In this article, we’ll tell you how IT specialists can protect themselves from burnout and remain effective at the same time. Today, burnout is neither a fictional illness nor ordinary overwork – it is a real misfortune of the 21st century and a real medical diagnosis according to the World Health Organization.
Burnout harms not only the employees themselves but also the company in which they work. The first and most obvious problem is the loss of productivity. For this reason, UK businesses lose £ 77 million annually, according to studies. And this is not surprising, because an employee prone to burnout is many times slower to cope with his tasks and can cause several major problems due to inattentive mistakes, and simply undermines the spirit of the team with his mood.
The main symptoms of burnout are the following:
- a feeling of exhaustion and devastation;
- increased mental distancing from work, feelings of negativity or cynicism;
- physical ailments, panic attacks, dizziness, constant fatigue;
- increased irritability and pessimism;
- narrowing the circle of friends and seclusion;
- drop in productivity;
- conservatism and fear of innovation;
- decrease in professional efficiency.
Why do people burn out at work
There are many reasons for burnout. Moreover, it happens both in personal life and in professional activities. And today, a pandemic was superimposed on all the main problems of mankind, during which a large number of people were locked at home alone with their everyday life, family and work.
Burnout can have a wide variety of causes. The most common ones are:
- irregular working hours;
- work at night and on weekends;
- the monotony of work and lack of opportunities for growth and development;
- aggressive competitive environment;
- toxic team and environment;
- the presence of constant stress;
- uncertainty.
Keep in mind, that if you do not have the opportunity to get distracted and relax for a long time, it is very easy to catch burnout. The flow of work is endless and it is important to recognize the first signs of an illness in time to save yourself. Of course, it is not always possible to do this. If you are trapped in burnout, the hardest part is realizing and accepting that there is a problem. It is not easy to find a balance, but without it, you will not be able to work efficiently or live well.
Both the psyche and the body hint – the main thing is to grasp this hint in time and immediately force yourself to fall out of the working rut just as much as you need and want. Even if it was not planned, an hour of a walk or a TV show with cocoa in the middle of a hard day’s work will be enough to refresh your motivation and calmly finish tasks.
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