Barking Up The Wrong Tree April 17th, 2023 ---------------------------------------------------------------
Before we commence with the festivities, I wanted to thank everyone for helping my new book become a bestseller! To check it out, click [here](. --------------------------------------------------------------- This Is How To Overcome Burnout: 6 Secrets From Research ([Click here]( to read on the blog) It feels like just one more minor inconvenience could tip you over into the abyss. Not so much bad emotions but an erosion of emotions. Reduced energy, enthusiasm and confidence. An incessant buzzing of stress only restrained by exhaustion. Perpetually a half inch from overwhelmed. Life is less meaningful. A negative spiral of not feeling like you can do it, so you do less, which causes more problems that you canât handle, so you do less. Repeat. YEESH, thatâs dark. Your high school guidance counselor didnât cover burnout. And maybe they should have. [According to Gallup]( 76% of employees experience burnout on the job at least sometimes, and 28% say they are burned out "very often" or "always" at work.â And in 2016, [Stanford found]( workplace stress caused $190 billion in health care costs, a staggering 8% of the total. Oh, and it also resulted in 120,000 deaths. Burnout has been with us for a long time, just under different names. Neurasthenia. Melancholia. Nervous breakdowns. Midlife crises. Why havenât we found a solution? What do you, personally, need to do to beat this? Well, thatâs the bad news... Burnout isnât a personal problem. Thereâs no one little change you can make in your life to fix it. Itâs largely an organizational issue. As two of the [leading researchers]( on the topic wrote, âBurnout is not a problem of the people themselves but of the social environment in which people work.â So instead of âitâs not you, itâs meâ, well, itâs not you â itâs them. The company you work for. Iâm usually intensely skeptical of self-serving answers but the literature is pretty clear on this. Itâs not your fault. True burnout is a mismatch between you and the place you work. Iâll spare you the quick, easy âlifehackâ glibness -- in many cases, quitting may be the only way to address it. But letâs not pull the fire alarm just yet. This is the part where things look insurmountable but we have a few surmountings we can try... Weâre going to try to diagnose the situation and see if itâs within your power to change it. Maybe you can alter how you do things or ask your supervisor for help. And then we can decide if itâs truly a fundamental mismatch and you really do need to move on from your corporate dystopia. But first we gotta raise the Veil of Maya on burnout and discover what it is and what it isnât. To try and better understand this exhausting phenomenon Iâve drawn on a wide range of sources: "[The Truth About Burnout]( "[The Harvard Business Review Guide to Beating Burnout]( "[The End of Burnout]( and "[Banishing Burnout]( Wow, thatâs a lot of burnout. I feel like Iâm playing âliterary canary in the coal mine.â (Note to self: the canary usually dies, Eric.) Anyway, letâs get to it... What Is Burnout? We usually just focus on one aspect of burnout: exhaustion. âIf I just work less, Iâll feel better.â Nope. True burnout [is not merely overwork](. It canât be solved by a mere vacation. Burnout has three dimensions intersecting to form a Venn diagram of ugggggghhhh: exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy. Exhaustion is âprofound physical, cognitive, and emotional fatigue.â Youâre beastly tired at all levels and produce much of your work out of exasperation, not inspiration. Cynicism is taking a cold, distant attitude toward your work. Youâve gone from winsome and elfin to sporting a pair of very jaundiced eyes. Itâs an understandable response to not wanting to feel any more disappointment â but the last time you felt anything was a long time ago. In a cruel irony, [studies]( show people who care about what they do are far more likely to burn out. (The career guides never mention that having a calling can be dangerous.) Inefficacy is when every new task comes with a side of overwhelm. And this breeds a loss of confidence in your ability to do anything. A motley rainbow of shame and inadequacy. Stress might cause a fight-or-flight response, but you donât have the energy for either. Sound a lot like depression? Good eye. Back in 1974, psychologist Herbert Freudenberger noted that someone dealing with burnout âlooks, acts and seems depressed.â Youâre not a work saint; youâre a work martyr. Thinking two weeks in Hawaii is gonna fix this is like thinking two Tylenol will fix a brain tumor. Yeah, âwhat doesnât kill you makes you strongerâ, but if the burnout ICBM hits you â you ainât getting stronger. Weâre going to look at the six areas that lead to burnout and see if thereâs a way you can address them or if itâs time for greener pastures. 