Friday, October 08, 2004

Avoiding Burnout

With so many people changing jobs or feeling the "pressure", I thought it would be good to share this article on "burnout". I never thought I would fall prey to this. But after reflecting on my years of residency, I had a bad case of it intern year. I hated the way I felt. I was angry at the notion of a career vested in helping others, was sucking out the humanity in me. Luckily, I prevailed and lost the cynicism cultivated by those circumstances.

Excerpt from article:
How do you know if you, a loved one, or someone who reports to you is suffering from burnout? Here are the early-warning signs.

1. Chronic fatigue - exhaustion, tiredness, a sense of being physically run down
2. Anger at those making demands
3. Self-criticism for putting up with the demands
4. Cynicism, negativity, and irritability
5. A sense of being besieged
6. Exploding easily at seemingly inconsequential things
7. Frequent headaches and gastrointestinal disturbances
8. Weight loss or gain
9. Sleeplessness and depression
10. Shortness of breath
11. Suspiciousness
12. Feelings of helplessness
13. Increased degree of risk taking (I was guilty of this)

Fight burnout. Do what you were designed to do.


4 comments:

guiam said...

i had no idea! how do you avoid or combat this 'burnout'?

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing. I'm definitely guilty of one and twelve.

Diana said...

Someone toss me into burn out rehab. I have all twelve symptoms and then some. Everything hurts or bothers me lately.
My busted foot, i now have a full blown cold from, hell and I have a billion deadlines due and all i want to do is sleep.
I'm in what I call my complain, complain mode. Sorry for the sob story folks.

Aleksu said...

In my last job I was guilty of 1, 4 and 6.

I was supposed to be a coach, I felt like a baby sitter.