Burnout

Throughout my professional career I have seen many cases of people in psychological distress caused by personal overwork and their professional activities. At first we do not understand why we have come to this and very often we point to the main cause of this irritant, boss, spouse, job, etc. We would like to immediately find this cause to eradicate it as quickly as possible to return functional as it was the case before. But the problem is much more complex than that. In the past, no one talked about burnout, which seemed more like a state of weakness or a new modern mental illness. Unfortunately, burnout is rather seen as a vicious circle in which one knowingly rushes to surpass oneself in order to achieve new personal AND family AND professional AND etc. goals. In other words, too many goals that exceed our ability to reach them all, then we persist and persist in wanting to please everyone, while forgetting ourselves on sentences such as, I can't go back, I have to do it and it will be better afterwards, I no longer have a choice, my career is at stake, I will appear for the first time as being weak whereas I have always been a champion before. The images that illustrate burnout are evocative, my head is too full, I burn the candle at both ends, I sleep as soon as I stop but I have insomnia during the night, I am overwhelmed by the weight events, I only have one strand left to hold the link of my ability to take more, I can't breathe, everything falls on my back, I have more time to recharge my batteries, I have a thousand calls, texts, emails, late appointments and we could obviously add more to this list.

I knew a woman who worked in the office until late on the weekends to complete her work at all costs because she had no choice. The door to her office closed with the heating on full blast because she was cold despite a thick woolen sweater. One fine day I learned that she had returned to the hospital by ambulance because of weakness and that she had to take a long convalescence with follow-up by her doctor. But it was only at this very moment that the management began to understand that there was a problem while exonerate themselves from this situation. We do not ask our employees to work nights and days or on weekends. You should have come to see us long before to tell us about it. In short, the exact opposite of what an employer really wants, that is to say, performance, the achievement of new objectives quickly, efficiency at work, a rapid response time and nowadays a increased availability to reach its employees through telework, mobile phone or new communication media in order to solve urgent problems or to support the progress of a project with a fixed delivery date or worse by promise to customers of a 24/7 support.

Recently I spoke with colleagues who are struggling with the situation of balancing work and family and who are looking for solutions to break this vicious circle which ruins their personal life, their health, their social life, their quality of life, their love life, their family contacts, even their self-esteem and work. You can feel their stress, their anger, their confusion, the desire to drop everything if he could ever win the lottery. On the other hand, there are others who are doing a little better.

Firstly, I am not the only one to experience exactly the same situation because many do not dare to talk about it, so we have to talk about it and discuss it with our bosses. Draw our limits which can change according to our age, illness, our personal life. Maintain them and make them clear and established. No overtime in the evenings and on weekends, even if they are paid, because too often overtime leads us to lead a pace of life that has been multiplied by two and that only extras can allow us to afford.

Second, I set aside blocks of time for myself on my time schedule, doing yoga, walking and hiking, going to restaurants with friends, seeing shows, laughing and emptying yourself with diametrically opposed activities, doing simple and funny things. Take care of yourself by going to a spa, getting a relaxing massage. In short, create a quality time bubble for our own well-being in order to counteract the malaise.

Third, adopt a life plan to be able to say to yourself, I know what I want to do with my life and I am not alone because at home we think the same way. Getting out of psychological isolation and reversing the spiral of events that focuses on us by projecting this spiral outwards. No longer be a target but rather release your own momentum according to your own rhythm based on our own limits in balance with ourselves while respecting each other.

In closing, I admit that I have to put everything I've written for myself, day by day, and that requires discipline. We don't stop time, but we can slow down events and not anticipate them so that everything is done on the same day. There will be a time when it will be the right time to do what I apprehend today. But for the moment, I must apologize, because I have made a very important appointment with my specialist in therapeutic touch which will allow me to spend very special moments of relaxation to which I am entitled, that is to say to take care of my well-being to break the spiral of burnout.

By Sylvain Perron,

Massage therapist