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“I haven’t seen you smile in a week,” Anne vividly recalls her husband saying. She was in the depths of burnout. She worked as a medical professional in a relentlessly pressure-packed environment, with an unreasonably heavy workload, yet she didn’t think her job was the source of her unhappiness. She had come to blame herself, believing she was simply incompetent.
With the support of her husband and a counselor, Anne began to see that work and misery didn’t have to be synonymous. She realized there was a difference between being busy and burdened, and she regained control, partly by making an effort to pause throughout the day to relax or exercise. Eventually, she even recognized that she could truly be good at her job.
Anne is just one of an increasing number of people who have experienced workplace burnout. “It’s more common than the average worker recognizes,” says Chris Ebberwein, Ph.D., a behavioral faculty member at Wesley Family Medicine, University of Kansas School of Medicine in Wichita and member of the American Psychology Association. “It can creep into your life and make you start to think unhappiness at work is normal.”
What Is Burnout?
Career burnout is a chronic psychological condition characterized by exhaustion, cynicism and a lack of professional efficacy, says Christina Maslach, Ph.D., professor of psychology at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of the Maslach Burnout Inventory. “It’s not simply that people are tired…It’s not just that people have a bad attitude,” she says. “It’s that they’re working in a socially toxic workplace,” one that lacks support and transparency from supervisors and colleagues.
The idea of workplace burnout first gained traction in the 1970s, but awareness of the problem has peaked lately. “The workplace is just squeezing people harder and harder in a lot of ways, and burnout is that reaction to chronic, everyday stressors,” says Maslach. “People experiencing burnout talk about erosion—I love my job, I’m good at my job, but working in this environment is socially toxic.”
Job burnout affects professionals working across all occupations, but appears to be most prevalent among those in service jobs, particularly physicians, 46% of whom have reported experiencing it, according to the Medscape Physician Lifestyle Report 2015.
Why People Experience Burnout
Excessive workloads, unrealistic time pressures and resulting exhaustion certainly contribute to burnout, but they alone are not responsible. Day-to-day social interactions and a lack of civility in the workplace are a primary cause.
“Something as little as someone rolling their eyes can wear away at you,” says Maslach. “It’s also sarcastic tone of voice, being nasty and rude. It’s what you say, how you say it and how you act.”
According to Maslach, there are six areas where trouble can lead to burnout. These are:
1. Workload: Do you have too many tasks and not enough time to complete them, or too few resources? Is the flow of your assignments unsustainable?
2. Control: Does your job allow you a level of autonomy? Do you have control over what you’re doing and when?
3. Reward and positive feedback: When you do something valuable for your employer, are you recognized for your work? Do you feel appreciated?
4. Workplace community: Do you work in a supportive, transparent environment, or are you surrounded by destructive competition and gossip?
5. Fairness: Is everyone within your organization treated with respect, fair opportunity and equal access, or do you perceive favoritism and cheating?
6. Values: Do you find your work meaningful, or does it require you to compromise your personal values?
Overcoming Burnout
If you feel like you’re on the path to burnout, here are five ways to get back on track.
1. Seek input from within your organization.
In many cases, professional burnout is not exclusive to one individual within an organization. Identify other employees who may be experiencing the problem and collaborate with them to start to fix it. “People have to work together to figure out what’s creating a less than ideal working environment,” says Maslach. “Ask yourselves, ‘How do we turn this around?’ See if there are ways for the organization to work with everybody to find a solution.”
A successful example of this is CREW (Civility, Respect and Engagement in the Workplace), a burnout intervention program first implemented in Veterans Health Administration hospitals. Over a six-month period, participants met weekly to discuss respectful workplace relationships and participate in communication exercises. Outside of meetings, they were encouraged to practice positive social exchanges. The program yielded improved civility and decreased burnout more than one year later.
2. Establish new relationships.
If everyone in your office social circle has given up on escaping the burnout rut, it’s time to make a change. Surround yourself with coworkers who want to make positive strides in their work lives and draw support from one another. In “Conquering Burnout,” in Scientific American, Maslach and a coauthor write, “Receiving good vibes from others is an uplifting experience, but so, too, is expressing them to others.”
3. Find meaning in your work.
Identify the most fulfilling elements of your work and dedicate more time to them. If you can, talk to your supervisor about better aligning your responsibilities with your strengths and interests. “If you feel like the projects you’re taking on match what you like to do, burnout will diminish, because you’re enjoying yourself at work,” says Ebberwein.
4. Make a conscious effort to take breaks.
Whether for a few minutes or a few days, take time away to recharge. Set an alarm every 30 minutes as a reminder to get up and move around the office, suggests Maslach in “Conquering Burnout,” and make use of your vacation days. “Some companies love people who never take breaks,” says Ebberwein. “But that praise is moving them down a path to burnout.” If appropriate, talk to your employer about switching to a more flexible work schedule. Customizing your schedule to your needs can offset burnout by giving you a greater sense of control.
5. Change organizations or career paths.
Despite your best efforts, sometimes you can’t possibly overcome burnout where you work. In that case, beating burnout may require you to consider a new job or an entirely new field. “Some jobs are, by nature, difficult, tiring and stressful,” says Ebberwein. “If you can’t say you do it for a specific reason, explore other options.”
