Everyone has bad days at work, even those who love their jobs. On the other hand, if the bad days outnumber the good to the point where you dread even going to work, you might have a problem with office burnout. Office burnout is a kind of work-related chronic stress, and it affects more people than you might realize in ways that you might not expect. Some of the symptoms of office burnout include feeling exhausted at the end of a workday, a general feeling of cynicism and detachment from coworkers and clients, and a feeling of extreme dissatisfaction with your job. It’s a feeling that creeps in slowly over time, so slowly that many people are unaware they are being affected by it.
What Causes Office Burnout?
There are many things that can cause office burnout. They vary from person to person and job to job, but some of the more common causes include:
- A lack of control over your job duties and schedule
- A toxic work culture full of hostile coworkers or disrespectful managers
- Poor work-life balance
- Overworking and being overly-engaged with your job
In short, anything that might make you miserable at your job can lead to burnout, and it can have a serious effect on your overall health as well as your attitude about work. Some of the more obvious effects include depression, anxiety, fatigue, and irritability, but burnout can also increase your likelihood of developing heart disease, respiratory problems, high blood pressure, and type 2 diabetes. Isolation from friends and family, substance abuse, and even poor financial management have also been linked to office burnout.
What You Can Do
Even if you love your job and couldn’t imagine doing anything else, you will experience burnout at some point in your career. The best way to combat it is to identify when you are feeling burnt out. If you find yourself feeling stressed out at the end of a workday or you’re dreading even going to work at all, ask yourself why and what you can do to fight these feelings. It could be that you just need validation that what you are doing matters to your company, or it could be that you need to find a hobby that distracts you when you’re not working. It could be that you just need to take some time off and put any vacation time you have to good use. If it turns out that you can’t handle working at your job any longer, you might be due for a career change.
In any event, there may not be any way to prevent feeling burnt out on your job at least once in a while, but you can listen to yourself and know when it’s time to make some changes in your life. You know yourself and what you can handle on the job better than anyone else, and it’s time to put that knowledge to good use.