By taking a few simple steps, you can become immune to work stress and the risk of burnout.
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Ahead of graduation season, Dr. Kandi Wiens, a stress expert at the University of Pennsylvania, warns college graduates looking for jobs to be wary of the “churn-and-burn culture.”
It is well documented that many companies overwork their employees. According to the 2024 Gitnux MarketData report, 44% of U.S. employees say they are overworked, and half of them say their heavy workload increases their work-related stress. The New York Times reports that more than 200 studies over 20 years have shown that grueling working hours lead to diminishing returns in the form of serious health problems, work-related injuries, and decreased productivity. I am doing it. This is a good example. Tesla founder and CEO Elon Musk accused Tesla China employees of treating them like collateral damage when he praised them for “burning oil at 3 a.m.” was accused of.
Wiens points out that 60-, 80-, and even 100-hour work weeks are common at large companies. For example, MarketWatch reports that Elon Musk logs in for up to 120 hours a week, Google’s Marissa Mayer logs in for up to 130 hours a week, and Apple’s Tim Cook emails at 4:30 a.m. Reports that it is sending. Unfortunately, most of the science is too focused on detecting the risk of burnout before it becomes intractable, or on immunizing against burnout, leading to such harsh conditions. The after-effects of time burnout occur.
How to determine your burnout risk level
Being tied to a desk due to overwork can destroy your career, tear apart family ties, and even kill you. Although it is possible to recover from stress using certain management techniques, burnout is caused by the accumulation of unmanaged stress and cannot be quickly resolved once it occurs.
Overworked employees often think that their symptoms will improve if they take paid vacation or vacation, but this is a misconception. You can’t cure burnout by slowing down, taking a sabbatical, or cutting back on your work hours.
The main symptom of burnout is extreme fatigue, which occurs in the form of deep fatigue that cannot be reversed by rest or vacation. Your best bet is to identify your risk of burnout early and avoid it. This allows you to take pre-emptive self-care actions (shown here) before you hit a wall.
The World Health Organization classifies burnout as a medical diagnosis and defines it as “a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from poorly managed chronic stress in the workplace.” Burnout syndrome is diagnosed by three symptoms:
Depletion of energy, feelings of fatigue, fatigue Increased mental distance from work, negative or cynical emotions related to work Reduced professional effectiveness
According to Wiens, an emotional intelligence expert and author of Burnout Immunity: How Emotional Intelligence Can Help You Build Resilience and Heal Your Relationship with Work, the first step to becoming immune to burnout is to , determine your risk level early on before burnout gets out of hand. She suggests asking yourself the following questions: What is the level of stress in your current workplace? Are you stressed, at risk of burnout, at high risk of burnout, or already burnt out? mosquito?
You can also take her Burnout Risk Quiz here to determine your risk. She learns what makes her vulnerable to burnout, and it’s not her boss, her competition, or her seemingly indomitable co-workers, and how to protect herself from a career killer she calls the “global equal opportunity crisis.” Advise them to take measures.
Triggers that lead to burnout
Wiens points out that when the logical brain, the area responsible for problem-solving, decision-making and rational thinking, is triggered, it shuts down. Emotions take over, and adrenaline and cortisol flood us, making it hard to see clearly or make good decisions until the trigger goes away.
“That’s why it’s so important for each of us to be aware of our own unique triggers,” she advises. “Sometimes the cause is obvious because it’s vivid and undeniable, such as your boss yelling at you or someone changing your schedule at the last minute, or because it’s a trigger you’ve lived with for a long time. Others Triggers are more subtle and require more focused attention to identify. Still others are completely unknown to us.”
She points out that it’s possible to identify triggers by working backwards from their results, adding that the trick is to pinpoint the events that trigger workplace stress.
What causes stomach pain? What is something you can never forgive? What is it about your colleague or boss’s behavior that makes you want to scream? Why do you feel unfocused, like your brain is “offline”? Does it make you feel out of control? What causes your confidence to plummet?
She recommends looking back over the past few weeks and looking for events that caused an immediate emotional or physical reaction – a sudden change in thinking or mental state, or a sudden change in behavior.
“Maybe you suddenly feel sad, irritable, irritated, numb, or overwhelmed,” she says. “Or you may have experienced nausea, muscle tension, tremors, or pain. Maybe you’ve had negative feelings or an urge to withdraw. You may have yelled at someone, become passive-aggressive, or cried. All of these automatic reactions indicate that you have been triggered. Once you identify it, work backwards until you can pinpoint what is triggering you.”
Immunity to burnout from exploitative organizations
Wiens said a “churn-and-burn” culture takes advantage of competitive overachievers who habitually overwork and overextend themselves.
“Churn and burn cultures are characterized by low employee engagement metrics, high absenteeism and turnover rates, and high burnout,” she explains. “As word gets out that these organizations are depleting employees left and right, leaders struggle to recruit and retain top talent, reinforcing the cycle of churn and burn culture. In a culture of churn and burn, we often hear of leaders and employees who are so cynical and resistant to change that they either quietly quit or actively try to leave the organization. And sometimes it can even add fuel to the fire.”
According to MarketWatch, the average worker works four hours of unpaid overtime a week and spends an additional four hours just thinking about work. Numerous studies report that employee burnout is on the rise, with 41% of employed Americans currently experiencing post-vacation burnout and 14% experiencing burnout due to fatigue. There is also data showing that they are making mistakes.
Wiens recognizes that new graduates are eager and ready to put in the work, but he urges them to be careful.
“Too many organizations exploit top performers and prey on their enthusiasm. It’s tempting to accept a job offer, especially from a reputable employer, but it’s important to protect your mental health at the start of your career. is important.”
Dr. Wiens found that people who are immune to burnout are able to use emotional intelligence skills to regulate their emotions and stay in control, even in the midst of high-stress situations. I did. “You have the power to decide the best response to stress. It depends on how you view your ability to manage stress,” she argues.
How to protect yourself from stress and burnout
Wiens argues that the more removed you are from yourself, the more likely you are to experience burnout. Your risk of burnout increases in direct proportion to the degree to which your work culture is out of alignment with what you need to thrive and perform at your best. She offers seven tips to avoid burnout.
Be sure to choose a work environment that suits your temperament and personality to avoid burnout. If you’re about to fall victim to the stir and burn culture, remind yourself that it’s not you, it’s your job to burn out. No amount of perfectionism or overwork can change culture for the better. Instead of blaming yourself for not keeping up with the culture, take a closer look at the cultural and environmental conditions that are causing you to feel drained, cynical, and exhausted. Find ways to create physical and mental space from work, such as vacations or sabbaticals, so you can regain perspective and reconnect with what truly matters most to you. If staying with your organization is your best option, consider being willing to make short-term sacrifices to achieve long-term goals. Even if you’ve lived with an overactive amygdala your whole life, learn how to shift from a threat response to a challenge response. With this mindset, you view stress as a beneficial resource rather than a harmful threat. Don’t be part of the problems that contribute to the stir-and-burn cultural climate. Ask yourself, “What am I doing in response to my experience here?” And what are my reactions doing to me and others? ”
