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.”
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