You may wake up every morning thinking about everything you have to do at work, and think that all your discomfort is caused by stress. It is true that stress can seriously harm you, but sometimes stress is not the only cause of burnout. There are three different types of burnout and it is difficult to pinpoint a single cause that causes it.
Stress at work is very easy to use, but there are some causes that can cause you to be exhausted.
Job burnout: causes
If you want to improve in your work and feel better in your spirits and your health, then it is a priority that you identify what are the causes that make you suffer from that work exhaustion that hardly lets you live. Here are some of the most common causes of job burnout:
- Lack of control. You may feel that you have a lack of control or dominance in your work. Perhaps they force you to do tasks that do not correspond to you and that exceed your responsibilities, it is possible that you also work many more hours than what is stipulated in your contract or even, that they force you to do unpleasant tasks without asking your opinion first.
- Expectations not met. You may have imagined that your work was in one way but in reality it is in another totally different. Maybe you thought that your tasks were going to be in a certain way and they are different. You may also not feel well treated within your work environment.
- Unstable work. Perhaps your job is dysfunctional and on top of that you have to endure harassment from bosses or colleagues. You may have colleagues who have no scruples and who do not think twice if they have to 'step on' some to pass over others. They ignore your hard work and this leaves you feeling devalued and powerless in the face of so much injustice.
- Values that do not match you. It is possible that you work in a company that acts in a way that does not seem morally correct to you. This will cause you to have cognitive dissonance because you will do things that do not seem right to you, that is, your thoughts and your actions will not go hand in hand.
- Work that does not correspond to your work. It is possible that you have a specific training and that is why you were caught in that job but that the functions that make you perform have nothing to do with what you expected.
- Fast or too slow pace. Perhaps the pace of work in your company is too fast or too slow considering your personality.
- Bad social life. It may be that you do not get along with your colleagues or that the relationships you have with them are poor. This will drain you of energy to make friends outside of your workplace. If you go to work and there is a bad environment, you will feel bad.
Unmotivated: job burnout
If you don't have the motivation to go to work, you are probably suffering from job burnout. This largely depends on the type of job burnout you have. However, the general symptoms of job burnout are relatively easy to spot:
- Cynicism or disappointment at the tasks to be performed.
- Lack of motivation to go to work.
- Irritability with co-workers, clients or bosses.
- Dependence on substances such as food, alcohol, or drugs.
- You only think about the weekend to 'disconnect'.
- You have bad habits when eating or sleeping.
- You feel physical pain that you do not know what they are due to.
Burnout from work can lead to a number of health problems, both physical and mental. There are many health problems due to job burnout. Some of these problems may be obvious, but others are less so and you have to be vigilant in order to improve your physical and mental well-being. What's more, Health problems caused by job burnout are not only mental, they can also be physical illnesses:
- Stress
- Chronic Fatigue
- Sleep problems
- Problems with interpersonal relationships
- Depression
- Panic attacks
- Anxiety
- Alcohol abuse
- Heart problems
- Cholesterol
- Type 2 diabetes
- Obesity
- Weaker immune system
Once you take all this into account, you can identify if you have job burnout and take a remedy to improve your quality of life, both in your physical and mental health.