INTERVIEW – Marc Blom, psychiatrist and member of the board of directors of the Parnassia Groep (mental health care provider), discusses the subject of burnout. The statistics do not lie, 1 out of 7 Dutch workers experience burnout complaints. But, what is a burnout exactly? How do we recognize complaints? And, even more important, how can we prevent the complaints and thus a burnout?
“There are a lot of definitions for burnout. I describe it as a feeling of overload at work and caused by work. Feeling tired even though you slept well, not able to concentrate well, easily annoyed and having difficulty with handling pressure.The term ‘burnout’, the feeling of being burnt out, not having enough energy to do your work. The feeling of energy loss is the central definition.”
Sounds like a depression and a burnout have the same kind of complaints, how do you distinguish a burnout from a depression?
“Indeed, that is difficult, a depression is an official medical diagnosis and a burnout is not. In general a burnout is based on situational factors, which means you suffer from it at work, but not outside of work. That is the difference with a depression, a depression is everywhere. Because a burnout is work-related, it is not supported by everyone. People think: yeah, he is sick, but then why do I see him gardening?”
There has been done a lot of research concerning burnout complaints in the Netherlands, outcomes suggest different levels of complaints per workfield. For example people in educational jobs suffer from complaints more often than people working in construction. Why is that?
“This is due to a multitude of things, but mostly because these are jobs where you work with people. This means that interactions are complex, especially for groups, which affects your concentration span. Next to that, it also involves the perceived workload and the difficulty to escape from that. People in work fields like education or health have double, or even triple work: they have a job, responsibility for their children and they sometimes take care of their parents. A lot of caring responsibilities and almost no time for themselves. It can not be a coincidence that these are fields that have to face changes from the government as well. An increasing regulatory pressure. The feeling of alienation, feeling you are not doing what is important, can also contribute to the feelings of a burnout. So for most people it is an interplay of different factors, individual and societal.”
Nowadays we hear a lot about burnouts: is it a buzzword?
“No, I do not think it is a buzzword, it has been used for 50 years already. However, its definition is poor. In history the same complaints, the same syndrome, gets another name. Now it is called burnout, but the complaints have always been there. So the definition is not a buzzword, but the name is a buzzword.”
So a burnout and burnout complaints are difficult to recognize. How can you recognize it in yourself?
“How much pleasure do you experience going to work? Do you feel tired when you just woke up? Or are you fresh and energized? Do you need the whole weekend to recover from your work? Can you concentrate well? It are small signals creeping in slowly. You carry on endlessly, realizing that calling sick is too late. Unfortunately it takes some time before you recover later…”
In part 2 Marc Blom discusses how you should react on symptoms of a burnout.
Everybody is different. What is relaxing for one person, might cause stress for someone else. Look for a way to relaxe that works for you. You have no idea yet? That is OK, you will eventually, by trying different things! Get inspired by today’s article, where we tell you what we do to prevent and reduce stress.
Babette:
Sharing your worries, mindfulness and taking care of myself, for example by cooking, sleeping, gardening, sports, walking, having sex or going into the sun and nature. Both to reduce and to prevent stress. To prevent stress, I also prepare ‘To-Do’s lists’ to get a good overview and I make sure I have nice things to look forward to. I make sure there is a healthy balance between effort and relaxation.
Tim (Coach):
When I feel stressed, I make time for relaxation. Exercising, meeting friends, an evening on the couch. Everything to shut down the stressful thoughts!
Selin (Coach):
Listening and playing (piano) music helps me to calm down. Also talking about the stress with my parents and friends helps me, to share my ‘worries’ so that I know that I am not alone. And I like to see my friends and and do fun stuff, every cloud has a silver lining!
Sanne (Coach):
I make lists of things I have to do. This gives me a clear overview and satisfies me when I finish a task. When I sum everything up on paper, it is mostly not as bad as it seemed before. If I still feel stressed, I take a break and do something else. Another assignment, a drink, talk or walk or run for awhile.
