The Ultimate Burnout Guide

3 key characteristics of burnout: Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI)

1. Overwhelming exhaustion.
2. Feelings of cynicism.
3. And a sense of ineffectiveness.

A highly engaged individual would have:

1. A state of high energy
2. Strong involvement
3. A sense of efficacy

Job demands + Job resources

The JD-R model classifies every occupation into two general categories: job demands and job resources. Job demands are physical, psychological, social or organisational aspects of the job that require effort and come with a cost.

Work culture

Build a better work culture that includes more feedback loops, allow employees to work autonomously, and dedicate time to cultivate a high quality relationship with your employees.

Stress accumulates when:

• Resources are threatened.
• Resources are lost.
• And when people invest resources and don’t reap the expected benefits.

Resources may be defined as:

1. Objects — nice clothes, cars.
2. Conditions — employment, marriage, social status.
3. Personal characteristics — public speaking skills, networking ability.
4. Expendables — time, energy.

Burnout also caused by organization and social factors

Something that becomes clear the more you read burnout literature is how much the researchers emphasise that burnout is not solely an individual phenomenon; it is also caused by social and organisational factors.

Work culture suggetions

1. Improve civility at work — at an individual level this is not easily accomplished
2. Strengthen support from coworkers and supervisors
3. Build a work culture where accomplishments are recognised and celebrated.
4. Perform regular feedback and performance evaluations.

Find your rhythm and resentment

Find your rhythm. Mayer’s theory is that you need to figure out what your “rhythm” is, meaning the activity that matters so much to you resentment sets in when you can’t do it.

Implement cycles of intensity and rest

What that means is that he cycles between high and low intensity periods of work. During the low intensity periods, he’ll get more time to rest. And Newport applies this across different time scales — quarterly, monthly, and weekly. If he goes hard at it for one semester, then he’ll take it easy the next semester.