Dealing With Burnout. What I Learned After Quitting the Job I Loved
Even if you love what you do, eventually it will leave marks all over your life.
‘What do you mean you want to quit?’, one of my friends shouted across the table.
I’ve decided about a week prior to telling him. He was my boss and my friend and told me how good of a job I did. I knew it, and it devastated me to have to take that enormous step. But in life, you need to know when it’s time for you to step down from something that is harming you. Even if you believe step is selfish.
I’ve started being a journalist some years ago. It was the only thing I wanted at that time, and I would have even worked if I’ve got sick. That’s exactly what happened.
In my case, I’ve noticed burnout when was too late. The damage was there and the only thing for me to do was to accept it and try to get rid of it. It took me six months to return to a normal state and be able to read or write something again.
I started loving every bit of my job, but I ended hating it with a passion worthy of a better situation.
I’m not a specialist, but I’ve got a front seat at what burnout can do to your mind, body, relationships, and how it affects your entire life.
You can prevent it before does even significant damage to you and the ones you love.
How you recognize burnout
Psychologist Frank Freudenberg came with the term burnout in the ’70s, and it’s described as a severe stress condition. It can lead to physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion.
Burnout can appear in business persons, doctors, even parents.
To be honest, I didn’t know about the condition before I had it. I always assumed that people were just exhausted from their work and that was it. I believed a nice vacation can make everything better. Boy, I was wrong. Often, the signs of burnout aren’t so obvious.
Sings of burnout
Exhausted — It can be both emotional or physical. You will feel it when you can’t move a muscle after an 8-hour shift. I was having days when I’ve worked double shifts. That means that I worked 16 hours a day on my computer, writing words for strangers. It’s not a burnout symptom, but my eye vision became twice as bad as it was in only a year.
Cynical character — Everything and everyone is on your nerve and you can’t do your job. Then it came hand in hand with a sense of permanent irritation around you.
Feeling useless — No matter how much you’re doing, you feel you are not doing enough. Either if we’re talking about your day job or your personal relationships.
Depression — Losing interest in your activities; having low energy; having problems with sleeping (there were nights when I slept for four hours); feeling agitated
Trouble concentrating — You struggle to concentrate even for the basic tasks that otherwise you’ll do them mechanically. For me, it was the moment when I forgot what I was supposed to write about. That is a major concern for someone in my profession.
You hate your job — The ultimate step for me. I’ve started loving every second of it and end up hating every part of it. I couldn’t stand to do it even more. Burnout does this to you. It rips everything you love about your job and transforms it into some kind of monster.
How to cope with burnout
Ok, I quit my job, and it's hard. Now what?
I take it easy and over the next six months I learned what I needed to do in order to get back to normal.
You’ll find many remedies for burnout through the internet, but this made me better:
- Relax — The world is not sitting on your shoulders and you don’t have to take care of it every second. Learn to let go and enjoy your free time, without feeling guilty about it. Know when your job ends and your personal life starts.
- Get away from technology — It was a big part of my life. I often get up in the middle of the night to check the news. Bad idea. Get rid of everything that can connect you with your job. I’m talking phones, laptops, mail, messages, and everything else. Believe me, the world would not end by tomorrow morning.
- Not everyone is your enemy — That seems a little odd, but burnout will make you fight with everyone you meet. It’s exhausting and bad for your mental health.
- Sleep — I can’t stress this enough, so let me repeat it: Sleep at least seven hours per night. Researchers say that at the age of 18 until you’re beyond 65 years, you need to sleep about 7–9 hours every night. Your mind, body, and every system in your body is restoring when you sleep.
I lost people because of my obnoxious state
I was tired, annoyed, and obnoxious for a long time before I realize that something is affecting me. And it didn’t affect only me, it influenced even the surrounding people who one by one started to avoid me till the point where some of them decided to leave altogether.
The best decision for me was to quit my job and take it easy for half a year. You don’t have to do like I did and quit your job. I don’t urge anybody to do it like that. But you need to take care of yourself and realize that is not worth it.
Comfort doesn’t come from your job. I need to say this because I see everyday people who are exhausting them for a position that’s not worth their health.
I backed up from a job that I loved and, to be honest, I still love it. But if you’re not careful, you can step beyond the fine line between love and destruction.
