In 2019, the World Health Organization established that burnout syndrome is the result of chronic work stress that has not been properly managed. Symptoms of this syndrome are: feelings of exhaustion, tiredness, lack of concentration at work, negative emotions, constant complaints and decreased performance of work activities.

What are the causes?

Sometimes job burnout begins when someone has been very stressed, has had a heavy workload, or no longer feels professionally challenged because their tasks are so repetitive.

How can I fight it?

In times like these, when it is quite common for people to work from home, it is necessary to carry out various strategies to avoid suffering from burnout syndrome. Here are a few tips to help you strike a better balance between your professional and personal life.

• Mandatory breaks. You need to be aware that a person with a rested mind works better. We recommend that you take at least 15 minutes of rest every 2 hours of work so that you have time to stretch, prepare your favorite drink and you can continue.

• Identify priority activities. One way to avoid job burnout is to define which activities are most important and which can wait for the next day. To do this correctly you need to have a good organization of the times and activities to be carried out.

• Measure your activities. Sometimes, in order not to be bad with our coworkers, we accept any activity / job / meeting to which they invite us, but don’t be afraid to say that you cannot support a certain project, remember that there is always a way to re-standardize in order to comply with the priorities.

• Quality and not quantity. This point goes hand in hand with the previous ones. It is essential that you strike a balance between doing things quickly and doing them well. Doing things in a rush to finish everything as soon as possible can cause you to make mistakes.

• Establish schedules. When working from home it is difficult to distinguish between your work hours and the rest of your activities. But remember that although the home office technique allows you to have flexible hours, that does not mean that you have to be available 24/7.

Each work environment is different, but we are sure that in order for you to take the previous measures into account you will see that you, your boss and your colleagues will begin to notice a difference in your performance.

References

Douthwaite, K. (2020). How to Tell if Your Team is Burnt Out — and What to do About It. The muse. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://www.themuse.com/advice/how-to-tell-if-your-team-is-burnt-outand-what-to-do-about-it

Groves, A. (2019). How to Avoid Burnout in a Remote Team. Zapier. Retrieved May 13, 2020, from https://zapier.com/learn/remote-work/avoid-work-burnout/

World Health Organization. (2019). Burn-out an “occupational phenomenon”: International Classification of Diseases. World Health Organization, Geneva, Switzerland.