Conquering Burnout: Strategies for Recognizing, Recovering, and Preventing Workplace Exhaustion

Feeling like you're constantly running on empty? You're not alone. Join me, Tammy Hershberger, as I bear my soul about battling burnout and provide a lifeline to those navigating the same turbulent waters. On the LightUp Your Business podcast, we're taking a hard look at the burnout beast that's sinking its claws into a staggering 43% of U.S. middle managers. Through my own stories and the expertise of industry leaders, we unravel the mess of exhaustion, cynicism, and the relentless pressure to perform that defines this modern malaise. Take my hand as we chart a course through the symptoms and solutions, embracing the recognition of burnout's early warning signs as our compass.

But we don't stop at diagnosis; we're in the business of prevention. In our conversation, we dissect the root causes of job burnout and arm you with the tools to build a fortress around your well-being. It's not just about cutting down hours—it's about enhancing the quality of work life. We're talking strength-based leadership, the eradication of toxic management practices, and the cultivation of a company culture that doesn't just pay lip service to staff health. Business leaders, pull up a chair. This episode is your blueprint for fostering a resilient, high-development environment where burnout is not on the agenda. Join us for this empowering dialogue that's set to transform your approach to work, wellness, and the delicate dance between the two.

Say goodbye to overwhelm and self-doubt, and hello to confidence and success. Join the Faith Filled Coaching family today and step into the abundant future you've always envisioned.
Visit FaithFilledCoach.com to schedule your free 30-minute consultation. Let's make your business dreams a reality, together.

Chapters

• 0:01 Recognizing and Recovering From Burnout
• 8:59 Understanding and Preventing Job Burnout

