PROFESSIONAL BURNOUT
Summer is finally here!
Time to kick back and enjoy the great outdoors, right?
Or no. Work is crazy and overwhelming. You can’t seem to stay focused and get your work done. How can you plan your day when every decision feels impossible and you keep getting interrupted? Even that summer vacation you’ve been looking forward to is now stressing you out because there’s no way you can finish what you need to get done before you leave. You feel you could break under the pressure any minute.
It’s always been challenging to manage your workload but now your brain seems to have stopped functioning and you’re exhausted. What’s going on? Are you losing it? Is this cognitive decline? Anxiety? ADHD? Burnout?
When the brain reaches its limits
Workplace burnout is a real thing. The important thing to know is that it emerges from a combination of individual and environmental factors. When trying to understand why your brain seems to have gone on vacation early, many explanations can come to mind. A psychologist can help you examine these possibilities and identify the most likely contributors to your professional burnout.
Why now?
One of the most important questions to answer is: “Why is this happening now?” An increase in personal or family responsibilities can sometimes be a trigger for professional burnout due to a disruption in work-life balance. Other people are more likely to experience burnout due to personal characteristics and circumstances. Some of my clients feel guilt and shame linked to their belief that burnout is a personal failing. Indeed, perfectionism – a belief that one must do everything well at all times – is a risk factor for workplace burnout.
Still others may have been functioning in a professional context despite neurodevelopmental challenges, such as attention deficit disorder or autism spectrum disorder. However, they now find themselves struggling with the mental load at work, and having no energy left by the end of the day for other activities.
Role of the workplace
To answer the question “Why now?” requires a close examination of the work environment. After years of successful workplace coping, what can lead a person to experience burnout? Several workplace factors that can contribute to burnout tend to be heightened in the summer months:
· Work overload: Demands on a workplace organization tend to be constant. Yet as colleagues take their summer vacations in turn, the workload gets distributed across fewer workers.
· Poor communication: Conflicts with colleagues or supervisors remain unresolved as coordinating group meetings becomes more difficult
· Lack of support: Workers still on the job have less support from colleagues to accomplish their tasks. Supervisors may be temporarily unavailable for consultation on important decisions
· Replacement supervisors are expected to oversee tasks and projects for which they are not prepared
Getting back on track
A psychological assessment can help to identify when a temporary leave from the workplace could be beneficial to treat professional burnout. Many of my clients contact me while on leave, using this time away from the workplace to reflect on the factors that led to burnout and how to cope with these more effectively. Sometimes this means learning about self-advocacy: Communicating to colleagues and managers what is needed from the workplace environment to maximize your productivity. The perspective of a mental health professional is helpful in making sense of where you are now and where you want to be in the future.
Could burnout be affecting me?
If you feel that your memory, your concentration, or your ability to manage your workload have gotten work, it is best not to jump to conclusions too quickly. A psychological assessment can help you better understand your situation and orient you toward the best interventions.
Neuropsykoski has some appointments remaining for the summer months if you would like to reach out to schedule a psychological assessment.
For more information on professional burnout, see: https://cpa.ca/psychology-works-fact-sheet-workplace-burnout/
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