1) Workload This is what we always think about when it comes to burnout and while itâs not the only factor, itâs a big one. If work mounts in concentric circles and youâre really looking forward to Saturday so you can do things like sleep more than five hours, pee, and cry without anyone noticing -- yeah, thatâs a problem. So find the mismatch between you and the job. Can you resolve this with better planning, prioritizing and delegating? Do you need to stop being a perfectionist? Need to learn the word ânoâ? Do you just need help with [productivity]( [organization]( and [motivation]( If not, you may want to have a conversation with your boss. Is there something they can do? Is it just a tough time⦠or is this simply what the job entails and itâs not a good fit for you? Now sometimes it feels like a workload issue but itâs really an issue of not having enough flexibility... 2) Control Even when the workload is reasonable, if you donât feel you have any say in whatâs going on or feel youâre accountable for things you have zero control over, youâre in mental biohazard territory. Our [brains]( like [control]( and when we donât have any, the stress and anxiety can be too much to deal with. Again, we need to find the mismatch. Are you feeling unnecessarily micromanaged? If youâre truly doing the best job you can, you may want to talk to your supervisor about finding ways to give you more latitude and flexibility. Or, is the job just too intrinsically chaotic for your sanity? In that case: exit, stage left. And now we need to flip things on their head. Maybe you can handle the work just fine but itâs an issue of what youâre getting in return... 3) Reward Yeah, money. You could handle this if they banked the Brinks truck up a bit more often. But reward isnât just an issue of money. When we feel weâre not getting the recognition or fulfillment we deserve, youâre in mismatch territory again. When you bust your hump and no one seems to care, itâs easy to get cynical and start sounding like Eeyore on a bad day. First step is to see if youâre really taking advantage of the rewards that are available. [54% of Americans]( only take half of their eligible vacation time and only 23% take all of the time theyâre entitled to. In 2019, 236 million vacation days expired unused â thatâs over 65 billion dollars in lost benefits. And your company may have other perks youâre just not aware of or not using. Itâs worth checking. More importantly, ask yourself what you need in order to feel better rewarded. (If you have no idea what you want, Iâm pretty sure you wonât get it.) Do you need more interesting assignments? Something new? Do you feel taken for granted and need more recognition? If youâre at wits end, a compensation conversation can be a good litmus test. If your employer doesnât want to give you a [raise]( or [promotion]( maybe itâs time to move on. And now we need to discuss the far darker side of the workplace that nobody likes to talk about... 4) Fairness Favoritism. Dishonesty. Disrespect. Discrimination. If someone treated you this unfairly in your personal life, youâd file a restraining order. A level of mismatch that goes beyond the HR department and seems more suitable for the Hague. Iâll be honest here because nobody else will â this is very tough to change. Weâd all like to think fairness would be the norm on principle but thatâs just not as true as weâd like it to be. If thereâs anything you can do, itâs not pounding your fist. Itâs probably the exact opposite. Whatâs the number one thing Harvard Business School professor Deepak Malhotra tells his students about negotiation? â[They need to like you.]( Thatâs just about the opposite of fair â but it can help get you the results you want. Otherwise, find the door. A lack of fair treatment can grate under your skin like nothing else. You know what else workplaces have? Other people. And they can either save you or sink you... 5) Community Take a moment to consider five people you like and respect at work. And you might respond, âI have zero people I like and respect at work.