How to manage, overcome and prevent burnout at work
It’s a common refrain in the therapy world that if you’re saying you desperately need a vacation, you’re probably already close to or at the point of burnout. Proactively taking time for ourselves before we get past the point of no return is key.
And, taking time off isn’t the only way to overcome or prevent burnout at work. In fact, it’s the day-to-day opportunities to practice workplace boundaries that often make the most difference.
Over the years, there have been times when I’m great at implementing boundaries, and times when I’ve really sucked at it. There have been days in old jobs when I’ve realized I went the entire day without a bathroom or water break. Thankfully, there’s always another opportunity to make a different choice or take that first small step in working towards a better work/life balance.
Boundaries to Prevent Burnout At Work
Some boundaries I’ve practiced throughout the years to overcome burnout are:
Not sleeping near my phone
Turning off email notifications
Not putting my work email on my personal phone (back in the days of a work phone and a personal phone)
Not checking email after 7 pm
Checking emails after 7 pm but not responding to them until the morning
Letting a call go to voicemail to assess if it’s an emergency from the voicemail
Taking all of my vacation days
Working on my ability to delegate when managing a team
Spending more time training my team on the front-end to build trust in my team on the back-end
Scheduling and taking one mental health day (sick day) per month
Front-loading all my session at the beginning of the week to ease into the weekend by having a light(er) Friday
Clarifying my job expectations with my boss to understand for myself where and when I can say no
Not scheduling sessions on the weekends
Communicating to my boss that I need a break or am worried about burning out
Filling my water bottle at the start of the day and keeping it within eye sight
Scheduling future fun activities to look forward to
A common response I hear when discussing boundaries in the workplace is: “Yeah, but my job isn’t like that.” I hear you, I really do. When I worked in child welfare, we were expected to be on-call 24/7 because of the potential for life or death situations including the very high risk of children being removed from their home due to abuse or neglect. The stakes could not have felt higher. I often felt like I couldn’t say no to anything. And, there are still boundaries to practice putting in place, they just may look slightly different for your field depending on your particular set of circumstances.
For more support around this, see my previous blog post about ways to overcome the fear of saying no when it comes to putting a boundary in place.
Last thing: this is not a blog telling you you can’t love work. Trust me, I am someone who loves to work - always have, always will. No lie, I started my first company at 12 years old…. so I could buy myself a VCR/DVD combo I had my eye on. Lolll. I also couldn’t wait to get my working papers at 16. Loving what we do is a beautiful thing. And, there’s a way to love what we do in ways that serve us, enrich us and give us what we need.
Reflection questions to ask yourself to overcome burnout at work:
What boundaries have you put in place at work?
What boundaries might you need to put in place at work to ward off burnout?
Is there anything on the above boundary list you want to try this week?
