HR Director of the Zarplata.ru service Vera Manevich told how to distinguish real burnout from physical fatigue and what will help maintain energy during work. We are publishing an article based on the results of her presentation at the ProductSense conference.
Burnout in the 21st century is the most common reason for changing jobs. It’s convenient to say “I’m burned out”; there’s even a certain trend in this. But so far, many people misunderstand this term and confuse it with various conditions - from ordinary fatigue to depression. Therefore, self-medication and various tools do not always help.
Three types of burnout
The first type of burnout
is when an event occurs for the first time. For example, a child was born, an exam, a deadline or any other first experience is ahead. We don't know how to work with it yet. Tension arises: it seems that we are under pressure, and our strength is already running out. But as soon as the situation changes: the child is with his grandmother, the exam is over, the deadline has not been missed, everything returns to normal. We get enough sleep, exercise and come to our senses. Often in such situations, people do not realize that they were on the verge of emotional burnout. This is a relatively easy case.
Second type of burnout
more difficult: it is associated with the monotony of work that does not end. For example, a sales manager makes the same type of calls, and a product manager looks for hypotheses and sets tasks for designers. It's a chore that can be compared to unloading an endless freight train. One can unload it 40 hours a week, another - 80, and Elon Musk - all 120. At some point, a person thinks: “I like my job, now I’ll push it a little and there will be a jump.” But then the boss comes and says: “Better unload.” And this remark comes with an additional weight on top. The man continues to unload the train, and the weights are piling up. Then the internal tension begins to go off scale, but you still need to move. I think this is familiar to any working person.
The third type is pseudo-burnout.
This is a situation where a person seems to be burnt out, but in reality, he has lost motivation and is disappointed. Twenty-year-old junior-plus developers who come running to me and say: “Vera, I’m burned out!” fall into this category. The team lead runs after them and laments: “My developer is burned out, Vera, he’s going to die! Give him an urgent day off and a week’s vacation!” “Burn out” guys write on Facebook and immediately receive a shock dose of empathy and support. And that's it, they are happy with themselves.
Burnout is a disease
In conventional medicine, we have not used self-medication for a long time, but in the field of psychology - please. Yoga, meditation, time management, and now we are doing great, fighting burnout.In fact, burnout is a disease. Burnout was first recognized as a disease at the World Health Assembly in Geneva in 2020. If a person has real burnout, only a psychiatrist can help him. No everyday methods or business practices will help here. At the same time, people often confuse professional and emotional burnout.
Study, relax and make friends with colleagues
Emotional burnout is most dangerous at the beginning of its development. Many workers are almost unaware of the first symptoms of their condition, but colleagues tend to notice changes in each other's behavior. The sooner emotional burnout is identified, the easier it is to cope with it. However, most patients consult a doctor when they have clearly defined psychosomatic disorders and immunodeficiency of degree II or III. Such patients require serious treatment and rehabilitation measures.
To prevent burnout syndrome, we must remember that the main cause of CMEA is mental fatigue. Preventive measures should be aimed primarily at relieving stress. So, in order not to bring yourself to emotional fatigue, you need to:
Article on the topic
Brain takeaway. Too easy work can also cause you to burn out.
- Study. Regular training helps build professional self-confidence; - Rest properly. For representatives of psychologically dangerous professions, it is important to switch to a new type of activity in their free time, gain new impressions and emotions; — Improve relationships within the team. Any employee needs good relationships with colleagues, because these are the people with whom he spends most of his day. On the part of the administration, in order to preserve the psychological health of its employees, it is possible to use various motivation and reward schemes; — Distribute the load. To avoid overwork, you should schedule your affairs in advance, clearly plan your working day and not leave work until the last minute; - Be simpler - in order not to “burn out at work,” psychologists advise learning to deal with conflicts at work as simply as possible; - Don’t try to be the best always and in everything. Try not to compare yourself with other people and learn to distinguish goals according to their importance and prioritize.
