Dealing with Job Burnout

Article from ADMIN 84/2024

By Ken Hess

Job burnout might be part of a larger mental or physical health problem.

I first wrote about job burnout five years ago in 2019 [1]. I offered some valid advice, and the bottom line was, "Work to live rather than live to work." This advice still stands. Compartmentalizing your life preserves your mental and physical health, but it's not enough, and five years later, I've realized the shortcomings of that simplistic analysis. Burnout is far more complex than I ever imagined and dealing with it alone has given me new insights that I hope will also help you.

Burnout has many origins: stress, repetitive tasks, the feeling of no end in sight, the need to keep your technical skills sharp, negative feedback, no feedback, low or no salary incentives, no job ladder or promotions, and the feeling that people see you as a one-dimensional nerd who lives to solve problems.

First, you must realize and affirm that what you do is not who you are. Your job is a job and not a personality trait or disorder, as many believe. You are not your job. The job is a thing you do. When you get up from your desk, leave your job and the problems there. Your quality of life will improve if you separate your work from your non-work existence. Identifying yourself as your job will lead to burnout, depression, and other mental and physical ailments.

Second, you're never done, no matter how well you do your job. Tomorrow brings more outages, failures, mistakes, errors, and problems to solve. Solve today's issues and realize that even if you were to work 24x7x365, you'd never solve every problem. Do your best and be content with accomplishing everything you can on your shift. Working too many hours leads to mental and physical disorders that may manifest themselves as job burnout.

Third, you're only one person – a single cog in the great corporate wheel. You're not superhuman, and you have your role to play. You can't solve every problem for everyone. Give help when asked, but

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