Working professionals have a variety of unique stressors which make them susceptible to workplace burnout. Long hours, meetings, and deadlines can wear an executive thin over time, which can have a direct impact on their quality of life and their professional success. Earlier this year, CNN Money covered the 5 main signs of workplace burnout: having a lack of control over your day-to-day operations, feeling unfairly overlooked or under compensated for your work efforts, experiencing the physical components of stress (neck and back pain, stomach aches, etc.), developing a pessimistic attitude and/or not being as motivated to go to work, and feeling less confident in your capabilities to get the job done. Joe Robinson, a workplace balance expert, described a very accurate component of workplace burnout. He told CNN, “You can barely drag yourself to work every day, and then the work you used to love, you can’t stand the thought of it.”
If not taken care of appropriately, workplace burnout can turn into something more debilitating and long-lasting at times: depression. According to Ipsos, an information and analysis company, 1 in 4 Americans report experiencing anxiety from their work. A study found that even workers who continued to attend work despite having depression experienced lower productivity, a term called presenteeism. Depression can make any professional’s personal life and career plummet, as fatigue, negative thought patterns, feelings of hopelessness and more can take a person away from everything they used to love.
A 2016 study published in the Journal of Clinical Psychology sought to explore the overlap between workplace burnout and depression. A total of 1,386 schoolteachers participated in the study, and researchers assessed them with various survey instruments. Overall, researchers found that not only are workplace burnout and depression correlated, but both were also correlated with 3 other stress-related factors: stressful life events, job adversity, and workplace support. As it turns out, not taking small steps towards handling workplace burnout effectively can really take a toll on your mental health – placing you at risk for further mental health concerns in the long run.
Make the decision to change what you can. If there are certain aspects of your job that are bothering you, see if you can do something different. Find another solution. There’s always another way.
Exhaustion is common by the end of the year, especially when you have been fighting the many effects of trauma which has gone without healing. Now is the time to seek healing and recovery from trauma, addictions, and related mental health issues. Call The Guest House Ocala today for information on our programming, intensives, and residential care: 855-483-7800