Workplace Burnout
An opinion
We’ve all reached that point.
Where muscle memory takes over. Where we’re literally going through the motions.
Where we’re past caring any longer.
This can so easily overlap with underlying anxiety and depression, and compound the problem. But at its core, this is about a sustained state of mental, emotional, and physical exhaustion, in any combination. It can manifest through outbursts, stress reactions, fatigue, cynicism, indifference, or even physical symptoms like headache and nausea.
“The mind follows the body.”
But the inverse is true as well. One follows the other; when the mind is exhausted, when you’re unable to focus or muster the ability to care through sustained mental fatigue, your body will manifest symptoms of what your brain is experiencing. Your immune system will deteriorate and possibly shut down. You can feel helpless and trapped. You can become detached from your work, your environment, and your fellow employees. And although the symptoms may appear at work or due to work stress, they don’t disappear when you clock out.
You will invariably carry your fatigue, your lack of motivation, your inability to concentrate, and your callousness home with you. And woe betide your family members, loved ones, or children if this is the case. This is unfortunately where what you carry begins to harm not only yourself, but potentially those you love.
By establishing clear boundaries, taking time off when needed, and prioritizing yourself and your health, you can ultimately restore your equilibrium and your job performance. Despite demands and pressure from supervisors, in the long run, you’re ensuring your performance is maintained, and this is worth any short-term setbacks they may sustain.
In the event you’re reaching the point where you see these signs repeating over a sustained timeframe, it behooves you not to rationalize or ignore them, before making a clear and unequivocal statement to your boss that you need the time off by identifying the sensations you’re experiencing and admitting that it will eventually lead to a crash, if it hasn’t begun already. Stand up for yourself and slow down before you begin to spiral.
Mike, you trace burnout back to its true terrain, the workplace—not as a momentary strain, but a slow unmaking that follows us home and speaks through us.
There’s a point where exhaustion stops asking politely and starts speaking in tone, silence, absence. By then, it isn’t about boundaries so much as recognition. Not later, not after one more push, now.
Rest, before the self that could choose it quietly disappears.
Thank you for your openess.