How To Tell If You’re Burnt Out (& Tips to Manage It)

Are you feeling emotionally and physically drained from your job? Do you find yourself getting overwhelmed by things that never used to bother you? Do you find yourself feeling underappreciated and unaccomplished, leading you to fantasize about quitting your job?

If you answered yes to any of those questions, you might be experiencing burnout. Burnout is a psychological experience many people have from working in chronically stressful environments. So how are you able to tell if you are suffering from burnout? What is the difference between burnout and stress? What causes burnout? What are ways you can manage it?

Defining burnout

The American Psychological Association defines burnout as “physical, emotional or mental exhaustion, accompanied by lowered performance, and negative attitudes towards oneself and others.” Burnout is the result of prolonged levels of stress, tension and exhaustion from physical or mental exertion taking its toll.

The World Health Organization classifies burnout in the ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon — not a medical condition in itself, but a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that hasn’t been successfully managed. It was first described in 1974 by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger as a term for service-oriented workers experiencing prolonged high-caseload stress.

The three dimensions of burnout

Burnout can be classified by three dimensions: exhaustion, cynicism, and inefficacy.

• Exhaustion — feelings of wearing out, loss of energy, depletion, debilitation, fatigue, feeling of stress.
• Cynicism (originally Depersonalization) — characterized by negative or inappropriate attitudes towards others, withdrawal and loss of motivation.
• Inefficacy — reduced personal accomplishment, reduced productivity, low morale, and lack of coping with stress.

What causes burnout?

Research on burnout has identified six key domains of organizational risk factors across many occupations (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).

Workload

Having a workload that matches your capacity allows for you to effectively get work done, while having time to rest and recover. When we are chronically overloaded, opportunities for work–life balance are non-existent.

Control

Feeling a lack of say, autonomy, trust, and lack of say in decisions can take a toll in our well-being over time. Do you feel like you need to always be on call? Do you feel you have adequate boundaries in place?

Reward

Do the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards for your job match the time and effort you are putting forth? If not, you’re likely not going to feel the payoff of your hard work.

Community

Who do you work with? Are they people you feel you can trust and rely on for support? Burnout and low morale can spread quickly throughout offices.

Fairness

Do you believe you are receiving fair and equitable treatment at work? If you aren’t feeling recognized for your contributions, speak up and advocate for yourself within your role.

Values

How important is it that your ideals and values match the company you are working for? If you find that your values do not align with your employer, you may notice motivation and desire to work hard significantly decrease.

Burnout vs. stress

The APA defines stress as “the physiological or psychological response to internal or external stressors.” Stress is characterized by being over-engaged in our work or personal life, feeling overactive, and loss of energy.

The main difference between burnout and stress is that burnout causes disengagement and stress causes over-engagement. Stress leads to overactive emotions, increased potential to develop anxiety, and physical ailments. Burnout leads to disengagement, withdrawal, and feelings of hopelessness and helplessness. Research suggests that chronic, prolonged exposure to stress with inadequate coping can lead to the development of burnout (Maslach & Leiter, 2016).

How to manage burnout

Changing work patterns

It may be vital that work patterns are changed and adapted to better suit your capacity for working while recovering from burnout. This may entail reducing hours worked, taking more breaks, avoiding overtime work, and maintaining a better work–life balance.

Developing coping skills

Developing coping skills to combat the symptoms is vital. This may include strategies around conflict resolution, time management, and restructuring negative thinking. Cognitive restructuring requires us to question our own thoughts — for example, “is me thinking about my client in this way beneficial to our relationship in the long run?” or “is it fair to assume that X did this on purpose?”

Social support

Make sure you are finding outlets for your stress and burnout in those with whom you are able to freely share your frustrations and experiences.

Relaxation strategies

Find methods of relaxation suitable to your needs. These may include yoga, meditation, sitting quietly, reading a book, taking a bath, watching a favorite show, or drinking tea with a loved one.

Health and fitness

Ensuring that you are properly nourishing your body, along with getting adequate movement and exercise throughout your day, is a great way to combat the impacts of burnout. Try to implement one healthy habit per week; start small — drink enough water, get outside for a 30-minute walk daily.

Self-awareness

Self-awareness is crucial in understanding whether you’re experiencing burnout. Journaling is an excellent way to develop self-awareness. Start by tracking your daily mood, 3 things you noticed, 3 things that went well, 3 things that didn’t go so well, and 1 thing you’d like to focus on the following day.

If burnout is hard to address alone, book a free 20-minute consult — we’ll see if we’re a fit.