Transcript

Tammy Hershberger: 0:01

Welcome to the Light Of Your Business podcast, the show where we dive deep into the world of small businesses. I'm your host, Tammy Hershberger, and each episode book will bring you inspiring stories, expert insights, and practical tips to help your small business thrive. Whether you're an entrepreneur just starting out, or a seasoned business owner. This podcast is your go to source for success in the small business world. Let's get started. Hello, everyone. I wanna welcome you back to a brand new episode of LightUp Your Business podcast. I'm Tammy Hershberger. And today, I wanna talk about something that I have personally experienced burnout, how to recognize it, and how to recover from it. Mill Clinic says that job burnout is a type of stress linked to work. It includes being worn out physically and emotionally, and job burnout also may involve feeling useless, powerless, and empty. It's basically defined as a condition experienced by workers and other professionals in which they develop depression like symptoms. As a result of their role in the job or the workplace. The World Health Organization officially classified Bernard as a medical diagnosis including the condition, in which you basically a symptom is conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed And it's usually diagnosed by four main symptoms. And those symptoms, the first one is feeling of having, like, Your energy is completely depleted, you're exhausted, and you're very fatigued. The second one is increased mental distance from your job, where you sometimes you don't even wanna go to work because of it. Sometimes you can't concentrate while you're at work. The third one is feelings of negativity or cynicism related to your job. And the fourth one is reduced professional. Desire, I would say, empathy for the job, empathy for what you're doing. I think you just kinda get to a point where you just you don't care and you don't wanna do it anymore and you don't even know how to do it. So I was looking up some stats and Forbes had a step from twenty twenty three that they did a recent survey from survey from Slack found that burnout is on the rise globally. Most significantly in the US where forty three percent of middle managers reported burnout, more than any other worker group. So if you look at that and you think, okay, so why why is burn out on the rise so much. And I think in my opinion, and we'll go into some more details here. But to me, burn out is rising because we don't have time to de stress. We don't have time to take moments, you know, to just reflect, you know, calm our mind, moments to spend time with your family, like, you you leave work and on the way home, you listen to the radio, you have your phone on. You maybe listen to a podcast. You get home. The TV's on. There's iPads. The kids are on the computer. There's still more work to do. There's just computers and technology everywhere. And I don't think we take any time or very little time away from them. You know, we're constantly checking the news. We're constantly checking the emails. We're checking the weather. We're always on our phone. We're ding letters. They say, like, every time your phone rings, or dings or a message comes. So you gotta see what it is right now. We're like addicted to it. And if you look at that from the managers and leaders, They have more successful roles because of what they're doing there. You know, they're trying to direct people, lead people, help people, and part of their challenge that they face is trying to manage the burnout their employees or their team. So not only are they experiencing burnout, but they're trying to deal with the people that they're managing, that are experiencing the same burnout. Right? And so it's almost like a double whammy for them. And for me, I mean, I experienced it. I wasn't taking time for myself. I wasn't taking time to, you know, exercising and, you know, even just going to walk or spend time with my husband or I just got so focused on work and there was just always so much to do. That in my mind, if I just kept working and working more and working more, more hours, work faster, harder, you know, all of it, I think in my mind, I was like, oh, he'll just get me more caught up. But then before you know, you're more behind and you're just there's no time off and there's no time away from work, and then it just isn't fun anymore. Some other common signs of burnout. So if you're not sure if you are experiencing it, anxiety is one of them, headaches, lack of sleep, fatigue, and increase clinical outlook on life and work. Sometimes you just don't know. You think you're just in a funk, and sometimes it's realizing like, It's burnout because there is no separation between work and life. Right? There's no separation between your business and and your personal life. So it's really, really important that you recognize the warning signs of burnout, and it can be difficult sometimes in to notice it yourself or sometimes in others because over time, these symptoms can develop, right? It can take weeks or months. And work will just continue to be there. Right? Like the stress will continue. It might get worse. And so you have to remember for everybody, you know, it's not always the same case. So, you know, some people may have these symptoms and some people may have different things. So, they're unique sometimes to the individual. So if you think about it, two people who have the same job might not experience the same thing. Right? One could have a burnout and the other could be just fine. And conversely, if both become stressed. They could display it in different signs and symptoms. Right? Some people handle stress better. Some people are under more stress than others. There was a Forbes article that said the key symptom of burnout is exhaustion in the form of deep fatigue that isn't curable by rest or time off. And so, you know, sometimes just taking the weekend off, that's enough to get you back to where you're going. If you're in severe burnout, which is where I ended up, I couldn't it didn't matter if I rested. It didn't matter, you know, if I just took the weekend off. It it wasn't enough. I needed to, like, really step back and make sure that I start fixing my mental health. I start fixing, you know, my outlook on things. I start really resting. I start actually taking time off when I come home. Because I would keep working. You know, I get home, the business is closed, five o'clock, five thirty, and then I would work, you know, till seven, eight, nine. Sometimes till late in the night depending if I was super behind, which then affected me emotionally, physically, mentally, affected my relationships. And It's something, you know, I think too many people are doing. There's some other psychological symptoms I thought were interesting. I did a research on it, and some of them came up as reduced performance and productivity. So, you know, if you are re realizing, like, my team member is not performing at the level he usually does. Maybe it's something to dig into. It may not be burnout and maybe just something personal going on, but that's one symptom. Again, anxiety, detachment, feeling list list, low mood, difficult to concentrating. Lack of creativity. You know, that's something I would run into. Like, I would sit at that computer for hours. I was getting so little done because I couldn't even concentrate my mind was on so many different things. And sometimes it's so worn out. I don't I didn't know what to do. I was like, I can look at numbers for bookkeeping, and I was like, nothing's happening here. I just it's not connecting. Again, fatigue, negative attitude, attitude towards one's coworkers. So again, if you're noticing your coworkers unusually grumpy or and it has a new attitude, it might be something you wanna look into. You know, are they working too much? Are they overloaded at work? What's happening? If you know us that the commitment to their role at work has now kinda changed and they're not as interested, lots of purpose, they're absent, a lot from work, quickness to anger, job turnover, cynicism, emotional numbness, frustration, all of those are signs. Then there's the physical signs to look out for. You know, again, the exhaustion, the general body aches, headaches, if you're having gastrointestinal disorders, hypertension, difficulty sleeping, increase, I can't say the word. Basically, you're getting sick all the time, right, which I've seen nine people. Muscle tension. All of those are your body's way of saying something is not right, you need to fix this. Right? It's your body's way of saying you gotta work on this. And, you know, emotionally, if we're not connecting it, We don't even see that. So if you're saying, well, what's the difference between stress and burnout? There are some key differences between the signs and symptoms of stress and burnout. So I found this Harvard help guide, it was called, and it said in their stress causes an employee to over engage with their work environment. Feeling anxiety that their productivity levels are not high enough, that they will