Professional and emotional burnout
Professional burnout
is a process of personality deformation due to workload and stress. For the first time, such a condition was recorded by doctors. Medicine is a field in which specialists must develop every day in order to save people. But mortality and incurability do not disappear anywhere. Doctors improve their skills, increase their expertise, but people still die. Ultimately, this leads to disappointment in the profession. A 2020 study found that one physician commits suicide every day in the United States. This figure is higher than in any other profession.
Emotional burnout
not work related. It extends to all areas of life and is characterized by the fact that a person does not want anything and is deprived of energy. I assume that in the IT field, emotional burnout occurs more often than professional burnout. Because developers don’t deal with administrative routine, don’t write code “on the table” and don’t get paid three kopecks.
Employees most susceptible to burnout syndrome
Professions are different, the level of stress in different jobs is also different. There are professions where professional burnout, unfortunately, is most often just a matter of time and the specific stress resistance of the individual.
The areas of greatest risk include professions that require close interaction with other people, especially when you have to help people in complex, problematic, emotionally difficult situations:
- doctors;
- teachers;
- psychologists;
- social workers;
- emergency workers, etc.
ATTENTION! In fact, SEV can happen to a person in any position. It all depends on the level of stress that a particular psychotype can handle. Emotional, dynamic, energetic workers are more susceptible to burnout than pedantic and thorough ones. And perfectionists are at greatest risk.
How to identify and treat burnout
The good news is that burnout can be treated. First of all, you need to understand your internal state, which is not always associated with burnout. It often happens that the energy that a person expends and receives are not equivalent. And this is a key demotivating moment.
To cure burnout, you need to understand that it is stress. It arises from physical overload and spreads to the psyche. Stress manifests itself in different ways: loss of appetite, poor sleep, decreased tone, and weakness. To determine burnout, you can take the free Boyko test. But it is better to contact a psychiatrist with the results.
Burnout should not be confused with depression. Depression is a disease with similar symptoms, in which the psyche suffers first, and then the physical condition. You can take a free depression self-assessment test.
The table shows the differences between burnout, depression and pseudoburnout. to enlarge.
How to treat
If you are concerned about the symptoms described in the table, you should start by visiting a psychiatrist. It will help you determine what is happening to you.If the burnout phase is deep, you cannot do without medication. Only a psychiatrist can prescribe them. You may also need to consult a psychologist or coach to learn how to manage stress and personal effectiveness.
If you are depressed, you will most likely be prescribed therapy, but a psychologist and coach alone will not help.
Symptoms
Emotional burnout does not occur immediately; it has a fairly long latent period. At first, a person feels that his enthusiasm for responsibilities decreases. I want to do them quickly, but it turns out the opposite - very slowly. This occurs due to the loss of the ability to concentrate attention on what is no longer interesting. Irritability and a feeling of fatigue appear.
Symptoms of emotional burnout can be divided into three groups:
- Physical manifestations:
- chronic fatigue;
- weakness and lethargy in the muscles;
- frequent migraines;
- decreased immunity;
- increased sweating;
- insomnia;
- dizziness and darkening of the eyes;
- “aching” joints and lower back.
The syndrome is often accompanied by loss of appetite or excessive gluttony, which, accordingly, leads to a noticeable change in weight.
- Social and behavioral signs:
- desire for isolation, reducing communication with other people to a minimum;
- avoidance of duties and responsibilities;
- the desire to blame others for one’s own troubles;
- manifestation of anger and envy;
- complaints about life and the fact that you have to work “round the clock”;
- habit of making gloomy forecasts: from bad weather for the next month to global collapse.
In an attempt to escape from the “aggressive” reality or to “cheer up”, a person may start using drugs and alcohol. Or eat high-calorie foods in unlimited quantities.
- Psycho-emotional signs:
- indifference to events happening around;
- lack of self-confidence;
- collapse of personal ideals;
- loss of professional motivation;
- hot temper and dissatisfaction with loved ones;
- constant bad mood.
Mental burnout syndrome, in its clinical picture, is similar to depression. A person experiences deep suffering from a seeming feeling of loneliness and doom. In such a state it is difficult to do anything, to concentrate on something. However, overcoming burnout is much easier than overcoming depression.
