This article is a translation of the Italian version I published in 2021 and aims to give some ideas on how to handle burnout both from a personal and an company-wide perspective.
If you’re currently struggling with burnout, consider seeking help from a professional.
There are many options available (one of them is Wysa) that can help you work through it.
Onto the article…
LinkedIn is a beautiful place where we can list our successes, but no day passes where I don’t see one key element missing in the conversation: Let’s talk about the dark side of work, the burnout.
What is burnout, and why knowing its existence is not enough?
Let’s understand first that burnout kicks in after stress.
When stress, which is usually temporary, persists over a long period of time and is not followed by relaxation.
When physical stress (fatigue), mental stress (work) or social stress (requirements) do not diminish/resolve.
Burnout can be many things, fatigue, surrender, etc.
But more than any of these, it’s loneliness.
Even more so in a society of overachievers, of heroes, of exceptional people, burnout is something we fear to show, to tell.
Or, even worse, to see in others.
We quibble, “it’s just a moment”, “it’ll pass”.
That’s the voice inside us speaking when we think about our problems or when we discover the struggles someone is going through, when we see them too much exhausted.
Truth is: Burnout doesn’t heal the way we expect.
It marks us, a scar is left if we get over it, or we sink if we never heal from it.
