control over a situation. When you feel persistently threatened with no way to save yourself or improve your situation, you may start to feel burned out.
At an occupational level, burnout may be more likely when you have too much work, not enough control, insufficient reward, inadequate social support, and when you feel that you aren’t being treated fairly and that your work and actions don’t matter (Maslach and Leiter, 2005).
At a societal level, you may feel burned out if you feel the weight of living in an unjust world full of expectations and demands that you’ll never be able to meet (Eisenstein 2018; Nagoski & Nagoski, 2020).
Although things seem grim, with two-thirds of survey respondents reporting that burnout is getting worse (Threlkeld, 2021), there may be steps that you can take to reduce your feelings of burnout. We review some strategies that may be effective in protecting you from burnout in module 2. You may be able to feel less burned out by taking time to relax and unwind, taking part in calming self-nurturing activities (Shields et al., 2020) like exercise, spending time in nature, practicing meditation, mindfulness, and yoga, drinking healing teas, creating art, or even simply by coloring. Giving your brain and your body’s stress response systems regular opportunities to disengage from the source of your stress may help bring everything back into alignment.
You may also be able to change the ways that you think about and approach stress and stressful events. In module 3 we review some changes in mindset that you may be able to make that may help you deal with stress and avoid burnout. You may be able to become better able to see yourself as effective and competent, increasing your sense of control over your world (Bandura et al., 1977). You may become better able to let go of the idea of perfection, allowing yourself to let some things go. You may be able to become more flexible and better able to shift and adapt in order to find novel solutions to some problems. You may be able to change how you view stress, focusing on its potentially beneficial effects.
Keeping burnout at bay may require you to change some fundamental parts of your life. In module 4 we’ll review research showing that focusing on what’s important, working towards a cause that you care about, creating a personal mission statement, and making sure that you incorporate fun and joy in your life can all protect you from burnout.
In module 5 we review some changes you may want to make that may require you to examine deeper parts of yourself. Social support, of a number of different kinds, can protect you from burnout (Heaney & Israel 2008). We’ll review some types of social support and give you the opportunity to think about where your social support comes from. Social support is largely reciprocal and so we’ll also review ways to make sure that people around you can feel safe and supported. We also review ways to set boundaries and to say no to requests, even when they are made by people who you care about.
Module 5 ends by suggesting that you be vulnerable and accept your own flaws and imperfections. Being able to let go of unattainable standards and accept that you are a valuable and worthwhile person even when you are not accomplishing anything and even when you are failing at everything may help you feel less pressure to take on more and more stress.