Paul (Coach):
When I suffer from work-related stress, I like to do my work as good as possible, so I will get rid of the stress. To accomplish this I put on some music that energises me, I take something to drink and I make sure I stop working when I am starting to feel hungry.
Leonid (Web Developer):
When it comes to stress, I believe that it’s better to be prepared for it in advance than trying to cope with it right on the spot when it breaks out. After all, stress is nothing else but my reaction to things that happen to me, so being emotionally stable means being more stress-resistant.
I find creative activities such as making music and drawing to be very helpful. Each time I finish a drawing or a musical piece I feel like I achieved something. That feeling stays with me for a couple of days and it makes work-related problems feel less dreadful.
Another tool under my belt is physical activity. I discovered that an evening walk of 40-60 minutes makes me feel much more in control over my life the next day, and so there is less room left for the workplace stress to crawl into.
Alexander (Marketing):
Stress is mostly the result of a heavy workload. If I am starting to feel pressured, I like to take a step back. Literally, mostly. A little walk, a trip to the supermarket, an extra fitness training. That gives my mind some space, so I can sort things out again.
What also helps me is to shut the world out for awhile: put on my headphones and block a part off my day to finish some tasks. Eating something every three hours helps me to stabilize my energylevel and gives me a moment to relax.
Lisa (final editor):
When life gets too much, I plan a date with my friends to get some stuff off my chest. It feels as a relieve to share your worries. Next to that, I always try to focus on my mental well-being: not only when I experience stress. Sports, dancing, yoga, but also drawing and painting contribute to my resistance against stress. Me time is a must to recharge!
What do you do to relax?
Most people will experience stress quite regularly during their work. This goes for everyone, unregarded your occupation and how many hours you work in a week. A little stress during your work isn’t that serious, you could call that healthy stress. However, when you’ve been experiencing a lot of stress for a long time causing it to impair you in your daily life? Then it would be wise to take action. These tips can help you.
Know your limits
Learn to recognize and protect your limits. It’s important to know where your limits are and to take a step back if you notice that you’ve reached your limit. Keep an eye on physical and mental symptoms after a workday. Symptoms like headaches, dizziness and rumination could be signs of asking too much of yourself. Do you feel one of these starting to rise up? Give yourself a small break and resume your work on a lower tempo.
Let go
Don’t take your work home with you. Is it time to head home? Be sure to deal with your tasks for that day before you leave. This way you prevent to feel the urge or the temptation to finish your work at home. If you do so you will make it much more difficult to relax.
Ensure overview
Before you start making a planning, it’s a good idea to specify what you have to do. Make an overview of all the tasks that you are required to do (including really small tasks). Next, take a look at your overview and determine if the workload is achievable for you. Do you notice that there is too much work for you alone, talk about this with a colleague or with your employer. Use this overview to state priorities when you’re busy making your planning.
Ensure variety
When constructing your planning make sure you mix up different kinds of tasks. Vary between small and big tasks or nice and less pleasant tasks. This way, you achieve being productive in a small period of time. This will boost your motivation and reduces the stress you get from working on a large assignment the whole day.
Schedule time for emails and phonecalls
Keep your mailbox and phone off, schedule periods in which you are ‘online’. If you keep your phone, which gives you notifications frequently, with you the whole day and your laptop keeps noting whenever you receive an e-mail, it is hard to work undisturbed. Put your phone aside and switch the notifications of your e-mail off. Schedule a few moments a day to check your phone and e-mail.
Keep it social
Ensure that someone at your work knows about your personal matters. Initially, it can be very helpful share your story with someone, but it is also important to tell people which consequences this has on your functioning within the workplace.
As always, take care of your health!
Nutrition: Pay attention to what you eat and drink. Can’t get something healthy at work? Prepare your food at home and bring it with you. Do not drink too much coffee at work; limit yourself to up to two cups of coffee a day.
