Paula Davis J.D., M.A.P.P. | Posted August 14, 2023 | Reviewed by Devon Frye

How is your well-being at work? Heavy workloads, stressful jobs, and long work hours continue to leave employees at all levels feeling exhausted. In fact, Deloitte’s 2023 Workplace Well-Being Report found that 60 percent of employees, 64 percent of managers, and 75 percent of the C-suite are seriously considering quitting their jobs for one that would better support their well-being.

But does that mean employees are burned out? Not so fast.

The term burnout tends to be oversimplified as an individual failing of stress management and used interchangeably with exhaustion or overwhelm; however, burnout consists of more than just exhaustion. Burnout exists on a continuum that consists of these three dimensions:

1. Chronic exhaustion (feeling physically and emotionally drained, tired, overwhelmed, and overloaded more often than not); and
2. Chronic cynicism (people in your work world bother you and annoy you, and you may start to distance yourself from your colleagues and clients, ignoring the qualities that make them unique and engaging, resulting in less empathy); and
3. Inefficacy (the “why bother, who cares” mentality that appears as you struggle to identify important work resources and begin to feel ineffective at work).

This means that you can be exhausted only, feel cynical or frustrated only, or feel disconnected or disengaged from your work only; or, any number of other combinations. That’s important because the measurement of burnout also tends to be oversimplified.

Drs. Christina Maslach and Michael Leiter, pioneers in burnout research and two of the developers of the Maslach Burnout Inventory, an empirically validated assessment tool that measures all three of the burnout components above, have issued updated guidance about what constitutes a “burnout profile.” According to their research, to earn the label “burnout,” a person must experience high exhaustion, high cynicism, and low professional efficacy. Based on their work, only about 20 percent of workers fit this profile.

While I think that number is low, surveys that simply ask people, “Do you feel burned out?” are likely over-inflating burnout rates since most people equate burnout with exhaustion and therefore respond “yes” because they feel overwhelmed, stressed, or tired. As an example, the Wellbeing Lab in Australia found that 63.6 percent of Australian workers reported feeling burned out, but that level dropped to 21.2 percent when measured using the three dimensions above.

If you’re feeling exhausted, but not yet burned out, here are some ideas to help:

1. List your job demands and resources.

Burnout is more likely to happen when you have too many job demands (aspects of your work that are consistently energy-draining) and too few job resources (aspects of your work that are consistently energy-giving). The two columns don’t have to be equal, but you do need enough energy-giving aspects of your work to mitigate the stress of the demands. What additional resources do you need?

2. Intentional prioritization.

A real estate developer client of mine used to prioritize his legal work for me using the terms, “nuclear,” “super nuclear,” and “catastrophic.” It still makes me laugh because it all sounds urgent and never gave me any clear guidance.

Instead, I suggest trying this prioritization exercise I learned from the Luma Institute:

Make a list of all of the projects, matters, and items you need to prioritize. Put one project, matter, or item on a sticky note until you have them all listed (one project per sticky note). Grab a large piece of paper and make a quad chart (four boxes in a 2x2 matrix). Label the horizontal axis “Importance” and label the vertical axis “Difficulty.” Plot items horizontally by importance and plot items vertically by difficulty. Look for related groupings and set priorities. Target the items in the lower right quadrant first because they are highly important and can be accomplished with relative ease.

3. Know your narratives.

Your “narratives” are your core values and beliefs about the way you think the world should operate. Not labeling these narratives can frustrate your ability to manage stress and prioritize your well-being. Here are some examples of common narratives I hear among busy professionals:

• “I must have all the answers.”
• “If I can’t do something perfectly, then I shouldn’t do it at all.”
• “Failure is a sign of weakness.”
• “Strong people don’t ask for help.”
• “Taking a break is a sign of laziness.” (This is one of my own!)
• “In order to be at the top of my game, I must always/never _______.”

Narratives become rules you live by (oftentimes subconsciously) and are usually too inflexible to help you perform in an optimal way. The first step is identifying your narratives and rules; the second is evaluating them.

