How not to burn out … emotionally

When 29-year-old Olga was offered to head the marketing department in a large Russian holding, she agreed without hesitation: “For me, this was a test of creativity and professionalism – such a chance is given once in a lifetime. The work captured me completely – it seemed that even in a dream I continued to think about the promotion of new products, and on weekends I often stopped by the office to work in silence.

However, after a couple of months, Olga began to notice: much of what used to cause her excitement now tires and annoys her. “By the evening I was falling down, and in the morning I got up just as tired and did not recover over the weekend. But what is most unpleasant is that in the midst of an important meeting, I felt completely alienated: it seemed as if everything was not happening to me and had no meaning.

The sensations described by Olga are not unique: according to the polling company Harris Interactive, 47% of successful professionals feel similar symptoms.

“At the height of their interest in work, they have a strange indifference and even a desire to turn around and leave,” says psychotherapist Ekaterina Mikhailova. “The doctor wants to put down the scalpel in the middle of the operation, and the teacher has a fantasy: to skip today … If this feeling is repeated again and again, the professional discovers that yesterday it was important for him to do well, today it becomes indifferent and, moreover, begins to repel” .

This condition is called “burnout syndrome”: among its signs are chronic fatigue, a drop in efficiency and interest in work, an indifferent and even aggressively irritated attitude towards what you do and towards your colleagues. A person suffering from burnout constantly feels his own inadequacy and the excessive demands placed on him.

Sometimes this syndrome manifests itself bodily. “I was sure that I had gastritis,” says 42-year-old Anatoly. Every morning started with nausea and pain in the stomach. However, medical examinations showed that everything was in order with the stomach. And later I noticed: the stomach hurts only on weekdays – on weekends I feel fine.

Crisis of Faith

The term “emotional burnout” was first used by the American psychotherapist Herbert Freudenberger in 1974. His article “Personnel Burnout”¹, investigating the causes of mental and physical exhaustion of drug treatment clinic workers, became the starting point in the study of this phenomenon.

It seemed that people in helping professions, such as doctors, nurses, social workers, and teachers, suffered the most from burnout. Immersed in communication with dozens of patients, clients and students, they experience the strongest emotional stress and often unexpectedly notice that sympathy and empathy are replaced by apathy, irritation and a sense of the futility of their own efforts.

But no less than doctors or teachers, bank workers and entrepreneurs, programmers and students, engineers and scientists suffer from emotional burnout – in a word, all those who put a lot of effort into their work and devote a lot of time to it.

“Emotional burnout is a sign that there is a hidden conflict between work (or some aspect of it) and our personal attitudes,” explains existential psychotherapist Svetlana Krivtsova. “Intellectually, we understand that work is very important, and we live in accordance with this belief.

However, the symptoms of burnout suggest: in fact, we need something else, our current occupation is not worth wasting your only life … And this can happen to a person of any specialty, if work as a process does not give him something really important for his personality , for his self.”

In other words, if we compare the work of religion – which, in essence, is happening in modern society – then the burnout syndrome can be compared to a crisis of faith.

The temptation to do more

Emotional burnout is subject to each of us. Australian researchers Mark Pierce and Geoffrey Molloy proved that the rate of “burning” is not related to education, intelligence, or even wages.

Sensitive and emotional people notice its symptoms earlier, but the intensity of the process does not depend on either mental organization or personal history.². The only thing that matters is the situation at work and our attitude towards it.

Hardly the first cause of burnout is overload. “People who have few jobs may complain of boredom,” says American psychotherapist Christina Maslach, “but they don’t suffer from burnout syndrome.”

However, often overload is not at all an obligatory attribute of our activity – in many cases we ourselves take on unbearable responsibility.

“A paradoxical situation arises: the more exhausted we feel, the more cases we strive to hang on ourselves,” notes Svetlana Krivtsova. “Trapped in guilt for being ‘dishonest’, we try to make up for our lack of enthusiasm with the amount of work, continuing to increase the workload until it becomes unbearable.”