Move: Ensure that you move sufficiently during the day. If you really want to use your breaks to relax, go for a walk with your colleagues. This way you are not only away from your work environment, movement also helps keep your brain active.
Sleep: Provide for enough sleep during the night. If you already experience a lot of stress at work, it’s all the more important that you have a good night’s rest. Not only the duration of your sleep is more important, but, of course, also the quality. Do not keep yourself occupied just before bedtime, but relax and prepare yourself to go to sleep.
Your body is used to stress to some extent. Healthy tension improves performance and keeps you sharp. But, at which point does the stress you experience have negative consequences? Unfortunately, there is no ‘one-size fits all’ list of symptoms. In addition, minor changes in behavior are sometimes difficult to detect, especially in your own behavior. However, there are some things you can keep an eye on.
A combination of (physical) symptoms
Increased complaining, reluctantly towards your work, quickly irritable or less capable of solving problems? These are things we all experience sometimes, and it’s only problematic when it lasts for a longer period of time in combination with various physical and/or psychological complaints. Complaints such as reduced concentration, poor or restless sleep, forgetfulness, various pains: pain in your neck, back or head and feeling stressed may be signs of burnout.
Personality traits
How can two people with the same job and the same workload experience stress so differently? First of all, there is a distinction between the home situation of both individuals, but certain personality characteristics can also play a role. Examples of characteristics of people who are more likely to experience stress are: perfectionism, involvement in others and the work, setting high goals and demands, and perseverance.
Problem management
In addition to the different characteristics, everyone has his own way of dealing with situations. For example, one person can be more of handling problems directly while others want to give it time. One person see the glass half-full and the other person sees it as half-empty. One approach is no better than the other, but the combination of your personality and the way you handle problems can play a role in developing stress.
Therefore, try to keep an eye on how you feel, how you respond to things, and try to analyze how you are in situations. Also, try to keep an eye out for your family, friends or colleagues. You can notice things while the person experiencing these things might not see it yet. Be open and discuss it with each other. Are you having complaints? Then it’s time to take action. It differs per person what you can do best, you may be able to change the situation in which you are. If you do not have a (direct) influence on the situation, try to take (more) time for yourself and your hobbies to release some stress.
Feel like you are experiencing certain complaints for a while already? Then it’s important to discuss your complaints: report it to your employer and/ or go to the GP. You can also get in touch with a coach. Send a request to one of our NiceDay Coaches. We are happy to assist you.
Probably, we all have something that we rather not share with our colleagues. However, it becomes something else when you hide so much of yourself that you can’t be yourself at all.
Home vs work
Some may value privacy higher than others, and there are a lot of people who want to keep work and home strictly separate from each other. Not wanting to take your work home, might be as good as not wanting to take your private life to work. Whatever floats your boat!
Adapting
It is often necessary to adapt to the environment you are in, dress in accordance with the norm, and behave professionally if your work asks for it. That’s the temporarily role you play and there’s basically nothing wrong with that. You just can’t always behave like you’re at home. But apparently, there are limits to what extent you should adjust.
Stigma and prejudice
In the US and the Netherlands, research was conducted involving personal characteristics that are often stigmatized, such as being gay or lesbian, and conditions such as growing up in poverty or experiencing mental or physical illnesses (Newheiser et al., 2017). The researchers found that hiding this type of characteristics results in lower self-esteem, lower job satisfaction, and commitment to work and the organization.
Hide or not?
To be accepted, one often chooses to hide a stigmatized identity. However, this can work counterproductively because the sense of belonging might just be reduced by it. This affects the quality of both the social interaction with colleagues and the organization where one works. The research therefore suggests that openness is in many cases more advantageous for both the stigmatized person and the organization.
Keep it real
There are, of course, things that you better not tell at work, but try to stay as authentic as possible. Wanting to belong to a group and adjust for it, therefore, comes with a price. Unfortunately, not everyone goes together, but that’s okay. Sometimes there’s just no match, or you’re right in each other’s allergy. You can only learn from that, especially about yourself!
