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Burning at Both Ends
Bob Weinstein is a journalist who covers technology, project management, the workplace and career development.
If you don’t spot the warning signs of burnout early, your career could be in jeopardy. It’s not like a buzzer goes off in your ear or a red light flashes in front of your eyes. Typically, the symptoms of burnout start slowly.
The worst part is that you’re hardly aware of what’s happening. Your work quality and output are not what they used to be, and you experience sudden, unexplainable mood swings. One day you’re up and motivated; the next you’re depressed or angry. In short, your behavior grows more unpredictable.
Take veteran police officers who’ve spent years on interstate highways and inner city neighborhoods, or police departments’ 911 dispatchers, who work the phones on 10-hour shifts. Ask any of them what burnout is like, and they’ll give you chilling firsthand accounts about what causes it and the damage that results.
In the workplace, we have plenty of burnout scenarios. Often, without consciously realizing it, you’ve turned into a drone--and you’re miserable. Working is no longer fun. The result? A 21st century plague that’s making thousands--make that millions--of people miserable and sick. There is no shortage of definitions of “burnout.”
The American Institute of Stress says that about half of all American workers suffer from burnout. And job …
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