Energy Types
For an ordinary person, terms are not so important.
Burnout or pseudo-burnout does not matter. The point is that a person feels bad: there is not enough energy, there is no mood, the tension does not go away. It is believed that a person has different types of energy. They are depicted in different ways, for example, in the form of a pyramid. The base level is the physical energy needed by the body. Emotional energy is drawn from different emotions: both positive and negative. Of course, emotions with a plus sign make us happy. Intellectual energy is the power of the mind. The highest level is spiritual energy, and this is not about religion, but about the meaning of life. If it is missing, other levels of the pyramid can easily collapse.
To diagnose your internal state, you first need to ask yourself a question: how am I feeling?.. Write down the answer in the form of 3-5 sentences. The next question is: am I living a fulfilling life on a scale of 10? The answer to the second question must be sought in those very few sentences. Perhaps you are not pursuing your own goals, but those planted by someone else. Or, for example, you spend too much energy defending yourself from an annoying client or a stubborn manager. You need to maintain a balance of energy and spend enough on yourself, and not on neighbors and relatives.
To globally monitor your condition, use a diary and be honest with yourself. Learn to identify action items: what energizes and depletes you. If you do this exercise consistently, it will be easier to achieve energy balance.
Independent struggle
You can ask your doctor about how to cope with emotional burnout yourself. To prevent the development of the described problem, you need to follow some recommendations:
- Establish social connections. It is necessary to interact with the team, communicate a lot, and try to break out of the vicious circle of responsibilities. Mutual support will help you overcome various difficulties in the workplace. To restore your psycho-emotional state, you can also talk to a psychologist.
- Change your perspective on your life positions. You need to reconsider your professional responsibilities, if possible, distribute the workload evenly among employees.
- Look after yourself. Normalize sleep, eat rationally, exercise, adhere to a healthy lifestyle, and spend more time in the fresh air. Don't take part in unhealthy competition at work. During the week you need to find time for activities that bring pleasure and positive emotions.
The recommendations described above will help to cope with the problem in the initial stages of its development, but if there are persistent changes in the human psyche, it is better to seek help from a qualified specialist.
You need to be in the fresh air at least 2 hours a day
Why does burnout happen?
I think that the underlying causes of burnout lie in the educational system. In the Soviet Union, we were taught that A's are good and D's are bad. Be sure to compare students with each other. At the end of the quarter, the class teacher said: “Excellent students, stand up. Let's give them a clap." “Not excellent students” could only think what was wrong with them. They also pressed with authority: if you fly, then like Gagarin, if you study, then like Lomonosov. We got on the rails of this system and lost ourselves in it. In the summer of 2020, Forbes published an article about the reasons for the burnout of an entire generation.
The second point that provokes burnout is related to interpersonal communications. Everyone knows that feedback is important. For example, I do one-on-one on Mondays. Sometimes, if the situation is stable, you want to skip this conversation. And then it turns out that the person really lacks communication. The main principle here is: you need to feel comfortable in communication.
We managers seem to be constantly learning, but recent studies have shown that we most often use a primitive carrot and stick method. While there are models such as situational management. It allows you to approach a task from the point of view of a person’s resources: is he ready or not.
The third point is balance. If you develop very quickly, absorb a large amount of knowledge and perform new tasks in a short time, this can lead to burnout. At the same time, there are top managers who sit in the same company for eight years and say: “Everything is fine with me, but it seems that I’m burning out.” Everyone has their own comfortable middle; it can only be determined experimentally, periodically “burning” on one side or the other. At the same time, you need to understand that stability is the opposite of development. If you want to grow and maintain balance, you will have to burn yourself a little, but try to do it consciously.
How to deal with burnout
The problem of energy shortage is especially relevant in the IT sector.
Everything here is developing so rapidly that it is appropriate to recall a quote from “Alice Through the Looking Glass”: “You have to run as fast as you can just to stay in place, and to get somewhere, you have to run at least twice as fast!” Therefore, the lack of energy now is the evolution we have come to. It is very fashionable to talk about this. I’ll tell you about the methods of combating burnout that I practice myself.
