Employee or career burnout is defined as a psychological process that an employee undergoes exhibited through lack of motivation and inspiration. A major, conspicuous sign of burnout is when an employee retires from a particular responsibility due to emotional stress, fatigue, and feeling of incompetence.
Another factor that contributes to employee burnout is the environment that the employee is forced to work at. Employees that are physically, mentally, and emotionally bullied by managers due to underperformance are more likely to develop symptoms of career burnout. Moreover, employees that do not have solid, friendly relationships among their co-workers are also susceptible in experiencing burnout.
Other key contributing factors to job burnout include:
– Reward deficiency
– Lack of support and positive reinforcement from managers and co-workers
– Repetitive tasks
– Personal problems that trigger physical exhaustion and emotional distress
Employees that experience career burnout, they enact the following without some of their co-workers or managers noticing:
1. Checking the clock from time to time
The first major sign of career burnout is when an employee checks the clock from time to time. This action signifies that the employee is excited to get back home and finally escape their corporate prison.
2. Making laughable excuses
Employees who make excuses just to avoid responsibilities or added workload are slowly developing signs of career burnout. When an employee runs out of excuses, they create diversions in a desperate, last-second attempt to dodge their supervisor and managers.
3. Sleeping during work hours
An employee who experiences career burnout enacts unethical and unprofessional mannerisms that negatively project them to their co-workers and managers. Bored and physically exhausted employees sleep their way out of the predicament until their managers reprimand them for negligence.
4. Stirring social media controversies
Social media web sites such as Facebook and Twitter are attributed as a primary source for the termination of a number of employees. Employees who experience career burnout ventilate their exhaustion and frustration by posting harmful and career-threatening posts on their Facebook and Twitter accounts.
5. Eating unhealthy snacks during work
Employees who are physically fatigued at work resort to eating unhealthy foods that evenly contribute to their inefficiencies.
6. Inability to meet deadlines
Employees who have already developed a severe case of career burnout forget to meet deadlines marked by their supervisors and managers. An employee who voluntarily surrenders to the pressure or repetitiveness of the responsibility will temporarily carry the burden of failing to accomplish tasks within a given time frame.
7. Avoiding co-workers and managers
Employees who are no longer interested to work at a high level avoid their co-workers in the most unprofessional manner. Employees experiencing burnout isolate themselves from the pack, resulting into failing to accomplish collective tasks and responsibilities.
Erin Alberts is a multi-awarded speaker on career and employee and human resource development.
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