What’s fuelling your burnout? Feeling exhausted? Perhaps even a little cynical where work is concerned? You could be suffering from burnout syndrome. A common response to stress, burnout is characterised by a variety of dimensions from fatigue, demotivation, frustration, cynicism and ultimately, reduced efficacy. So what, exactly, is fuelling your burnout?

The Beginnings Of Burnout

It isn’t a new phenomenon, Graham Greene wrote about it during the 60s in ‘A Burnout Case’ as a result the term was later coined in the context of employee burnout by psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. It’s firmly part and parcel of  corporate landscape now with employees increasingly being asked to do more with less.

Montero Marin at the University of Zaragoza identified three types of burnout. In a study of 429 university workers in a variety of occupations ranging from administration to research, the study identified 3 separate subtypes;

What’s Your Type?

1. Boredom. This type of stress stems from lack of challenge. When employees aren’t stretched they’re unable to get into a state of flow, or optimum performance, stifling their development and their motivation. If you find yourself using avoidance as a coping strategy and complaining about your organisation on a regular basis, the research suggests this could be your burnout type. Leaving you feeling like giving up. boredom is fuelling your burnout fire.
2. Overload. This subtype is characterised by frenetic behaviour. You find yourself doing, doing, doing with a constant mental ‘To do’ list. Your coping strategy is to keep working until you’re exhausted in the belief that you’ll somehow make headway. You’re overloaded by stress and feel cynical due to the lack of support you receive. You may feel that your organisation is limiting you. Excessive workload is fuelling your burnout.
3. Worn Out. In this subtype when you’re faced with stress, you give up. It’s all just too overwhelming. The will to achieve is there but you lack motivation to get started in the onslaught of stress. If this is your subtype you may feel badly let down by your organisation. You’ve simply had enough and that is fuelling your stress.

What’s Fuelling Your Organisation’s Risk of Burnout?

Now you know what’s fuelling your individual burnout, lets take a look at your organisation. Maslach, Schaufel and Leiter identified 6 organisational risk factors that increase the likelihood of burnout.

1. Mismatch in workload
2. Mismatch in control
3. Lack of appropriate rewards
4. Loss of sense of positive connection with others
5. Perceived lack of fairness
6. Conflict with values

If the causes of burnout are multi factorial, how can you begin to combat it?

Beating Burnout

If you’re a leader, the starting point is your organisational culture. Here’s our checklist to guide your stress audit;

• Do you have a wellbeing strategy?
• Do staff have a healthy approach to work life balance and is this modelled by your leadership team?
• Are your people micromanaged or given the autonomy to carry out their role?
• Do you model your values or is there a disconnect? Do you need to revisit your strategy, policies, procedures and actions?

If you’ve identified that you’re on the way to being stressed, find a way to reduce your stress levels by;

• Practising mindfulness (see our mindfulness resources on this site)
• Consider Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) sessions. Talk to your GP who will be able to recommend a therapist.
• Reflect upon whether your values are in alignment with your role. Is your current role what you feel drawn to as a profession or is something else calling you?
• Check your work – life balance is where you want it to be. If it isn’t take the necessary steps to address the areas that need work. Cut back on your hours, take lunch breaks and make sure you create time for friends, family and a life outside of work.