Is burnout the 'biggest epidemic'?

 　　If you don't want to go to work, you get irritable when you mention work.

　　The work efficiency is low, and I often think about "fishing" and "emptying".

　　Feeling that the whole person is hollowed out and can't do anything...

　　In normal work and life, if you have the above situation, it means that you may be in a state of burnout. A survey of 1,679 domestic professionals in 2021 found that up to 74.6% of them had varying degrees of burnout. In today's workplace, burnout is becoming more and more common, and has even been called "the worst epidemic."

Fatigue, Apathy and Alienation

　　The concept of job burnout was first proposed by the American psychologist Freudenberger (Freudenberg), which is used to represent the physical and mental exhaustion caused by long-term high-intensity and high-load work. Research shows that the burnout symptoms of different occupational groups are not exactly the same, but generally have the following three dimensions in common.

　　1. Emotional exhaustion: Loss of enthusiasm for work and physical vitality due to excessive fatigue. It often takes a long time to prepare to enter the working state, and work efficiency decreases. The state of burnout may even extend into life, manifesting symptoms such as anxiety, irritability, and insomnia.

　　2. Low sense of achievement: often lose the judgment of one's own work ability, and lack confidence in whether the work can be completed. At the same time, they tend to evaluate themselves negatively and lack the experience of achievement when work is done.

　　3. De-personalization: Indifferent and alienated attitude towards all aspects of work, such as indifference to interpersonal relationships at work, indifference to whether work tasks can be completed, etc.

External Environment and Personal Traits

　　Burnout is not the same as slack. Laziness is the lack of progress and effort caused by laziness, while the lack of enthusiasm and vitality caused by laziness is caused by a variety of social and personal factors.

　　As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the sociologist Weber proposed that the rationality on which human beings survive consists of two different parts—instrumental rationality and value rationality. He pointed out that the most important feature of modern social development is that instrumental rationality overwhelms value rationality. The principle of instrumental rationality is precise calculation and the pursuit of maximum benefit. After Weber, various more efficient systems and tools continued to emerge, and various professional organizations also pursued "meritocracy", ignoring the construction of working conditions and internal atmosphere, and the lack of a sound social security system. Workers generally face excessive external burdens and pressures.

　　Personal cognition and traits affect job burnout from the other side. Everyone is constantly recognizing themselves and the external environment at work. People who feel unfair at work, do not match their own values ​​with the organization’s values, and have high expectations for their work are more likely to experience negative emotions. In addition, people with characteristics such as external attribution, excessive persistence, and poor anti-frustration ability are more difficult to deal with external pressures, and are more likely to consume personal psychological energy at work.

Burnout should not be the norm at work

　　Persistent burnout affects not only work attitudes and productivity, but also a person's physical and mental health. In this regard, social and organizational improvements need to be made, and individuals can also try to respond as follows.

　　1. Gain a sense of control at work The

　　work environment is the most direct external factor in job burnout. To eliminate job burnout, you might start by taking control of your work.

　　First, arrange work reasonably. Prioritize your work items to avoid clutter. Important and urgent work should be concentrated and completed quickly, while less time and flexible arrangements should be allocated for secondary and deferred work. In addition, you can control the work rhythm and maintain a good working condition by setting stage goals and focusing on the combination of work and rest.

　　Second, create a good environment. The work environment includes both physical and interpersonal aspects, both of which affect people's thinking and emotions. To transform the physical environment, you can organize your office area and place a pot of green plants, a landscape photo or a favorite object nearby, so that you can get inadvertent comfort every time you are busy. By improving the interpersonal environment, you can establish good interpersonal relationships with leaders and colleagues, communicate sincerely, and properly handle differences.

　　Finally, perfect career planning. If the above methods don't work, it means that your current job may not match your life goals. Here are a few questions to ask yourself: What do I like? Good at what? What does society need? Are the current difficulties temporary or permanent? Serious thinking about these issues can lead us to find real career interests, and then improve career planning, and choose suitable jobs on this basis.

　　2. Learn to self-adjust

　　To solve of job burnout, it can also be achieved through cognitive, emotional and behavioral self-adjustment.

　　First, analyze whether the belief is reasonable. Not all individual cognitive components of burnout are plausible. Irrational cognitive beliefs typically have three characteristics—absolute requirements (must, must), overgeneralizations (always, all), and terrible (everything is over). We can try to list our beliefs about work and analyze them one by one to find out the unreasonable beliefs and replace them with reasonable beliefs.

　　Second, learn to ease negative emotions. When an individual perceives negative emotions from work, there are a number of methods that can be used to help alleviate it. The key is to accept yourself. Only by admitting that you are not perfect and reconciling yourself can you gain the courage to face reality calmly. In addition, self-suggestion and some common relaxation and catharsis methods are also beneficial, such as stretching, mindfulness, meditation, exercise, etc. A serious self-encouragement, a moment of slow relaxation, and a sweaty exercise can make people feel physically and mentally comfortable.

　　Finally, embrace the moment and enjoy the good. The meaning of life is not only determined by work and future goals, but the beauty in daily life also has its value. Some small things in life, hobbies, etc., can not only divert attention, but also help people rekindle their enthusiasm for life. Try to look up at the blue sky and white clouds, look down to smell the fragrance of flowers, taste the food carefully, etc., immersing in the feelings of this moment is also a healing to the heart.

　　3. Actively seek social support

　　Everyone is not an "isolated island" in society, and good social support is a buffer against stress. In the face of job burnout, we can take the initiative to seek support, such as finding trustworthy people to talk about our troubles, asking for advice from experienced seniors, or actively participating in certain group activities to expand our social circle, all of which can make ourselves feel caring and caring. Encouragement, and then accumulate psychological capital to deal with job burnout.