Resist the temptation to “do more” is really very difficult. “The state when a person constantly thinks only about work is one of the symptoms of incipient emotional burnout,” explains Ekaterina Mikhailova. – The trouble is that this state does not immediately begin to be felt as uncomfortable – that’s why it is insidious. If work becomes a drug, then the prognosis is disappointing: like any drug addict, such a person will constantly increase the dose.

However, a large amount of work is not the only cause of burnout. It may also be related to our attitude to work: the risk of burnout is significantly higher for those who are sure that they must always be restrained, have no right to make mistakes and are obliged to serve as an example for colleagues.

No less dangerous is the situation in which we constantly feel that we are underestimated, that our efforts do not lead to a meaningful goal, and we cannot change the situation in any way. “We feel irritation, anger and aggression,” comments Christina Maslach, “and most often they contribute to the development of a cynical attitude to work.”

Unjustified expectations are manifested in the fact that a person becomes harsh in communication, constantly criticizes superiors and belittles the significance of the work itself.

“At some point, it became clear to me that nothing in my company would change,” says 36-year-old Ksenia. – It was as if something clicked inside me – somehow everything immediately became uninteresting to me. I didn’t even hide my attitude to work – I spoke about its stupidity, ridiculed the director’s instructions and thought: “I will do what you want, because you pay me. But don’t expect me to be interested.”

At the same time, those of us who work in a benevolent atmosphere among like-minded people sometimes “burn out”. “If we isolate ourselves from the outside world, spending all the time either at work or in friendly communication with colleagues, we risk burnout, and not alone, but as a whole department, editorial office or laboratory,” adds Ekaterina Mikhailova. “Therefore, immersion in a reality where there are only colleagues is dangerous.”

Herald of change

Faced with the symptoms of burnout, many feel they cannot cope without drastic measures.

“I felt such hatred for these numbers, these mandatory suits and ties, these meetings,” says 31-year-old Igor, an investment bank employee, “that my only desire was not just to quit – I wanted to forget that finance exists in the world at all” .

However, by changing the field of activity or simply changing jobs, we risk losing too much – after all, we have already invested a lot of effort in a career in this area, which will turn out to be in vain. And then, where are the guarantees that the same thing will not await us in a new place?

Burnout syndrome is not a danger that lies in wait for every professional, but an encrypted signal through which our deep “I” tries to communicate its problems. By delving into the meaning of this message, we can understand a lot about ourselves and find a balance between formal success and our authenticity.

And the first step on this path should be … rest. “Give yourself the opportunity to take a break,” advises Svetlana Krivtsova. – Take at least a week of vacation and devote it only to yourself: take care of your body, walk, meditate. After this period, you will be able to better understand what exactly exhausted your strength. You may find that it is not the work itself that gets tired, but the long road to it. Or that you are not satisfied with the number of job responsibilities that you have shouldered and which in reality can be delegated to one of your colleagues.

Another good way to deal with burnout is to change jobs temporarily. “Study helps a lot – try to learn a foreign language, master a new skill, or just improve your skills,” recommends Ekaterina Mikhailova. – Any apprenticeship allows you to feel that the world around is far from exhausted by a narrow working framework. In addition, the position of the student allows you to satisfy the natural human need to receive, and not just give.

In other words, emotional burnout is not the final sentence, but only a stage of professional and personal growth.

“If we talk about mature, accomplished professionals, then they “burned out”, and more than once, says Ekaterina Mikhailova. – This does not mean that after the first time only coals remained from them – people are recovering. But at another stage in life, warning signs may reappear. They are the messengers of the fact that a person is ripe for growth, for development, that changes are asked for in his life.

¹ H. Freudenberger «Staff Burnout». Journal of Social Issues, 1974, vol. 30.

² М. Pierce, G. Molloy «Relations between School Type, Occupational Stress, Role Perceptions and Social Support». Australian Journal of Education, 1990, vol. 34.