How can burnout be prevented?

In this article below, highly experienced and renowned consultant psychiatrist, Dr Sunil Raheja, provides us with a fascinating overview of burnout, telling us why it occurs, and what we can to prevent and manage it. 

What is burnout?

Burnout is characterised by a sense of emotional and physical exhaustion. A sense of being detached from people around you and the cynical attitude that can develop. As well as a sense of spinning in a wheel and being ineffective in the work that you're doing.

Can burnout be prevented? If so, how?

To prevent burnout, I like to think of it in two particular arenas. The first is factors to do with the work context that you're in. And the second is about things that you can take responsibility for. So, in terms of the work factors that you're in, there are issues around the culture and the environment that you're working in. And often, sad to say, many work cultures can be very toxic in terms of the expectations of colleagues and senior managers.

Elements of burnout prevention need to be looked at within the work context, but there is also what you can take responsibility for yourself, and that would include prioritising self-care. Very simple things such as sleep, the connections that you have at work, the way that you structure your day and your week. Also, thinking about the perspective that you have in your life and your expectations around what you're doing helps a lot.

Strategies for managing burnout

So, when we think about strategies for managing burnout, I like to divide it into two main areas. One focuses on those factors that are involved in the work context that you're in. You may not have a lot of control over those areas, but there are things like culture, and you need to ask yourself, ‘is it toxic or is it life-giving’?

It includes things like the expectations from managers and your colleagues, as well as the general digital environment and the demand that is put on you. Is there a demand to do more and more with less and less resources?

That's a negotiation that needs to take place within that work context. Now, if you're the CEO or senior leader, maybe you can do a lot more about that than someone who's an employee, but then there are the factors that you yourself are in control of and that’s the first place to begin to work on.

And that would involve things like, well, first of all, prioritising self-care. And so often, we tend not to prioritise self-care. We get very passionate about the work we're doing. We're very involved, we're very engaged. We may be making a positive impact on the people around us.

However, the problem is that we continue to give and give and we are basically draining and emptying the bucket of emotional reserve and emotional capacity until there's not much left.

And the way I like to think about it, particularly when we’re younger, we tend to keep going, going, going, and then we crash. Now you can do that when you're younger, but as you get older, you begin to realise that energy is a precious resource that you need to manage.

If you think of a sign wave, what I tell my clients is you've got to have balanced periods of activity with periods of rest and recuperation that are as deep and intense as the activity you were doing was. If you do that, then you can then go on indefinitely because you're getting that right balance between giving and receiving.

So, that's prioritising self-care. It’s very important to get enough sleep, exercise, nutrition, as well as ensuring that you have positive life-giving relationships. So that's a prioritising self-care.

It’s also vital to think about the relationships you have, and to ask yourself are they enhancing your life, or are they draining the energy out of you? Those are some simple things that can be, as it were, undertaken to help you manage burnout.

To book a consultation with Dr Sunil Raheja today, simply visit his Top Doctors profile to do just that.