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“THEY HAVE NO interest in me and how I am”…
Many years ago, I sat one day and listened as a teacher, who was attending my private counselling psychotherapy practice, ranted about his secondary school students.
His frustration and irritation was palpable. As a parent of four children myself, I was thinking to myself that they shouldn’t have to worry about him in his role. Yes, they should be courteous and respectful, of course, but they shouldn’t be thinking about him or his needs in any great detail. They are the children and he is the adult. He should be in the role of teacher and they should be in the role of student. It’s his job to be concerned about them but not the other way round.
I knew straight away that he was suffering from, or on the verge of “Burnout”.
Burnout is defined by the American Psychological Association Dictionary of Psychology as: “Physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion accompanied by decreased motivation, lowered performance and negative attitudes toward oneself and others. It results from performing at a high level until stress and tension, especially from extreme and prolonged physical or mental exertion or an overburdening workload, take their toll”.
Burnout is something I am increasingly coming across as part of my work in both the Therapeutic and Corporate Spaces. According to the World Health Organization, three indicators of burnout are:
The second sign, which involves developing a negative or cynical attitude towards work that once excited and inspired you, is something I encounter frequently.
Often people talk about how much they used to love their work, that it gave them meaning and purpose and that it felt like they were “making a difference”. This meaning and purpose ignited their commitment and enthusiasm to go “above and beyond” in what they gave to their work. Sometimes this might have been exploited by colleagues or managers, and other times it was escalated by the pressure and expectation that people put on themselves.
There is a lot that employers can do to improve the working culture of an organisation that will protect the mental health and wellbeing of employees and help prevent burnout.
It is important for employers to foster a positive workplace environment where work life balance is not only encouraged but also modelled as good practice from the top down. Providing support and resources along with ongoing Professional Development is also something that employers can offer. Employers have a responsibility to create a healthy workplace atmosphere with reasonable workloads and where good habits of exercise, nutrition and rest are valued as much as work.
Employees can also help themselves when it comes to burnout prevention. Often in therapy, when I would scratch beneath the surface with clients, we would realise that the expectation and pressure can be coming from within. A person’s perfectionism or commitment to a project might cause them to take on too much or expect too much of themselves and this sometimes isn’t coming from an employer at all. This can be difficult to face up to but also hugely empowering.
This is when I would support somebody to work on their own levels of self-care and self-compassion and what might be hindering them from this (e.g. Imposter syndrome, fear of failure or people-pleasing).
Kristin Neff defines self-compassion as “the process of turning compassion inward”. Often through this work, we will realise that we are much better at making allowances for other people and being kind to others than we are to ourselves. Self-care is sometimes confused with selfishness, but while selfishness is often about putting ourselves before others, Self-care is about bringing how we treat ourselves up to the same level as how we treat others.
So if you are starting to notice your own signs of Burnout, if you are experiencing more fatigue than usual, your productivity and efficiency in work are deteriorating and above all, you are now irritated and cynical about what used to light your spark, maybe it’s time to take some self-care steps.
This can include a longer holiday than usual in order to allow yourself to fully switch off, being as kind to yourself as you might be to a friend, noticing how much you have on your plate and making allowances for that and lastly learning to say the words “no”, “not now” or “maybe later”!
Talking to an IACP accredited therapist is a great place to start if you need support with your own work-life balance and burnout prevention and you can find a therapist near you on the IACP register www.iacp.ie
Linda Breathnach is an MIACP psychotherapist, lecturer, trainer and supervisor. For more, see TherapyAndTraining.ie.
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Had a 22 year old graduate say they were burned out after working a total of three weeks in their job. Guess who’s contract is not getting renewed
@John D Doe: whose.
@John D Doe: I will take that never happened for 50 points please!
@John D Doe: hopefully that 22 year old will end up working someplace that cares about their employees, and for someone who has at least a shred of understanding about mental health. Nobody knows what’s going on in someone else’s life. Some 22 year old graduates have just spent 4 years working to pay their way through college, commuting hours every day because there’s no accommodation, and studying every other hour left to them to get the degree they need. Burnout isn’t laziness. It isn’t made up. And comments like yours and others here will only make it harder for people to speak up and get the help they need. So either educate yourself or just keep quiet, because we really don’t need people making the mental health crisis in this country worse.