â If the longest friendship youâve had at work is with your favorite chair, this is a problem. When researching [my latest book]( something blew me away: if you have three friends at work youâre 96 percent more likely to feel happy about your life. To be clear, that result was not âhappy with your jobâ; it was happy with life. Former Harvard researcher [Shawn Achor]( echoed this. He found that people who deal the best with stress increase their social investments when times are tough. Most of us do the opposite. So find the mismatch. Do you just need to put in a little more effort with the people around you? Amazingly, this doesnât just make you feel better, it can even improve your output. Know what the [best predictor of team success]( is? How team members feel about one another. Which relationship matters the most? Yup, [the one with your boss](. If you canât resolve that, you need to be reassigned or move on. And if youâre surrounded by toxic co-workers, same deal. You may pray for a gang of jackals to tear them to shreds at the next staff meeting but donât count on it happening. To paraphrase Stanford professor [Bob Sutton]( âTheyâre not going to become like you, youâre going to become like them.â Run. And, finally, letâs look at the most fundamental issue of them all... 6) Values This may sound high falutinâ but itâs very real and doesnât get enough attention. If your companyâs core values statement makes you burst into spontaneous laughter, thatâs pretty much a blood test for cynicism. So whereâs the mismatch? Is it simply the project youâre working on or the people youâre working with? Or is it more like youâre a teetotaler working for a liquor company? Like the fairness issue, this one runs deep. Please donât tell me youâre holding your breath waiting for the corporation to grow a soul. If you find the formal (or informal) values of your company offensive, put your resume together. Itâll be one of the healthiest things you ever do. Alright, time to round it all up â and weâll cover something that can help if the above didnât, and if quitting just isnât an option... Sum Up Hereâs how to overcome burnout:
- What Is Burnout?: Itâs a mix of exhaustion, cynicism and inefficacy. And it feels a lot like depression. It all comes down to a mismatch between you and the organization you work for. Address the mismatch â or move on.
- Workload: If it feels like death by 1000 notifications, ask yourself if you just need to be more productive or if this is the job.
- Control: Does it feel like a Greek tragedy and youâre at the whim of capricious gods? Do your best and see if you can get more latitude. Youâre not an AI and youâll be miserable if you pretend to be one.
- Reward: Sometimes you can handle the day but not the pay. Or youâre just not being recognized. Think about what you need, if itâs reasonable, and donât be afraid to speak up.
- Fairness: The tough one. They might bend if they like you, but donât expect them to do it simply because itâs the right thing.
- Community: If you can easily envision your co-workers on FBI Most Wanted posters and can imagine your boss saying, âNo, Mr. Bond, I expect you to dieâ, donât leave â flee.
- Values: Resist corporate Stockholm syndrome. Thereâs no negotiating with this one, which is sad, but offers clarity. Youâre not doing the job wrong. Youâre in the wrong place.
So what do you do if some changes donât help but you canât quit? The research shows that work-from-home can really help if itâs an option. A [study]( by Nicholas Bloom at Stanford compared employees in the office vs those working in their PJâs on the sofa. The latter showed 50% less attrition and took fewer sick days. Job satisfaction increased â and so did performance. That said, promotions decreased. It makes sense. WFH definitely addresses control and community. If itâs an option for you, give it a shot. But if itâs time to [find a new job]( donât stress. If youâre dealing with burnout, things are already bad. Itâll likely be the best move you ever make. The researchers said it themselves: itâs not you, itâs the match. And thereâs a better fit out there if you look. You might even snag one of those jobs worth writing to the alumni magazine about. When work life seems as crazy as Saturday morning cartoons, and all your efforts seem as ineffective as Wile E. Coyoteâs ACME products, take a lesson from Bugs Bunny... Paint a new door on the office wall and escape to a better place. ***If you are one of those lovely people who bought "Plays Well With Others" please leave a review on Amazon [here](. Thanks!*** Email Extras Findings from around the internet... + Want to know the personality traits associated with life satisfaction? Click [here](. + Want to know how to avoid heated arguments? Click [here](. + Want to know an easy way to reduce the chance of dementia? Click [here](. + Miss my prior post? Here you go: [This Is How To Deal With Pain: 4 Powerful Secrets From Research](. + Want to know if bosses really do exploit loyal employees? Click [here](. + You read to the end of the email. I hope that's a sign you're not burned out. And thank you for reading. And now, yes -- it's Crackerjack time: Reddit users answer the question, "What's the most cheapskate thing you've ever witnessed someone do?" For the shameless answers, click [here](.
Thanks for reading!
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