Burned Out? Here’s How to Recover

Are you feeling burned out from work? This will happen to everyone, and it will happen to everyone multiple times through their career. There are ways to avoid it, but sometimes you find yourself already there. Here’s what you should do about it.

Don’t Automatically Quit Your Job Due to Being Burned Out

Just because you’re feeling burned out doesn’t mean that it’s automatically your job’s problem. Too many people fall into this trap. Don’t make your job and company become the source of your contentment in your career. You may simply find a new job, and once the new car smell wears off, you’re back to where you started. A new job is fun, and exciting. It’s also more stress because you’re starting from the beginning with a new team, culture, and renown. Maybe the job is the problem, but maybe not. Just don’t fall into the trap of externalizing your problems onto others.

Find the Root Cause

This is the most crucial thing to do. Take time for yourself, and do a root cause analysis with yourself and your problem. Sometimes the true problems are surprising. Sometimes it’s a problem at work, sometimes it’s a problem with your or your home life. Here are some common root causes for burnout:

• Unfair treatment at work
• Stress from a new child
• Stress from moving to a new place
• Unmanageable workload
• Conflict with you and the work culture
• Lack of sleep
• Too much overtime
• Unclear expectations
• Bad management
• Lack of recognition
• No control over your work

As you can see, not all of those are work related. And the possibilities are many. So take the time to understand yourself, and be honest and candid with yourself as to what may be triggering it.

Change What You Can

You have the power to make a difference and reduce or eliminate your burned out state. Some things you can directly control, which are things specifically about you. If it’s something within your control, work on changing it. Beyond you, you can only influence things. If there are things that are external to you that are the sources of your burn out, then start to work with the people that can make effective change. You’d be surprised how people will be willing to help you if you ask. Especially if you have a good manager, they’ll want you to be happy and successful. Be open and honest with others, ask for help, support, and strive to make meaningful changes. With time, the problems that are weighing you down can be made better. Or ultimately, you may need to give up and find a new job. But don’t resort to that without trying, or you’ll be running away from your problems.

In the end, you have a lot of power to help yourself from recovering from being burned out. Do your best to avoid getting to this state, but if you’re in it, just know it can get better.