9 Ways to Handle Job Stress and Burnout
Last week on the podcast, Savvy Psychologist Dr. Ellen Hendriksen covered the three signs of burnout. This week, by request from listener Liz L. from Boston, we’ll get your fire burning brightly again with nine ways to cope.
In case you missed last week’s episode, we’ll do a quick review: burnout is a state that can affect anyone, but is most prevalent in idealists, strivers, and those who face what’s called effort reward imbalance, which is working your butt off with no appreciation or reward. But it’s not just Comcast customer service reps, meter maids, and air traffic controllers getting burned out; any profession, given a brutal workload and unsupportive environment, can breed burnout.
The three big signs of burnout are emotional exhaustion, reduced accomplishment, and something called depersonalization, which is basically growing bitter and cynical about the people you’re supposed to care enough about to serve.
So what to do about burnout? Before you fantasize about getting arrested just to get some time off work, here are nine ways to rekindle after a bout of burnout.
Tip #1: Start with your body. This is cliché, but take care of yourself. How much wine are you drinking after work? When was the last time you exercised? When was the last time you ate lunch without staring at your computer? Make a decision to skip fast food, get back into exercising, and trade your smartphone for some shuteye.
Tip #2: Identify which of six areas are causing your problems. Decades of burnout research have boiled work problems down to six things:
- Workload: you’re drowning in work and can never catch up; it keeps coming at you like that I Love Lucy episode with the chocolates on the conveyor belt.
- Control: or rather, lack thereof. You feel like you have no agency or choice in your duties, process, or deadlines.
- Rewards: You feel like you’re being exploited. There is little reward to your work, whether in terms of finances, prestige, or positive feedback.
- Fairness: Your work environment is hostile or unjust.
- Community: There’s a lack of support and camaraderie from co-workers and a surplus of backstabbing and mean-spiritedness.
- Values: You work against your conscience or morals, like evicting old ladies or harpooning baby whales.
Once you’ve pinpointed what’s snuffing your fire, try Tip #3: Look to the future. The opposite of job burnout is something called job engagement. So imagine what it would take for you to be engaged. Where would you like to be? What do you envision in a great place to work? How can you feel like you make choices about your work, rather than having them made for you?
Tip #4: Then, try to make a better match. Once you’ve pinpointed the problem(s), have a go at creating a better match. Some problems are intractable, like working against your values or a horrible workplace culture. For that, see Tip #5. But sometimes change is possible. Can you diversify your job description? Transfer to another team or location within the company? Justify hiring an assistant? Make the case for flex time or working from home a day a week? If the problem is social, can you suggest some changes that will help all employees?
Tip #5: If improving your current job doesn’t work, make some big decisions. Be a boss. Make some executive decisions. If making a better match doesn’t work, it might be a sign to look for another job or go back to school.
Tip #6: Shift your expectations. Notice I didn’t say “lower your expectations.” But it’s been shown that burnout is a consequence of a longstanding mismatch between a worker’s expectations and the actual job duties. Unfortunately, the most idealistic among us often fall prey to burnout first. So make some internal changes as well: shift from saving the world to helping those who will let you. Or aim for improvement, not perfection.
Tip #7: Delegate. Hear me out on this one. By “delegate” I don’t mean dump the part of your job you don’t like on the intern. Instead, fight the feeling that you’re the only one who can handle things.
Interestingly, those with a sense of over-responsibility—you think if you want something done right you have to do it yourself–are more vulnerable to burnout. This might be true–your dissertation, your patients–sometimes you are the one in charge. But sometimes things can be delegated. If you’re suspect you’re a little on the over-responsible side, test out delegation and see what happens.
Tip #8: Diversify your time. By the time we burn out, we’ve often become one-dimensional. Life whittles down to work and maybe going to the gym, which we chalk up to “taking care of ourselves” but is really just another duty. Do things you want to do, not just more things you should do. Ask yourself what you used to like to do, and then dust off your hiking boots, your madeleine pan, or your table saw.
Tip #9: This seems too simple, but take your vacation days. And while we’re talking about time off, if you do end up quitting on Friday, try your darndest not to start your next job on Monday. If you can afford it, take some time off to travel, see friends and family, or at least rest: work on your house, read some novels, or play with your kids.
So if you instinctively swipe your work ID to get into your house, test out some of these nine tips. You’ll go from burned out to fanning the flames. 
Weigh in over on the Savvy Psychologist Facebook page!
REFERENCES:
Maslach, C., Jackson, S.E., Leiter, M.P. (1996). MBI: The Maslach Burnout Inventory: Manual. Press CP, Palo Alto.
Maslach, C. (2011). Burnout and engagement in the workplace: New perspectives. European Health Psychologist, 13, 44-47.
Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W.B., & Leiter, M.P. (2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397-422.
Schaufeli, W. B., Leiter, M. P., & Maslach, C. (2009). Burnout: Thirty-five years of research and practice. Career Development International, 14, 204-220.
Image Courtesy of Shutterstock.
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About the Author
Dr. Ellen Hendriksen was the host of the Savvy Psychologist podcast from 2014 to 2019. She is a clinical psychologist at Boston University’s Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders (CARD). She earned her Ph.D. at UCLA and completed her training at Harvard Medical School. Her scientifically-based, zero-judgment approach is regularly featured in Psychology Today, Scientific American, The Huffington Post, and many other media outlets. Her debut book, HOW TO BE YOURSELF: Quiet Your Inner Critic and Rise Above Social Anxiety, was published in March 2018.