@John D Doe: Yours, due to a lack of empathy, compassion, understanding and spreading untruths?
The safe space crowd are out in force lol
@John D Doe: i’ll guess, tech/finance company that purports to be a ‘dynamic and fast paced fulfilling work environment’ but expects graduates and new hires to work every hour god gives them for shit money? Having done that for a few years in my youth i can confirm that I’d rather be on the scratch.
@John D Doe: the mental health lol crowd are out too, but they’re kind of making a show of themselves. There’s far, far too many people have seen the reality of the mental health crisis up close and personal. And once it comes to your door, the idea of mocking people who are struggling with it seems kind of disgusting.
@Setanta O’Toole: were you the cleaner?
Don’t mind the cynical comments. Look after yourself. Your mental health is paramount. Stress and anxiety ( job related or otherwise) left unaddressed or unresolved will shred you quickly.
Well as a teacher they’ll have 18 odd weeks paid holidays a year to recover, that failing they can take a five year career break?
@brian o’leary: good for them.
@brian o’leary: maybe they can, maybe they can’t. Schools have policies around leave of absence, they can’t all just go on career break whenever they want. Or maybe they can’t afford to take years of unpaid leave, maybe they have bills to pay and a family to support. Maybe that’s why they’re paying privately for therapy. Trying to get the help they know they need, to be able to stay in the career they spent years studying for, years getting qualified for, years doing hours here and there, in this school and that school, before finally getting a full time contract. Maybe they didn’t do all that just for the holidays. Maybe, if you care about education in Ireland, and children in Ireland, their future in Ireland, maybe you shouldn’t be so flippant about something that actually matters.
@mani mus: All your maybes doesn’t change the fact that they’ll have a sea of down time to recover,, the shrink even recommends taking longer holidays than usual, lol, 4 months holidays in the summer? Maybe a little Perspective would help, use the career break to work another job , they can always go back if the 4 weeks holidays doesn’t suit……
@brian o’leary: a sea of downtime to recover, that’s your fact. Well, if that’s a fact, it’s impossible for teachers to experience burnout. So, logically, the mental health professional who wrote this article hallucinated their teacher client that is experiencing burnout. And if they hallucinated that, what else did they hallucinate? Maybe you and I only exist as miniscule electrical impulses inside this author’s brain. Why not? It would make about as much sense as you banging on about teachers under an article about burnout and mental health.
@mani mus: nice try, but I never said teachers cant/don’t experience burnout, in fact, I’d imagine its common, all I did was point out a few advantages they have over other careers, I actually forgot one, early retirement options? Have I got it wrong ? Try to remain calm and stay focused, if you concentrate, I feel we can make some real progress.
@brian o’leary: the extent of your interest in honest debate is obvious Brian, just like your deep and touching concern for the teacher described in the article.
@mani mus: my concern or our debate won’t help the individual mentioned, what may help is time away from the coal face, of which he has much more than most.
@brian o’leary: yes, it came across loud and clear that you are a big supporter of teachers’ working conditions.
@mani mus: my support won’t help the individual mentioned, but the extra 14 weeks holidays he gets compared to most, almost certainly will.
With the everyday pressures people are under now trying to keep they’re heads above water it seems to be only worsening.
I’m guessing a certain failed local election candidate in the North East is suffering from burnout from the pressures of constantly producing planning objections.
Not so long ago we used to ‘work to live’..seems its changed to ‘live to work’
I’m burnt out from listening to and reading advice from experts!
@Padraig O’Brien: ask a friend to explain the big words, or give them your crayons and they can draw you a picture.
@Padraig O’Brien: Ignorance is bliss, so you might consider remaining in that state.
It’s crazy to think that the purpose of a business is profits, not your feelings
@John D Doe: sometimes profits can be increased if you pretend to care.
@John D Doe: imagine if businesses saw employees as assets that can improve and better the business and not just hired help to boss around and give out or quit when you are done putting them or belittling them
The creation of box ticking and people only doing jobs so can get a visa. Has created a very weak and unhappy society. There very little genuine care and compassion these days. So many now just play it cause when they really need they told sorry we can’t tick that box.
