Keeping burn-out at bay

Resilience
Written By Roar! Editor

Words by: Ross McWilliam BA (Hons), M.Sc., PGCE, Dip Man CMI, MHFA England Trainer

In 2020 approximately 17.9m days were lost to anxiety, stress and depression and it costs employers up to £100bn each year (Mental Health First Aid England - MHFA 2020).

This figure has been incrementally increasing year on year, and the pandemic is set to increase further.

So, what exactly is burnout?

It’s generally recognised by…

  • Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

  • Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job

  • Reduced professional efficacy

Burn-out refers specifically the work context and should not be applied to describe experiences in other areas of life.

So, if we have burn-out in the workplace, we may be lacking energy, be exhausted, possess negativity to the workplace (even towards people), and have a reduced ability to perform and achieve results.

So, how do we either avoid burnout, or respond to it when it appears?

It can be difficult, if not impossible, to avoid burnout if we are not aware we are actually experiencing it. Herein lies perhaps the biggest challenge – being aware when we are approaching, and remaining within, burn-out parameters

This lack of awareness is commonly seen in depression where in up to a third of cases, people fail to identify that they are actually depressed. This could also have something to with the stigma associated with it depression, and this stigma could also apply to burn-out.

There may be many other reasons why we are not aware, such as our frame of reference and cultural upbringing which may have made us see burnout as something to be fought and beaten no matter what. Almost like an inherent antipathy towards it, seeing burn-out as a weakness, with resilience as the hero of the day.

Let’s make no mistake about this: resilience can be a great quality in overcoming challenges, but there is a caveat to it. We can be over-resilient individually, and collectively within organisations, where resilience gaps appear in the workforce that results in everyone losing.

Burnout in Women

A second risk factor that affects our ability to withstand burn-out is gender. Women are more susceptible to more and varied mental health conditions. They are represented more highly across conditions like anxiety, depression, self-harm, eating disorders, and OCD.

Some would argue that it is the ability of women to seek support from medical professionals, that makes them appear more readily in mental health statistics, plus women may also be trying harder to prove and justify themselves in the workplace, may have more child-care responsibilities and may even have more elderly parent responsibilities. As such, the potential for more women to develop burn-out is present.

An interesting development within this gender difference has been the impact of the pandemic on the sexes. Stress in both women, and women with children, have significantly increased. Again, this is putting women at greater risk of burn-out.

So, given that burnout is probably more likely as a result of the pandemic, our gender risk factors and our lack of awareness, what can be done proactively and reactively?

The key is recognising “change”

Proactively, being aware of the signs of distress that may lead to burnout is crucial, in ourselves, and in others within the workplace. There are many signs that you may or may not be aware of, but the key word is change.

For example, changes in:

  • Crying

  • Eating

  • Sleeping

  • Anger

  • Avoidance

  • Concentration

  • Memory

  • Irritability

  • Optimism

  • Catastrophising

  • Even exercising

All of the above could give us an early ‘heads up’ that something is not quite right.

If we go back to our original definition of burn-out (disliking of tasks/people and efficacy), burn-out can be manifested in presenteeism – the person being present at work, but not being really present on the task – this can be dangerous immediately, but longer-term, it will clearly affect efficacy.

Once we have noticed the signs, what can we do?

  1. Initially, this can be just talking and listening with a colleague, to afford them the time and space to talk through how they are actually feeling. The ability to just listen, even without fixing something, although seemingly counterintuitive, is a great safe first step that allows the individual the opportunity to express their feelings without judgement.

  2. Speaking to your line manager and HR personnel is often the next step. However, a recent survey by Mental Health First Aid England 2020, found that 69% of HR managers recognised that mental health training is important, but only 13% had received any training about how to implement this across the workforce.

  3. Seeking out private counselling and talking therapies. Linked to this is signposting to other agencies and resources that may involves breathing, visualisation and meditative practices – these may well have an immediate impact in terms of day-to-day well-being.

  4. Latest data from a variety of sources suggest simply getting outdoors every day, especially being in forests, coupled with a little exercise, is very beneficial to our mental psyche.

  5. Other simple steps might be to undertake regular burn-out audits – ie a series of simple questions that give you a temperature gauge reading of how you are feeling such as 1 being low mood, angry, irritable, up to 10 where you are in flow, enjoying life, and even contributing to the success of others.

  6. On a more philosophical note, emotions and circumstances are constantly changing. With change often comes hope. We should always try and generate hope in ourselves and hope in others, as this can often be the catalyst for positive change.

Finally in terms of expectations and rewards, it may serve you well, especially as you transition through work and life, to actually reduce your expectations slightly, and at the same time, reward yourself a little more. This may seem ‘wrong’ but it is a sure way to keep you on the right side of burn-out.

Ross McWilliam is an accredited mental health trainer, wellness, emotional confidence, resilience, communication coach and keynote speaker. His clients include IBM, Santander, HSBC and the NHS, and over the past two years has been the ‘go ‘to’ mental health expert for Granada TV.