Top 5 Work Experiences that Lead to Burnout
Watch the video on YouTube or read the blog post on Top 5 Work Dynamics that Lead to Burnout. Download The High Achiever’s Guide To Quality Sleep.
Are you experiencing overwhelm, prolonged frustration, and dissatisfaction in your work environment? Are you wondering whether you may be burned out or want to avoid burning out? Do you find it hard to articulate what you are experiencing in your work environment beyond "I'm so busy. I need a vacation?" Labeling what we are experiencing clarifies how to find a solution. My goal in this post is to provide you just that, clarity on what you may be experiencing in your work environment that leads to feelings of being overwhelmed so you can start orienting yourself towards well-being and success.
In this post, I will go over 5 work-related experiences you may have that, if not addressed, lead to burnout and what you can start doing to orient yourself toward thriving. The road to burnout is different for everybody, and it's multifaceted, and healing from it is multi-dimensional. While this post does not cover all the root causes of burnout, it will help create awareness of the main contributors in your working environment.
I have always been very passionate, and doing my best has always been my default mode in my personal and professional life. As people who are highly motivated by providing excellent service to our employers and clients and are goal-oriented, we can easily have blind spots burning us out. The drive to succeed, no matter what, and the challenge-loving personality trait are both a blessing and a curse. Awareness of what situations cause our experience of overwhelm removes the blind spots. It puts us into the driver's seat so we can be and do our best without burning out.
The "Too Much" Default
When we think of burnout, we typically start clumping our experience into one giant bucket of too much work. You experience a cocktail mix of feeling overwhelmed, frustrated, and dissatisfied that eventually turns into a state of drain. Yet, we need to figure out how to really talk about it so we can start discharging that energy and transforming it into something positive.
We typically deal with being overwhelmed by taking time off, going on vacation, or even switching jobs, thinking things will be different once we return. However, when the vacation high and new job excitement wears off, we start experiencing the same cocktail of emotions as before, and eventually, that build-up can result in a severe state of burnout.
The first place to start is identifying the root cause of your feeling overwhelmed at work. The root problems can be generally traced back and categorized into three buckets.
Unsatisfying Work
Have you ever taken on a project and you didn't believe in its mission or value? Did you start off strong, but you find yourself really struggling to stay motivated? Or it just takes too much effort to contribute in a meaningful way? You are likely thinking that you need to push yourself and try harder. However, if your work is misaligned with what you find meaningful or does not align with your personal values, over time, you are going to experience symptoms of burnout. And that's because it takes a lot more mental energy to push ourselves to contribute. Meanwhile, the energy we expend on things that we find meaningful is reciprocal and energizing in and of itself. You add to that the everyday challenges of life and deadlines of completing goals and projects, and you will start getting drained very quickly.
A quick solution here is to take inventory of your personal values and see if you can find an overlap with your current work environment. If yes, that will be energizing enough until you start getting to work on projects that are a better fit. We often take on values from what we think they should be or adopt them from our work environments. In some cases, they overlap very well, but in cases where we feel like we are pushing too hard, there could be a mismatch in our personal values.
Insufficient Support
Have you ever been promoted or given that dream client or project and felt elated and hopeful? Only to find that the initial bliss quickly fades over time as you realize there is insufficient clarity around goals. The goals constantly shift, and you don't get that dopamine hit of success. In this type, the expectations are unrealistic. Yet, you initially feel up for the challenge but, over time, find yourself needing more resources to do what needs to be done to reach the goals meaningfully. That environment can be incredibly draining over time because it feels possible but overwhelming, and those of us who burn out tend to have our hyper-responsibility activated, resulting in not wanting to give up. Pair with a lack of boundary-setting skills, and it's a recipe for burnout.
What's needed when goals are unclear or shifting is the first recognition that that is what's happening. After that, create your own measures of success based on what is realistic to you so you can validate and acknowledge yourself. In the case of unrealistic expectations, beautiful boundaries come into place, and they need to be communicated with clarity, grace, and confidence. Those who burn out have issues with that because we feel it's on us to perform regardless of support, and we burn ourselves out trying to figure out how.
Relational Conflicts
We are relational beings and wired for connection. We can experience a sense of fulfillment and connection through our work relationships and the opposite. Most of us have, at one point or another, experienced an unhealthy work relationship and know how draining and anxiety-provoking it can be, especially if it is with a higher-up. You may feel unwelcomed, blamed for things you didn't know were yours to do, belittled, invalidated, or made to feel like your contributions don't matter. Relational issues, by far, can be the most stressful and draining mentally and emotionally.
Are there people who are causing distress? Have you done your part to connect and resolve any issues? The biggest protector from relational burnout, if you choose to stay in that work environment, will be to develop boundary-setting solid skills and communicate them with grace and skill so you can keep your attention on what's most important.
Underchallanged
Are you working in a role that you are overqualified for? You may have been promoted but still do tasks from your previous role. Or you took on a role in a different industry that you are overqualified for. If you are not feeling challenged in a healthy way, you will experience a drain that comes from "rusting out." It's the opposite of overwork, but it still harms your energy and well-being. We all have a core need for growth and contribution; if that need is not met, we will experience deep satisfaction, which will contribute to burnout over a prolonged period.
A quick fix is first to acknowledge that that's happening and ask yourself what will help you grow. What level do you aspire to, and can you integrate that into your current workplace? If there is no opportunity for a more challenging project for you at your current place of work, can you start to do it as a side hustle? The important thing is to recognize that this is the circumstance you are finding yourself in and look for a growth opportunity and not settle.
Insufficient Rest
This is the most common type of situation we find ourselves in. We take on too much, and it feels like you are speeding on a highway with no exit. Are you working on multiple projects with competing priorities? You work harder and harder because you are chasing the feeling of success. And even if you achieve some of it, it ends up short-lived because we don't give ourselves permission to rest and internalize success, or our attention is hijacked onto the next thing. We don't have the opportunity to, or we choose not to stop and revel in the fruits of our labor. Taking time to rest, absorb the success, and receive the goodness is energizing. Too many of us believe that rest is an award for hard work when it's a prerequisite for high performance.
It is time to start prioritizing rest and receiving joy, the fuel of abundant energy. At the end of the day and each week, consciously consider what you have accomplished and validate yourself. Too often, we wait for outside validation to feel good when, in reality, the little positive attention you give yourself is potent enough to equilibrate some of the overwhelm. Many people who burn out experience multiple scenarios above. The more awareness we have, the more power we gain to make positive changes.
If you are experiencing the dread of burnout, it's likely taking a toll on your sleep quality. If you want to improve your self-care practice, you will love the resource I created, The High Achievers Guide to Quality Sleep, which you can download here.