A Good dose of laughter needed. If they were to watch Ireland hidden camera show they would soon forget their troubles from laughing so much.
@Sean Money: i like the way they reveal it’s a prank within 5-8 seconds of the prank starting. That is gas.
What shittery is this? If I don’t farm my land I don’t eat simple as. People looking for excuses not to work its not on.
@Sean Money: alright Rishi Sunak, get off the journal and get back to destroying your country and losing elections.
all about “me “my”"self”i”….what happened to getting on with it…..what waffle
@William O leary: “getting on with it” has gotten us to where we are. Which is not a good place. And stigmatising people for their mental health, which is what you’re doing, is part of the problem. Is harmful. You, today, with that comment, are actively making this crisis worse. It’s not selfish to ask for help. What is utterly selfish is to dismiss the pain and suffering of others just because it makes you a bit uncomfortable. It’s not all about you, William. Grow up.
@mani mus: Are we gone the other way, though? We seem to be constantly talking about mental health to the point where we are trying to convince everyone that they have a mental health problem, especially among younger people. Unfortunately, some people are using mental health as an excuse not to work, much like the fabled backache, back in the day.
@David S: who? Who is using mental health as an excuse not to work? How many of these people are there? Do you know? Or have you just absorbed some vague neo-liberal talking point without question?
@mani mus: There’s no need to get so defensive when someone disagrees with you. The problem is we don’t know if someone is saying they have a mental health problem because it’s hard to tell, just like it was hard to tell if someone has backache or whiplash for that matter. There are people with mental health problems, but there are also people who will take advantage by claiming that they have mental health problems to get out of working. If you’re nieve enough to think there isn’t, then you believe in the tooth fairy as well.
@David S: so, you don’t know. When you don’t know what you’re talking about, stop talking.
@mani mus: I thought you did, so I asked the question. Have we gone too far the other way ? You didn’t address that, so you decided to insult me as you did with other posters that had a different opinion to yourself. As you said to a previous contributor to the site. Grow up.
@David S: I didn’t insult you, I asked you to back up your claims. As for your question, are we gone too far the other way – are you serious? Have a look at the statistics around suicide in this country. Have a look at how much we invest in mental health in this country. Have a look, even, at the comment section under this article, which really is no more than an effort to raise awareness about burnout, and what might help if it’s something you recognise in yourself. That’s all. Read up on the impact of stigma on mental health, then read back through this comment section, and then ask yourself if what we really need be worrying about is the idea that we might be doing to much to improve mental health in Ireland.
@mani mus: You did insult me. You called me a neo Liberal and what’s more, a vague neo Liberal . You don’t know my politics, but you assumed you did. That in itself is an insult . You also insulted other posters on this site. For someone who is such an advocate for mental health issues. I’m surprised that you feel it necessary to belittle people who have a different view of the world to yourself.
@David S: no David. I didn’t insult you. I didn’t describe you or your politics at all. I described the claim you made as vaguely neo-liberal, which it is. The Tories are making it a part of their election campaign, which should give you a fair indication of how evidence-based and compassionate it is. And I have no issue whatsoever with differing opinions. But comments that add to the stigma around mental health are unacceptable, whether they stem from ignorance or not. Comments like that absolutely need to be called out, because comments like that could be the difference between someone in a really dark place reaching out for help, or not.
Somehow the wokeflakes have forgotten that you actually have to work to get things, unless you’re a dole scrounger.
Signs you are NOT burned out:
1. You are on the dole
2. You have a free house
3. You work for the Civil Service
@Paul: signs you may be suffering from burnout: going on about wokeflakes, free houses and civil servants when someone mentions burnout.
growing up and not seeking attention might be a start ..after that stop being selfish and clogging up the system for people with genuine mental health issues might be more appropriate. it’s not all about “you” there’s other people on the planet
@William O leary: you’ve lost me William, but I’d say that makes two of us.
Nope, fully burned since 2007!
To love and to work ( S. Freud)
For many,its not the work itself,but the journey to and from the job that’s the biggest cause of stress and exhaustion.
have your say