Ask: Is this narrative getting me closer to or further away from the goals I want to achieve? How could I reshape the rule to make it a little more flexible? This is deep self-awareness work, but researcher Nick Petrie and his colleagues have discovered that it’s one of the best ways to prevent burnout (and a necessary step to get out of it).

4. Give yourself a break.

Just like remembering your small wins can increase motivation, overthinking small setbacks can kill it. Self-compassion is the art and science of giving yourself a break, and it can help prevent burnout. When you experience a setback, this framework will save you some much-needed energy:

1. When you feel stressed, take a moment to describe the emotions you’re feeling. Do you feel self-critical, and if so, what do you say to yourself? Evaluating the emotions (which isn’t always easy) helps you better understand what you’re feeling before you rush to escape.
2. Normalize the setback. You’re not the only person who has forgotten a key piece of information in a presentation or been frustrated with a colleague. Setbacks happen to everyone, but it’s tempting to think you’re the only one.
3. What would you say to a friend who experienced the same setback? We beat ourselves up tremendously when we fail, but would you be just as harsh if your friend approached you with the same set of circumstances?

Burnout rates are currently at the same level as their peak during the pandemic. I have spent the past several years working with teams and leaders around the globe to both educate and help solve this problem.

Last year was my first year running my business and traveling for a full slate of programs as a single mom, a variable I highly underestimated. By December, I wondered ironically, “Am I burned out?” Once I asked myself about all three burnout factors, I quickly realized that I was simply exhausted.

Not every experience of stress—even chronic stress—is burnout. Correctly identifying how you experience workplace stress is the first step toward feeling better.

Original Post: Are You Burned Out or Just Exhausted?

Copyright belongs to the original author.

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你是倦怠还是只是疲惫？

Paula Davis J.D., M.A.P.P. | 2023年8月14日 | 审阅：Devon Frye

你的工作状况如何？ 繁重的工作负担、压力大的工作和长时间的工作仍然让各级员工感到筋疲力尽。 事实上，德勤2023年工作场所健康报告发现，60%的员工、64%的管理者和75%的高管正在认真考虑辞职，以寻找一份能更好支持其身心健康的工作。

但这是否意味着员工已经精疲力竭？ 不一定。

“倦怠”一词往往被过度简化为个人无法管理压力的表现，常与疲惫或不堪重负等词互换使用；然而，倦怠远不止是疲惫。

倦怠存在于一个由以下三个维度组成的连续体中：

1. 持续的疲惫（感到身心俱疲、疲倦、压力大、负荷过重，且这种感觉经常出现）；以及
2. 持续的冷漠（你工作中的人让你感到烦躁，你可能开始疏远同事和客户，忽略他们的独特之处，导致同理心减少）；以及
3. 无效感（你可能产生“为什么要费心，谁在乎”的想法，难以识别重要的工作资源，开始觉得自己在工作中无能为力）。

这意味着你可能只是感到疲惫，或者仅仅感到冷漠或沮丧，或只是感到与工作脱节或失去参与感；或者，这些感受以各种不同的组合出现。 这很重要，因为倦怠的测量往往也被过度简化了。

倦怠研究的先驱者，Maslach博士和Leiter博士是Maslach倦怠量表的开发者之一，这是一种经过验证的评估工具，用来测量上述倦怠的三个组成部分。 两位专家为“倦怠状态”提供了新的指导意见。 根据他们的研究，要被称为“倦怠”，一个人必须经历高度的疲惫、高度的冷漠和较低的职业效能感。 基于他们的工作，只有大约20%的员工符合这个倦怠状态的标准。

虽然我认为这个比例较低，但那些仅仅询问人们“你是否感到倦怠？”的调查可能夸大了倦怠率，因为大多数人将倦怠等同于疲惫，因此回答“是”，因为他们感到不堪重负、压力大或疲惫。 例如，澳大利亚的Wellbeing Lab发现，63.6%的澳大利亚工人报告感到倦怠，但当使用上述三个维度进行测量时，这一比例下降到了21.2%。

