Job Burnout: Reasons, Signs And More

Job burnout happens to employees at least once in their lives; that’s why it’s a prevalent thing.

What’s job burnout?

It’s a mental state where you’re emotionally and physically exhausted. It affects your work productivity and decreases your sense of accomplishment.

Burnout can also affect your personal life and make it harder to do your simple daily tasks.

Maybe you’re wondering about the reasons and signs of burnout. Dr. Job Pro is here today to let you know more about them.

What are some of the reasons behind job burnout?

1- Incompatible reward

When you find out that your hard work doesn’t pay off eventually, you lose the urge to do your job anyway.

Maybe your salary isn’t compatible with the amount of effort you exert. Moreover, your manager may not be appreciating your work.

Also, you may think that your job doesn’t make much change in people’s lives, which makes your self-worth get affected.

2- Increasing work stress

Workload and stress are one of the reasons for job burnout. When you work too much, while not finding time to rest, have a proper meal or get enough sleep.

Your mind and body start to get exhausted and collapse.

3- Being too restricted

It’s disappointing when employees have no control over their work decisions. They tend to feel less excited and invested in their jobs when there are too many restrictions over their work and daily decisions.

4- Unfairness

In some workplaces, employees are not treated fairly. Some of them get recognized and rewarded more than others which causes disappointment and burnout.

It’s also applied to the way of treatment, as some managers tend to be nice to certain employees and ignore the rest.

5- Lack of communication

When employees cannot communicate their problems, concerns, and achievements with their managers, it causes burnout.

For more information, 8 Types of Managers Working with Them Guarantees Taking to The Woods|Drjobpro.com

What are the signs of job burnout?

1- Low work performance

Do you feel negative about the idea of performing a task? Is your performance at work getting worse day by day?

You’re probably experiencing job burnout. It leads you to feel unmotivated about the mere idea of work. Moreover, it causes a lack of concentration and difficulty with doing simple tasks.

Furthermore, job burnout affects your sense of creativity and causes blocks for new ideas if your job requires creativity or critical thinking.

2- Being constantly exhausted

One of the vital signs of job burnout is being constantly exhausted. This exhaustion can be physical or mental.

It happens when your body cannot help you do your simple tasks, your mind cannot even think of the most straightforward ideas, and you feel entirely consumed.

3- Feeling numb about your work

It happens when you don’t care anymore about your work. It doesn’t matter to you if your performance is good or bad. It won’t make a difference if you see your co-workers every day or not.

Sometimes it goes parallel with isolating yourself from other co-workers and creating a considerable distance between you and them.

4- Using unhealthy coping mechanisms

Job burnout may let you use harmful coping mechanisms, which causes poor self-care habits.

Some people go for excessive smoking, drinking caffeine, or eating junk food. Some others do not get enough sleep and miss their meals.

Job burnout lets you be indifferent about your health and self-care.

5- Having unusual physical symptoms

Job burnout doesn’t only affect you mentally or emotionally, but it also affects your physical health.

These symptoms might be headaches, nausea, backache, stomach ache, depression, or digestive issues.

6- Thinking constantly about work

Are you always occupied with the mere idea of work? Can’t you enjoy any other activities because work is constantly on your mind?

You’re probably facing job burnout.

Job burnout causes you to be busy thinking about work even when you’re not working.

7- Having conflicts with people

Job burnout causes you so much frustration, which pushes you to fight and conflict with other people.

You start feeling upset about everything and everyone. You argue about simple problems irrationally.

Furthermore, mental exhaustion and job burnout cause various negative feelings like anger, disappointment, loneliness, and sadness.

8- Feeling unmotivated

Does everything you do represent a huge burden? Do you feel like you want to lay in bed forever? Does the mere idea of work make you feel nauseous and sick?

Lack of motivation is one of the signs of job burnout. It happens when employees aren’t excited about anything anymore. Every day represents a loop of similar tasks for you that have no sense of enjoyment.

Do the previous signs apply to you?

If most of the last symptoms apply to you, you’re probably going through job burnout.  

What should you do about it?

There are specific solutions that would help you get over job burnout. Dr. Job Pro will discuss them in detail in an upcoming article.