Job Burnout, Who's At Risk and What Are the Symptoms?

Ohio Health Online provide a simple and practical article titled, "Job Burnout, Understanding Symptoms and Taking Action."

The article notes you may be more prone to experience job burnout and at risk  if:

• You identify so strongly with work that you lack a reasonable balance between work and your personal life


• You try to be everything to everyone


• Your job is monotonous


• You feel you have little or no control over your work


• You work in a helping profession, such as health care, counseling, teaching or law enforcement

I want to comment on the first point they mention, identifying so strongly with work.  On our website, we mention the type of clients we work with as being, "highly committed decision-makers with major responsibilities, high expectations and demanding workloads."

"Highly committed" ... men and women who are invested in the organizations they serve and the objectives they are seeking to achieve can become off-balance in taking care of themselves. They can have the temptation to 'sacrifice themselves on the altar of work'. It's easy to miss the point of taking care of your greatest asset ... yourself.

OHO goes on to suggest you ask yourself the following questions that may indicate job burnout signs or symptoms.

• Do you find yourself being more cynical, critical and sarcastic at work?


• Have you lost the ability to experience joy?


• Do you drag yourself into work and have trouble getting started once you arrive?


• Have you become more irritable and less patient with co-workers, customers or clients?


• Do you feel that you face insurmountable barriers at work?


• Do you feel that you lack the energy to be consistently productive?


• Do you no longer feel satisfaction from your achievements?


• Do you have a hard time laughing at yourself?


• Are you tired of your co-workers asking if you're OK?


• Do you feel disillusioned about your job?


• Are you self-medicating — using food, drugs or alcohol — to feel better or to simply not feel?


• Have your sleep habits or appetite changed?


• Are you troubled by unexplained headaches, neck pain or lower back pain?

Good questions. Their first line of attack if you answer yes to many of these questions ... Talk to your supervisor or mentor, or see your doctor or a mental health provider.

Good advice. Rule out medical causes first. Talk with someone about your feelings. Seek professional assistance.

I recommend you read the full article. It provides a good starting point.

Executive Coaching and Self-Reflection

I maintain that executive coaching and self-reflection go together like a hand and glove. Just tonight I read a post from B.J. Hawkins, Making Work-Life Balance Work in Your Entrepreneurial Company. In it he related what I think is a brilliant insight. In talking about his past work life, B.J. related,

"I was working an average of 18 hours a day. A lot of our clients were located in the Caribbean, and flights from the West Coast are long and arduous.

Fortunately, I've engaged for years in a practice of self-reflection, asking trusted advisors to help me see myself as others do. In the early 1990s, their message was clear: I had been paying lip service to a desire for more free time, but my actions were indicating otherwise.

That, in turn, led to a change on my part ..."

The practice of self-reflection. You can either self-reflect and change or take your choice (or not) of several other alternatives ..

• Let market changes wipe you out


• Slip into mediocrity


• Experience burnout


• Have your spouse leave you


• Lose your investment


• Miss out on that promotion to SVP


• Miss company targets


• Have your kids forget your name

Well, you see what I mean. Self-reflection is about gaining clarity. My clients may sometimes be sick to death of me going on about clarity, but they listen and realize that clarity rules. To tell yourself the truth is powerful. To take ownership of those insights and act on them is a downright rocket launch away above and beyond most of the population ... and your peers, and the competition, and the ...

My second encounter this evening with self-reflection:

Someone from Frame of Mind Coaching reminded me about the importance of journaling. From founder Kim Ades,

"Kim designed the Frame of Mind Coaching program to provide her clients with a supportive infrastructure where they could develop the skill of deliberate thought. Kim understands that the single greatest difference between those people who are stratospherically successful and everyone else is their THINKING. She knows that we all have the propensity to shift our thinking and achieve success.

The foundation for creating Frame of Mind Coaching lies in Kim’s ardent belief in journaling as the absolutely most effective and profound vehicle to make substantive and lasting changes in your life and career."

Your greatest means of moving forward is you. Your greatest barrier is you. Think about that. What you think is who you will become. How you work and lead will be a function of how you think.

A little self-reflection may be in order here. Start with a pencil and a piece of paper. It will force you to be more succinct.