如果你感到疲惫，但还没有达到倦怠的程度，这里有一些建议可以帮助你：

1. 列出你的工作需求和资源。

当你的工作需求过多（工作中持续消耗精力的方面）而工作资源过少（工作中持续提供能量的方面）时，倦怠更有可能发生。 这两列不需要完全平衡，但你确实需要足够的工作资源来缓解工作需求带来的压力。 你还需要哪些额外的资源？

2. 有意的优先排序。

我曾经有一个房地产开发商客户，他用“核爆级”、“超级核爆级”和“灾难级”来优先排序他为我准备的法律工作。 这仍然让我发笑，因为这些都听起来很紧急，但并没有给我明确的指导。

相反，我建议尝试Luma Institute教给我的这个优先排序练习：

• 列出你所有需要优先处理的项目、事项和工作。把每个项目、事项或工作写在一张便签纸上，直到你把它们都列出来（每张便签纸上只写一个项目）。
• 拿一张大纸，做一个四象限图（2x2矩阵的四个框）。
• 将横轴标记为“重要性”，将纵轴标记为“难度”。
• 按照重要性水平横向排列项目，并根据难度水平纵向排列项目。
• 寻找相关的分组，并设定优先级。

优先处理右下象限的项目，因为它们非常重要且相对容易完成。

3. 了解你的叙事。

你的“叙事”是你对世界应该如何运作的核心价值观和信念。 如果不标记这些叙述，它们可能会阻碍你管理压力和优先考虑自己的健康。 以下是我在繁忙的专业人士中经常听到的一些常见叙述：

• “我必须知道所有的答案。”
• “如果不能做到完美，我就不应该去做。”
• “失败是软弱的表现。”
• “坚强的人不会寻求帮助。”
• “休息是懒惰的表现。”（这是我自己的！）
• “为了保持最佳状态，我必须始终/绝不_______。”

这些叙述成为你生活的规则（通常是潜意识的），并且往往过于僵化，无法帮助你以最佳方式工作。 第一步是识别你的叙述和规则；第二步是评估它们。

问自己：这个叙述是否让我更接近或更远离我想要实现的目标？ 如何重新塑造这条规则，使其稍微灵活一些？ 这是一项深层次的自我意识工作，但研究员Nick Petrie及其同事发现，这是预防倦怠的最佳方法之一（也是摆脱倦怠的必要步骤）。

4. 给自己一个喘息的机会。

正如记住小小的胜利可以增加动力一样，过度思考小小的挫折则会扼杀动力。 自我关怀是一门艺术和科学，能够帮助你在需要时给自己一个喘息的机会，从而预防倦怠。 当你遇到挫折时，这个框架可以帮你节省宝贵的能量：

1. 当你感到压力时，花点时间描述你正在体验的情绪。你是否感到自责？如果是，你会对自己说些什么？评估这些情绪（这并不总是容易的）有助于你在急于逃避之前更好地理解自己的感受。
2. 正常化挫折。你不是唯一一个在演讲中忘记关键信息或对同事感到沮丧的人。挫折每个人都会遇到，但我们往往认为自己是唯一的例外。
3. 如果你的朋友遇到了同样的挫折，你会对他说些什么？当我们失败时，我们往往对自己非常苛刻，但如果你的朋友以同样的情况向你求助，你会同样苛刻吗？

目前的倦怠率与疫情期间的峰值相同。 过去几年，我一直在与全球各地的团队和领导者合作，既进行教育，也帮助解决这个问题。

去年是我第一次作为单身母亲经营自己的业务，并为一整年的项目安排旅行，我严重低估了这个变量。 到12月时，我不禁自嘲地问：“我是不是倦怠了？” 一旦我问自己这三个倦怠因素，我很快意识到自己只是疲惫而已。

并非所有的压力体验（即使是长期压力）都是倦怠。 正确识别你在工作场所体验压力的方式是改善感觉的第一步。

原文链接: Are You Burned Out or Just Exhausted?

版权属于原作者，本翻译仅供学习用途。