First method
- do not chase multitasking. There was a period when this quality was necessarily indicated in vacancies. I believe that you need to take on one or two tasks, immerse yourself in them and enjoy the process. This allows you to maintain energy at the desired level.
Second method
- monitor communication hygiene. I avoid communication that does not lead to comfort and development. Vyacheslav Polunin has a great expression: “Only communicate with those you want to hug.” This means that you need to create a comfortable atmosphere around you. For example, sometimes having dinner at your favorite place or buying some things because they contain the necessary energy. But here it is important not to run after trends, but to focus on yourself.
Third method
- ask yourself the question: if I have a day left to live, and I can do anything, what will I spend it on? The answer to this question allows me to understand whether I am moving in the right direction. Sometimes I ask myself this question every day and I like to answer it. This is a realization that I have only just come to: you need to think about yourself first. Because only I can feel my own happiness.
Energy can become a new pattern of efficiency. If we reflect and determine how much resources we have here and now, this will have a positive impact on our work. We need to be responsible for ourselves, because no one else will do it for us. Just take a break from life and be happy.
CMEA among health workers
Emotional burnout among medical workers is a natural phenomenon. The formation of a syndrome in this professional environment is only a matter of time. Why? Working in medicine involves close communication with people who require increased attention and care. This is especially true for specific categories of patients: cancer patients, AIDS carriers, disabled people, patients in burn and trauma centers, mentally ill people. Professions of health workers where the level of burnout is quite high:
- nurses;
- doctors;
- psychiatrists and psychotherapists;
- employees of “heavy” departments.
The need to delve into the situation of each patient leads to the fact that after only a year and a half of work experience, a nurse or a novice doctor feels the first symptoms of burnout. After 3 years, signs of burnout are evident. Among them, the most common manifestations of the syndrome are:
- Overwork due to long working hours and a stressful environment.
- The appearance of concomitant diseases: headaches, psychoses, sleep disorders, disorders of the heart and digestive tract.
- An indifferent attitude towards patients, which gradually develops into openly negative and cynical.
- Disappointment in one's profession and dissatisfaction with one's own professional achievements. Feeling of meaningless activity.
- Aggression, anger, irritation towards oneself and others.
Scientists have found that women are most susceptible to burnout among healthcare workers. Their emotional openness becomes their weak spot. Men behave more distantly, because among them the percentage of carriers of the syndrome is approximately two times lower than among women. Nurses are the most favorable population for the development of emotional burnout. This is due to the specifics of their work and professional employment, and to their personal qualities. It has been established that nurses of three personality types fall into the risk category:
- Pedants. They are characterized by exceptional accuracy, conscientiousness, and a desire for absolute order.
- Demonstrators. Nurses with the mindset of always being at the center of things, ahead of everyone, to be constantly visible.
- Sensitive. Women with open emotions, empathetic, taking everything that happens to heart. Such sensitivity soon leads to self-destruction.
It is typical for carriers of the syndrome to transfer all the negative aspects of their professional activities to their personal lives. Statistics show that this trend leads to either loneliness or divorce. Families where both husband and wife work in medicine suffer especially.
conclusions
- There are three types of burnout: professional, emotional and pseudo-burnout associated with loss of motivation and disappointment.
- True burnout is a disease and needs to be diagnosed early. However, burnout should not be confused with depression. If you are concerned about the symptoms described in the table (section “How to identify burnout”), you should start by visiting a psychiatrist. It will help you determine what is happening to you.
- The causes of burnout often lie in children’s complexes, uncomfortable communication, or an imbalance in personal balance.
- To combat burnout, you first need to spend enough energy on yourself. The ways I can recommend: don’t multitask, monitor communication hygiene, and think more often about your needs and desires.
The ProductSense Product Management Conference is one of the projects of the ProductSense team.
We transcribe reports from our conferences and write articles on them. We thank editor Elena Egina for preparing this article.
