Burnout-Facing the Giant Elephant

I’m going to dedicate this month to talking about burnout. I have been kicked out of my career once and burned myself out twice so I pretty much consider myself an expert! (Though I don’t know that that’s really something to brag about.)

This time of year for me personally has always been the worst, so I figured it would be a reasonable time to start the topic. In general, January is when you have to come back to school after a break that was way too short regardless of how long it was. It’s when there’s still no sun in the sky and no definable way to spend quality time outside except in the dark. It’s when all the good holidays have come and passed and there is not really anything to look forward to except some nebulous summer break or summer vacation that really never happens… It’s a tough time for many, both practically and emotionally. So it shouldn’t really be surprising that this time of year burnout is especially common.

Everyone gets stressed at some point- we all have bad days. But burnout is a little more complicated than that. It takes you from a place of being periodically overwhelmed or tired feeling and pushes you into a whole new ballgame of seemingly unlimited frustration, exhaustion, hopelessness, and disillusionment. Burnout is defined as emotional, mental, and physical stress caused by excessive and prolonged stress.

Sadly, burnout is becoming more and more common. More and more, people don’t know how to actually deal with the expectations they’ve put on themselves in their workplace or even in their lives.

I’ve been trying to study this topic for awhile and don’t know if I’m getting anywhere. Do you actually know how to get rid of burnout in your life? One podcast I watched had the employer change the way that the work day operated. She changed up work hours, created spaces at work to de-stress and set up ways to show employers they were valued. Excellent idea! But what about for the rest of normal people who work at places whose employer probably doesn’t actually care about burnout?

There are numerous strategies for overcoming burnout. Many suggest to add on simple stress relieving activities- add exercise, try a new hobby, learn to color. Others focus on restricting activities- learning to say no to things, setting limits at work, not working on things at home, or even quitting your job. And the ever popular back up but not too often cited in articles- get over it. Stop complaining, and deal! There’s a lot of great stress reducing articles that do help you reframe your way of life and your priorities.

What’s the problem with all of this? It’s a plan to “do” more things. Set up more time, restructure your life, add this vacation type, etc. Eat these foods, go to these places, add on these classes. Our culture is exceptional at doing things, but very poor at curing things. In function, these change things in the moment, but far too often these all simply become great distracting opportunities. And- don’t get me wrong- sometimes can refocus and help immensely. But if the initial problem was an overwhelming workload, how would I fix that with yet another activity to add to my list of things to do?

First time I burned out was in residency. Know what I did? Changed absolutely nothing. Why? Because it was either quit my job or deal. I’d just spent the last eight years working to get into medicine, seemed like a waste to give up on it that quickly, so I didn’t. I stayed. I continued the poor lifestyle I was already living and the counseling lessons I was already receiving. And you know what? It went away. For awhile. But nothing that you bury stays buried forever.

Second time I burned out I did actually quit my job. I sat at home watching tv for many months waiting for things to get better. Took a ballet class. Journaled and wrote songs. Did all the right stuff. But it wouldn’t go away. I was not working but I was completely exhausted. And though I could literally do anything I wanted, I couldn’t make myself care enough to try. Well, the first step was actually admitting I had a problem. Admitting that my life was not normal and I must be doing something wrong. Admit that instead of creating new to do lists, I needed to dig deeper and explore where my dissatisfaction was coming from. Admit that anything new I started was going to return me again to the same finish line. And admit that perhaps burnout was not a necessity but an enemy. What do you think? Is burnout an inevitability, or is there another way?

In a culture where work is a religion, burnout can be a crisis of faith. Jennifer Senior.