Burn • out: Psychological exhaustion resulting from overwork, prolonged exposure to stress or excessive overuse. Fuel supply has been exhausted or cut off.

Burnout resists simple definition because it affects so many aspects of an individual’s life. In their book, Beyond Burnout, authors David Welch, Donald Medeiros and George Tate describe burnout as a condition that affects us physically, intellectually, emotionally, socially and spiritually. It hits us at our core.

The comment “I’m feeling burned out" is one of those expressions, much like “I’m feeling depressed," that most of us make from time to time without talking about a clinical condition. But similar to depression, “job burnout" is a genuine and serious malady that may afflict a third of Americans at some point during their careers. But even though there has been a great deal of study of burnout over the past several decades, there is still limited awareness among individuals and their managers of what constitutes real job burnout.

Ironically, burnout may even be a “positive" response to stress, because burnout is unlikely to cause the life-threatening physical symptoms that can result from too much stress. But at some point the symptoms of burnout begin to feed upon each other and it’s the burnout that becomes the problem, rather than the original stress.

What Causes Burnout

In their book The Truth About Burnout: How Organizations Cause Personal Stress and What to Do About It, psychologists Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter identify job stress as arising from six ways in which people are mismatched to their jobs:

* Work overload
* Lack of control
* Insufficient reward
* Breakdown of community
* Absence of fairness
* Conflicting values

It is these mismatches, they say, that can transform the healthy stress of work into the debilitating experience that leads to burnout. Some of these mismatches, such as work overload, insufficient reward and absence of fairness, are fundamentally management issues. In some organizations, burnout tends to occur in clusters in workgroups or departments, pointing a finger at the supervision. Other elements of a mismatch may indicate you are just in the wrong job, or the right job with the wrong company.

The Symptoms of Burnout

Either way, as you respond to job stress by feeling increasingly burned out, the challenges only get worse. Your productivity diminishes and you become increasingly isolated, so the problems causing your stress only seem to get worse. Maslach, who created the standard measurement tool for burnout, called the Maslach Burnout Inventory, identifies three broad categories or dimensions of the symptoms of job burnout:

* First there is exhaustion—mental, physical, and emotional. "People feel completely overwhelmed and used up. There’s a sense that they can't handle the next thing demanded of them," explains Maslach.
* Next there is growing cynicism and “de-personalization." To deal with stress you distance yourself from your job, becoming indifferent to work demands and cynical or even contemptuous of your fellow workers and others you have to deal with.
* The final phase culminates with sense of failure and personal worthlessness.

Some of the warning signs that you are on this path include:

* Feelings of frustration and never being caught up
* A feeling of lack of control—loss of personal or professional power about how to do your job or what goes on in the workplace
* Emotional outbursts; reacting vs. responding
* Dread of going to work
* No time for yourself
* Frequent sickness or health problems
* Increased use of alcohol, drugs or food consumption
* A desire to quit (or run away), but a fear of doing so

Avoiding Burnout

Avoiding burnout begins with coping with stress. A certain amount of stress is normal and, as we have written about before (see “Building Endurance for Maximum Performance" in our July 2007 ezine), it can be healthy. Mental stress, just like physical exercise, can strengthen your mind—provided you allow yourself enough recovery time.

But some people are more at risk of burnout than others. Research shows that “perfectionists," for example, tend to absorb more stress from work, and some people are by nature more excitable than others, so they experience higher levels of stress. People who are pessimistic and the classic “Type A" personality are also more prone to burnout. If you fall into these categories, working on ways to relax or finding other stress-reduction techniques can be critical, as can looking at how you handle stress in the first place.

Taking a few days off or a vacation to Tahiti won’t contain the burnout; that will just “heal the pain" temporarily. Neither will simply leaving one job for another. That’s why people who respond to their burnout by changing jobs often discover that the problem goes with them.

Yet, as the term “job burnout" implies, part of the equation for avoiding burnout has to start with the job. While there is undoubtedly an individual component as to who suffers from burnout and who doesn’t, too many organizations see it exclusively as a personal problem. Maslach and Leiter point out that even the most stress-tolerant individuals can be put at risk of burnout if their jobs are sufficiently mismatched with their talents, expectations or aspirations.

As a leader, understanding the symptoms of burnout is the first step. Once you can see it for what it is, you can spot patterns and identify the underlying causes. You may also be able to spot individuals who might be at risk of burnout (including yourself) and find ways to alter their circumstances or provide insights for them to help avoid it.

And remember, how we lead affects others. It really does start at the top.

Keys to Avoid Burnout

Self-management
Put yourself first. Take the time to set goals and objectives with time lines, and review them with others. Make sure they’re attainable, clear and aligned with your values and those of the company.

Stress management
Know your own responses to stress and develop a plan to manage it. Exercise, take breaks, eat healthfully, leave work at work, make time for play and rest. Discover what works best for you and your body, and practice good self-care habits.

Support systems
Create a personal advisory board. Enroll family, friends, co-workers, mentors, professional organizations or a coach—all these support systems can help in times of stress.

Skill building
Look for challenges and opportunities to learn new skills, and participate in activities that use your natural skills, talents and abilities. Rather than becoming stagnant, you’ll be able to grow.

Balance
Seek a balanced and well-structured lifestyle. Avoid the same-old same-old. Determine what’s important to you and create a lifestyle that embraces and supports you.

Think positively
Is your glass half empty of half full? Replace negativity with optimistic thinking. Helpless thinking is a major contributor to burnout.

Be creative
What can you do differently to obtain different results? Look for a creative approach to the same challenges or to unpleasant situations. Break free from your everyday routine. Let your workspace express your individuality.

Humor and playfulness
Can you see how funny this all is? Humor reduces stress, promotes physical healing, is essential for mental health and can add years to your life. No wonder they say humor is the best antidote. Find people, places and things that bring you joy.

Boundaries
Where are you allowing people to cross your boundaries? Create lines in the sand that people may not cross and then train them how you want to be interacted with.