Burnout is everywhere at the moment. Podcasts, books, TV interviews and magazine covers are all about identifying, preventing and recovering from the dreaded burnout.
I recently stumbled upon a great interview on the Breakfast show where John Campbell interviewed AUT Professor Jarrod Haar about a survey of 1000 New Zealanders. The results are staggering- 11% of Kiwis reported feeling burnt-out. The Netherlands is at 5%.
Professor Haar’s analogy for burnout really brought the message home for me. He likened burnout to a piece of toast in the toaster. A bit heat and some colour on your toast is good however smoldering black toast that causes the smoke alarm to go off is not.
Burnout leads to:
- Higher job anxiety and depression
- Higher psychological and physical problems
- Poor performance
- Lack of emotional control
- Loss of cognitive function
The good news is that organisations that are more empathetic and are on the lookout for their employees were 300% less likely to have employees who felt burnout.
So, what can you do to prevent burnout?
- Have a Courageous Conversation with your boss and let them know how you’re feeling. You can use the toast metaphor!
- Take a break. Make it longer by adding annual leave to a long weekend.
- Turn off all notifications while you’re on your break. Don’t get sucked back in while you’re recharging your batteries.
- If you feel these won’t work then don’t hesitate to reach out to a professional counselling service like EAP.
Photo by Seriously Low Carb on Unsplash