displace symptoms like hyperactive or urgent behavior, perhaps standing out from their coworkers. In contrast, an employee who has experienced work related stress to the point of becoming burned out with their will then become will then start exhibiting symptoms like disengagement, lack of production, you know, being very last productive, not having the same drive to get things done like they used to. And then they may have feelings of detachment from the work environment. Maybe they don't like their job anymore. Maybe they don't wanna be there. And possible causes of those things, you're saying, what's causing these things? Well, let's dig into that a little bit. So lack of control, not having us say in how you do your job. Your such as your schedule, your assignments, your workload, can all lead to job earn out. Not having what you need to do your work can also add to burnout. Lack of clarity. So if if you're not sure what's expected of you, if you're not sure what your boss or others want for me or not you're not likely feeling like you're doing a good job because there's confusion there. Right? So there's leaders, you gotta be very clear on what you expect from your people. They might be having conflicts with others. Maybe there's an office bully or maybe there's coworkers who just don't get along. They have very different views and they are very expressive of that. Maybe your boss is too involved in your job or the workplace. These can all add job stress. There might be too little to do. There might be too much to do. If your job's boring, who wants to sit at your job and just watch the clock every day, that's awful. Or maybe it's too busy and you feel like there's just too many demands and you can't keep up and the pressure is getting to you. In those situations, you need a lot of energy to stay focused. And that can lead to fatigue and job burnout. Lack of support. If you feel a low network or in your personal life, you might feel more stressed. If you're not being sufficiently rewarded and told you doing a good job, that can lead to stress and burnout. If there's problems with work life balance, that's been my problem. Basically, your work takes up too much of your time. And energy that you have, there's nothing left for you or your friends or family, and that can lead to major burnout. So you're saying, okay. Well, now I know the friends. What do I do about burger? How do I handle that? Let's handle specifically job earn out. Again, it can apply to your business, but Mill Clinic says according to them, burden often involves things in the workplace that you can't control, but there are ways to control how you cope with the stress. So first up, look at your options. Talk to your boss about your concerns. Maybe you can work together to make changes or solve the problem. You know, set realistic goals for what must get done. Find out what what things can wait, what things have to be done. If you're finding that things are not changing or not getting better, you might look as, you know, as this a good fit for me or should they be in a different role, you want to seek support. So talk to coworkers, talk to friends, talk to loved ones. Talking to others helps you feel like you're coping. Right? Because you're you're getting it out and people can relate to what you're You wanna feel like you're protected and you belong. Right? And if your job offers an employee assistance program or anything like that, then definitely go talk to them. You wanna try a relaxing activity. So look for activities that can help us stress such as yoga, meditation, something as simple as taking deep breaths a few times a day can, you know, help relieve tension, kind of reset your mind. Get some exercise nice. You know, regular physical activity can help you cope with stress. You can take your mind off of work. Get some sleep. Sleep restores well-being and helps you protect your health. Practice mindfulness. Mindfulness is being aware of what's going on inside of you and around of you, around you without judging or reacting. This practice can help you deal with what's happening on the job. So you wanna keep an open mind about what is out there, what options can you do, what can you try, and then always ask for help. Is necessary to develop self awareness so that you know when you're starting to feel the burnout. This way, you know what you need to do to protect your health. And your well-being, and you can work and take steps to do that. Now, you may say, would working less help? So I found this interesting article from Forbes. The researchers from Magalop poll that revealed that working less isn't enough to reduce stress, improve well-being, or prevent burnout. It's just part of the story but not the whole story. So what is the other part? Gallip's analysis of employee burnout found that the missing piece is how employees experience their workload. They have a stronger influence on burnout than the number of hours they work. So when it comes to your overall I'm sorry, overall well-being, the quality of the work experience has two and a half to three times the impact than the number of days or hours worked. So basically, it's more important, but what you're doing doing your work hours that really matters and it's not how many hours you're putting in. Again, like I was saying, I could spend two hours on something and I'm not being productive because I'm not thinking I'm so burned out, I'm not getting much done. Okay. So let's not switch to business leaders. How can we prevent burnout? Unfortunately, there's not a quick fix because recovery methods take time. You have to start somewhere. Right? And if you're not careful, it can destroy the trajectory of the Burn Todd employee's career. So Some people think, I'm so burned out in mechanics. I can't do it anymore. I've heard someone say that recently. You know, I'm so burned out on this specific career choice. I can't do it. I have to change. I wanted something different. So there's a let's see. There's a book called Well-being at work in the authors Jim Clifton and Jim Harter. They offer five burnout prevention action items, which are that were interesting. So number one, it says make sure everyone in your company knows their strengths and then use strength based strategies to design an employee experience. From attraction to hiring to onboarding, engaging performance, all of it leads to your culture of high development. If there's abusive managers, you need to get them out. No organizations should tolerate managers who distort the lives of the people who rely on them to get things done. Bad managers are your highest risk. I will not put up with that. If you treat my people bad, you are not staying from my company. You're gonna be moved out because we don't want you. Upscale managers to move from boss to coach. So it says use proven methods to transition your manager's mentality from boss to coach. Think of this as, like, a a long journey, right, for, like, a year or whatever. That starts with learning about high performance teams. Each manager should become an expert, has setting goals and providing meaningful feedback at least once a week. And then it talks about making well being part of a career development conversation. So once managers establish trust, they along with their teams can dream big together, not just about career goals and company goals and development. But about life overall purpose and their well-being. And remember, working less doesn't mean happier work. So it's important to find ways to make queer while being a focus in your organization. You wanna make it a priority. So you have some things to think about now. You can know what to look for. You know how to fix it. You know how to correct it. You know how to work on it. So I say go back to your companies. Look for these things. Look for these in your friends, your family. Your workers, maybe even yourself. And if you see it, help them through it. Give them some resources. And if it's you, take the time you need to get self better because of your company and your employees and your family will be better off for it. Hey, if you like what you heard today, I want to like, subscribe, share, follow, do all those things. You can send us a text message through the send us a text message feature on our podcast at the top of the page. And again, you know, tell your friends about us, send us comments, feedback, anything that you have, and, you know, until I see you again, be safe. Be well and grow your businesses and be proud of it. Thank you. We'll see you next time. And remember, in the world of business, every success story begins with a passionate dream and ends with strategic billion dollar handshake. Stay ambitious, stay innovative, and keep making those deals that reshape tomorrow. Thank you all for tuning in and until next time. Remember Proverbs three three says, let love and faithfulness never lead you. Find out around your neck. Write them on the tablet of your heart. That way, you will in favor and a good need in the sight of God and man. And remember if you like what you heard today, click the follow button so you never miss an episode.