Dealing with Burnout — The Stages of Burnout

Hey, I’m Paul Krismer, and this week’s video is all about burnout. It’s a horrible word, and we hate the idea of burnout, but there’s all the usual pressures that get to us. You know, child rearing, commuting, and the pressure at work, all that stuff that usually causes burnout. But on top of that, we’re dealing with a pandemic and the economic fallout of a pandemic. And goodness, if you’re anything like me, the last week following the election has been exhausting. And all of these things contribute to a sense of poor well-being, of not doing well, being exhausted. And so this week’s video is going to be all about understanding exactly what burnout is. There’s nuanced levels and degrees of burnout and then some positive psychology strategies for coping with that, so stay tuned.

As a coach, public speaker, and best-selling author, I teach topics just like this one all around the world. So stay tuned, and I’ll give you practical tools that you can use to make both yourself and those around you both happier and more successful. So, burnout is a very interesting, well-researched topic, and positive psychology has some answers for us. And first, let’s get an understanding of just what exactly it is. Usually, we’re talking about a workplace context, but it doesn’t have to be that. It can be other things too, like dealing with the election and the emotional exhaustion that that has brought upon us.

So, burnout is this idea that there’s multiple stages or levels or depths in which we can be suffering. The first one is maybe not quite so serious, where it’s just temporary emotional exhaustion. Imagine a bad day at work, you get in a conflict with somebody, there’s arguments, there’s all kinds of stuff that’s causing pressure. It might be simply the overwhelming volume or pressure in a particular given day. And simply the desire to stay on top of what’s happening in the election, and all the pressure that came from that, and all the ups and downs and too tight and nail-biting, those could be all sources of emotional exhaustion. And in and of themselves, it might not be that big of a deal. It’s the kind of thing where you’d say, you know, get some rest, get a good sleep, have a good visit with a good friend, and talk it through, maybe take a long weekend from work. Those kinds of things may be enough of an intervention to feel like I’ve overcome emotional exhaustion.

The second level of burnout is kind of this sense that we have a lack of efficacy, that our own efforts don’t make a difference anymore, that our work is kind of pointless. And that can be really exhausting in a different kind of way, where every day we show up, and we go like, “What’s the point? Why am I here?” And the third level, more serious still, is when that emotional exhaustion has gone past not only feeling efficacious, that I’m making a difference, but where it’s depersonalized, where the sense that my own values are no longer even being lived out.

And it’s not necessarily that the work itself is something that you don’t value. You might be, you know, a nurse or in some other important helping profession, have got a lot of sense of personal value from the work when it’s not in burnout phase. But when it’s in burnout phase, you just feel like you don’t make any difference. It’s just exhausting. You become cynical that the effort that you’re putting in isn’t making a difference that feeds your own sense of value. And this can be profoundly, profoundly disconcerting. And if we get to that stage where every day we show up and we just are super cynical and can’t imagine how my sense of who I am in the world, my identity, meets up with these tasks that I’m doing, when that happens, it’s bad news.

And it’s often for more serious therapeutic treatment and often for a lot of people, it’s protracted periods of time off work. So, we don’t want to get there. We want to jump in and do something when we’re in those earlier two stages of emotional exhaustion or lack of efficacy. And there’s some general things that will make sense to the listeners, to all of you, when I say, “Here’s ways to address it.” And the main one is creating a set of resources around you that help you to be strong and capable of dealing with the issues as they arise.

You know, strong social support network really helps. Good physical health, so getting exercise, having good nutrition, that’s going to help a lot too. Then there’s also kind of taking those resources even further when you start applying interventions or techniques in your life to help you cope. The number one item here, the best research item for dealing with burnout is mindfulness, and the golden tool to use for more mindfulness is meditation. And when we meditate, we become aware of our feelings. So that way when we say, “Oh gee, I’m feeling exhausted, or I don’t feel like I’ve got any personal efficacy in this task anymore,” that awareness in and of itself is curative. “Oh, I need to do something about this, I need to change my tact at work, talk to my boss, do more self-care, whatever it is,” the meditation and mindfulness is really a key, and in fact, the number one intervention for dealing with the earlier stages of burnout.

But there’s also other interventions like keeping a gratitude list, or just making sure that you’re doing good exercises, things like yoga. And then finally, you should look to your external community resources. “Am I in a safe place? Is the community one that addresses issues of burnout? Are there people at work I can talk to? Are there support groups? And maybe ultimately, should I be employing a therapist? Am I getting the help I need talking through and thinking through this stuff?” And all of these strategies I’ve just given are excellent ways to deal with burnout before it gets bad.

So, if you’re feeling any of those things I described, if you could see yourself in emotional exhaustion or lack of efficacy, or heaven forbid, in that sense of depersonalization between you and the things that you do, well, I sure hope that you can use some of these interventions for your own feeling better. So, that’s all I’ve got for this week. If you liked the video, click the like button. If you want to subscribe to my channel, you get a new video like this every Sunday morning. Thanks for watching. See you next time.