When nothing is sure, everything is possible. – Margaret Drabble
Do you still have a job? Are you one of the “survivors” after the massive waves of lay-offs, buy-outs and early retirements? Are you working in an organization where staffing, resources and perks have been cut drastically and repeatedly over the last year or more? If so, I don’t have to tell you how stressful this is. Not only is there the guilt when friends and colleagues are leaving. (Why him? He was a great worker and an incredibly nice guy.) There is the fear. (When will the other shoe drop? When will it be ME?) And then there is all the work. (I’m already ‘buried”; how can I possibly take on all her work, too?)
The aggressively “thinned” ranks of staff left after all these rapid, and often, disturbing changes, are under not only tremendous pressure to produce and to do more with less, they are also at very high risk for the negative effects of chronic stress, and ultimately, burnout.
What is burnout anyway? The simplest definition from the APA (American Psychological Association) is: “A state of emotional, mental and physical exhaustion caused by excess and prolonged stress.” Burnout occurs when people begin to feel overwhelmed and unable to meet the constant demands of their work, sapping their energy and leaving them feeling increasingly more helpless, cynical, resentful and hopeless. Eventually those who burn out feel totally “tapped out”, exhausted and that they have “nothing left to give.”
Ironically, those who care the most about the quality of work they do and about the clients, patients or customers, are the most susceptible to burnout. It is because they care so much that they have a hard time setting limits on how much they do, paving the way for overwork and lack of self-care.
How can you tell if you are at risk for burnout? If you are under chronic, unrelenting pressure at work, you are at risk. If every day is a bad day, you are at risk. If you are feeling tired and drained, have stopped taking care of yourself well, and your outlook is increasingly cynical and negative, you are at high risk.
Coaching Tips
What can you do to prevent the negative effects of chronic stress and burnout? The answer is: a great deal, and, the most important thing is to take control, and take control immediately of as much as you can. Here are some examples:
1. Take care of yourself. Adopt an elite athlete mindset. Treat your body as if it needs to run a marathon each day. Make exercise a scheduled part of your day. Pay attention to eating for optimum nutrition and energy throughout the day. Stay hydrated and make sleep a priority.
2. Talk with others at work about reducing stressors and preventing burnout. Surround yourself with supportive, appreciative people who also have a shared goal of staying healthy, doing high quality work and functioning well as a team.
3. Figure out what the biggest stressors are and work with others to reduce or eliminate as many as possible. Don’t underestimate this. It is surprising how often one small change can really make a difference in how manageable the day feels.
4. Take a break daily, from everything, but especially from electronics and technology. Turn off all cell-phones and other electronic devices. Stop checking your e-mail. Go for a walk, do some stretches, meditate. Close your door and close your eyes, (or, if you must, go out to your car), and practice just relaxing and breathing. Far too many people have long ago given up anything that resembles a “lunch hour.” Don’t give up breaks, too.
5. Start and end your day right. Develop a “positive ritual” to begin and end your day. It need only take five or ten minutes. Stretch, pray, write down three things you are grateful for, listen to an especially soothing piece of music. Be creative and experiment with this until you find an activity or short ritual that helps you begin and end each day in a good way.
6. Change the organization. Consider coaching for key leadership staff or training for teams centered around reducing stress in the workplace. While it may seem counter-intuitive when budgets are extremely tight to bring in outside resources to help, when one considers the skyrocketing health care costs resulting from the effects of chronic stress on employees, and, the threat to the viability of the entire organization when the company’s best performers stop caring about the work, the return on investment of such programs is obvious.
Lisa Pasbjerg, LMSW, DCSW, is principal and founder of Focused Coaching, based in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and providing executive coaching and training services nationwide and throughout parts of Canada. She and her associates serve the needs of executives, managers, and other “high-potentials” seeking powerful change in themselves, their organizations and the world we live in. For more information contact Lisa at Lpasbjerg@focusedcoaching.net or go to our website at http://www.focusedcoaching.net for numerous tips, strategies and free resources, and to sign up for our newsletter.
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