Burnout or work fatigue? When do we lose the deep meaning of what we do professionally?
Burnout or work fatigue? When do we lose the deep meaning of what we do professionally?
As a psychologist practicing in “business”, I have noticed for some time a strong trend of searching for meaning. A meaning other than a salary increase at work or “paying off a loan” or an exotic vacation. More and more often, managers, specialists and experts, regardless of the industry and position, repeat “I just don’t want to do it anymore.” What do you want instead? I’m asking. “I want to sleep” customers respond.
But does every low mood at work mean burnout? How to recopies and know? And how can you „get fire” again?
Burnout is a state of permanent emotional, physical and mental exhaustion caused by long-term and intense work-related stress. Symptoms of burnout may also be multidimensional, e.g. emotional exhaustion, depersonalization (feeling distant from work and colleagues) or a sense of reduced professional effectiveness. Symptoms may vary from person to person, but they have a profound impact on a person’s functioning in many areas of life.
According to research by the American Psychological Association, as many as 79% of employees experience work-related stress, and many of them struggle with “burnout” and lack of engagement. Burnout is also recognized as a medical condition by the World Health Organization (WHO), which added it to the International Classification of Diseases as a work-related syndrome in 2019, highlighting its impact on mental and physical health.
Take away people’s agency, influence and respect and they will burn quickly
Often, experts or specialists work on projects that never see the „light of the day” or take years to complete. They create solutions and products that “end up on the shelf” and wait for forever implementation. They are also permanently rejected for promotions and/or role changes without giving a clear reason or feedback – what to improve to make it better. They also often do not receive justification why “we should do something in a certain way”, they are treated “like children”, who are told in a soft way to do something, often without communicating why they have to do it. If similar situations happen sporadically, we all more or less understand it, but when “organizational pathology” becomes common for one, two, three and years and we cannot get through what is most important for us and the team to implement the project and our own career i at some point I will say “enough”. My reluctancy ora resistance may be more conscious – verbalized or less conscious – I feel it at the emotional level, but it still informs me which values are the most important to me and which ones I constantly violate or allow others to violate. And when we talk about emotions and values, we touch on one of the most important foundations of our deep identity and the intimate purpose of our own existence. That’s when the jokes end.
The key role of a defined identity and the implementation of one’s own values
For some, the words like”identity” or “values” are cliches and nonsense – because why “philosophize”? Money matters. Of course it matters, but values are still the deepest human motivational mechanisms. Whether we like it or not, they will eventually demand respect and attention. Emotions have protective functions, but they also communicate to us about our interpretation of the situation, so it is worth taking a closer look at what they want to tell us and show as well because in the end we call it all of this „meaning at work”.
By agreeing and constantly compromising against what is fundamentally important to me, I lose time, enthusiasm and motivation. I don’t know yet, consciously, that I am already pursuing someone else’s goal, not my own. Question: why have I agreed to work for years in such an unfavorable environment? Why do I allow myself to stray away from what is most important to me at work? Or maybe sometimes in life it happens that a professional career is a coincidence, I work somewhere “because it worked out that way” or “life worked out that way”. Here we come back to the question who am I? What do I want from my professional life? Meanwhile, loans are knocking on the door and inflation is rising, which means life is catching up.
Burnout or searching for deep meaning in work and life?
Therefore, is this “burnout”? Is it neglecting yourself, your values and deep goals? Or maybe I chose other values, e.g. more income for the family instead of pursuing my passion. Family is still my value that I realize, so I chose what was important to me at a given moment.
External factors such as a cynical work culture, a pathological professional environment, and stress all fuel burnout. Changing job or a role within the organisation, holidays and work-life balance will help you overcome burnout. Paradoxically, however, we always take ourselves with us to the next job and the next environment, so it is worth answering questions about the meaning of my work? What values do I live by? Who am I? What are my high-level goals? And what do I really leave behind when the lights go out and the curtain falls on the stage? This is only the starting point in returning to yourself and changing or reevaluating your chosen life course. However, it is still crucial to “ignite” professionally again.
Author: Anna Modrzewska
