Learn Before The Burn

The potential for job burnout looms large.

The problem is that employer and employee expectations do not always align. The more we do, the more we can be expected to do.

Quite often, though, that expectation is self-imposed. We are guilty of putting pressure on ourselves. Spending time and effort looking over our shoulder in the workplace continually searching for imagined threats is not only counter-productive but potentially dangerous.

Our emotional and physical capacity has its limits and it’s important to know where those limits sit and avoid exceeding them.

That’s not to suggest that recovery from burnout is an impossibility. Far better though to recognise the threat and its potential ramifications earlier and do something about it.

Common signs of burnout include stress and low job satisfaction. Irritability and anger are also in the picture along with frustration and a feeling of being overwhelmed.

Too often we expect more of ourselves in the workplace than our employers and work colleagues expect of us. A key missing element here can be kindness. We can often be kinder to those around us than we are to ourselves.

In a bid to avoid the crisis of burnout it’s necessary not only to look around ourselves at our working environment and the pressures it generates but also to look inside ourselves.

Kindness is linked to honesty and both have a strong connection to self care.

Responsibility to ourselves in the first instance is of paramount importance.