Signs You Are Burning Out (And What to Do About It)

Working hard is one of the key ingredients to being successful, but burning yourself out while you are at it won’t take you far. Here are signs you are burning out

Although climbing the corporate ladder or running a successful business is not impossible, especially for the millennial, it’s not easy at all. It needs so much drive, dedication, passion and hard work. As we are almost half-way into 2018 have you ticked off your careers goals? Or are you already too exhausted to look forward to another day at work?  According to an Ipsos Global and Reuters study published in 2014, South Africa is one of the nations of workaholics and found that 53% of South Africans don’t take their annual leave. Statistics South Africa also found that employee absenteeism costs the South African economy between R12 billion and 16bn annually, a large portion of which can be attributed to workplace stress, burn-out, and employee ill health.

According to Pyschology.com burnout is a state of chronic stress that leads to, physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism and detachment,feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment. While hard work is honourable and inspiring, it’s also important to break this cycle of overworking yourself as this results in you being an unhappy and unproductive employee. Yes, we have the same hours in a day as overachievers like Beyonce but your health and wellbeing should come first. Here are five signs you are heading for a burnout:

• You are always exhausted: If you feel a lack energy and feel physically and emotionally exhausted, drained, and depleted even after a good night’s sleep it’s not a good sign. If you also feel a sense of dread for going to work than it’s a sign you must tick off.
• You are slacking off your job performance: If you notice that your job performance has dipped from when you started off this year than you might be overworking yourself.
• You are always negative: While we get bad days that make us grumpy and negative it’s not normal to constantly slip into negative thoughts and not feeling like anything matters anymore. If you trace that you have been more pessimistic for a while, it’s not a good sign.
• You are constantly sick: Physical exhaustion does affect your immune system, making you susceptible to illnesses and other immune-related medical problems.
• You indulge in unhealthy habits: Some people deal with stress in unhealthy ways, like abusing alcohol, smoking, not getting enough sleep or always eating junk food. This lifestyle does have long-term health effects that will eventually affect your job.

What to do next:

Experiencing burn out will have serious consequences if you don’t do anything about it. Here’s how to unplug:

• Disconnect from technology: Leave work for the next day when you knock off, and make sure you knock off on time. Switch off your cell phone, stay away from social media and don’t touch your laptop in the evenings.
• Don’t compromise on rest: Finding something that relaxes you, either music or meditating during the week. Also, prioritise at least one weekend in a month to rest.
•  Learn to say no: If external pressures take their toll on you, learn to say no until you recuperate.

Additional source: iol.com

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