For many of you, burnout will be a new term or concept but in reality, most of us are suffering from this problem without actually knowing about its existence. Persistent stressful conditions in one’s life take the form of burnout in the long term which denotes physical, mental and emotional exhaustion. Out of different stress, contributing factors in life jobs and working environment are the vital ones.

This calls the necessity of stress and burnout compensation. In today’s fast-paced world life is much more stressful and unpleasant than it used to be in ancient civilization where there were no such luxuries and comfortable means for living life effortlessly as it is now.

Still, there is an immense level of dissatisfaction and agitation in each and every individual because of their aspiration for getting better and achieving a higher and higher level of success and fulfillment in life. This negative perception is the roots cause of stress in everyone life which in the long run gives birth to burnout condition.

The burnout condition is getting one of the prominent concerns just like other health concerns around the world. Though there is no fixed sector or life scenario which can be solely or primarily blamed for creating burnout situation however as per the research report conducted on highest range of burnout personnel, it is found that it is the work pressure or organizational pressure which plays the key role for causing stress and burnout thereon.

Every workplace or organization is associated with a certain level of stress and burnout for their personnel which cannot be avoided fully. However, with proper stress management technique and positive perspectives and approaches, these negative impacts in one’s mental, physical and emotional health can be reduced to a great extent for preventing the burnout risk.

Though there are many stress management technique which has discovered in recent past due to the epidemic of health concerns caused by mental and physical stress but these techniques only provide guidance. Ultimately it is you who can get their positive benefits by adhering them properly as they require or expect for.

In serious conditions, a persistent stressful situation and mind can even cause death to its affected person. However, that is the worst condition so it’s better to learn some useful and effective techniques that can save you from both the issues including stress as well as burnout.

The burnout condition affects a person’s productivity, efficiency, quality of their personal and social life and above all it obstructs their path of progress and promotion in their professional life which is their primary mode of livelihood and survival.

Though all types of jobs come along with a certain level of stress as well as burnout position or risk but, it is proved in surveys that it is the healthcare department which has the highest level of risk for causing burnout condition in their personnel.

This happens particularly because the healthcare personnel has to work in the most emotionally exhausting work environment as they have to see stress, mortality, pain, cry, needs to make a decision in critical situations as well as have to face the consequences of their decisions.

So all these stress full things impact badly to their mental, emotional, and physical health leading them of the greater victims of stress and burnouts health concerns. Apart from this, we cannot deny the fact that all other sectors of work have their own personal level of stress and burnout that harnesses their mental, emotional and physical ability in the long run.

This creates a necessity for everyone to understand the primary contributing factors for stress and burnout at the workplace and how to deal with time in order to live a healthy, pleasing and successful life.

Causes of Stress and Burnout at the Workplace

An extreme level of persistent stress leads burnout which is nothing but a state of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. This affects the efficiency and working ability or productivity of the affected person. As it can lead to worst consequences in one’s life so it is very crucial to understand the major areas or factors that lead to stress and burnout.

It is found in a survey conducted on personnel of different work sectors that excessive work pressure, overtime work, less compensation, unattractive pay scale, weaker management and grievance addressing system are some key contributing factors for causing dissatisfaction leading to stress and burnout develops in the workplace.

This not only affects the growth trend of the concerned personnel but it equally hampers the growth and productivity of an organization as a whole as ultimately it is the personnel who are giving work and one cannot expect best work performance from dissatisfied or stressed personnel. The below-mentioned points will make more clear the reasons or causes for burnout or stress at any workplace.

Dissatisfactory Compensation

Dissatisfying compensation or pay scale is a primarily sabotaging factor for employee’s performance. It is found in researches that compensation which is not appropriate as per the personnel’s work performance is the leading factor for causing stress and burnout condition in them.

This further affects their efficiency when they find their mental and physical effort are not compensated the way as it should be. Dissatisfactory compensation increases the count of absenteeism, poor work performance, lack of initiatives or pro-activeness from the side of personnel which then affects the overall organization performance and success when this dissatisfaction lies in more than average number of employees of a workplace.

This creates an urge to pay employees on the basis of their competitive ability. Likewise, other factors should also be considered while preparing the pay scale so that the employees will not feel that their hardcore effort is not compensated as it deserves.

Insufficient Reward System

In the lack of a sufficient reward system or cycle employees often feels demotivated towards their responsibilities, and even little amount of work seems exhausting to them. Insufficient rewards cycle in an organization cannot create or develop the feeling of oneness among its personnel which is vital for their greater possible performance and productivity.

The benefits of the reward system are not limited to monetary benefits only it is equally applicable for all possible non-monetary rewards which motivate the personnel from time to time to give their best and consistent performance for the growth and prosperity of them and the organization without any external pressure or force.

Non-monetary rewards include giving awards and recognition to employees from time to time for their work excellence at particular department or segment, recognition as a whole (across the organization), giving appreciation with each work or target accomplishment, etc.

In the lack of necessary monetary, intrinsic and social reward system an employee can easily feel burnout which not only hamper their efficiency and performance as an individual but it affects the overall goal and growth rate of an organization as a whole.

Unfair Policies

Unfair or biased policies are another leading factor that creates stress and burnout in a workplace in employees. There are many policies which are considered as fair and well organized in the eyes of management but on the ground level for whom these policies are actually meant for, creates dissatisfaction as they find them unfair.

Some policies that seem frustrating and irritating to employees and creates burnout situation, include disciplinary or attendance policies, unfair performance review or appraisal system, lack of OT or overtime payout for employees who work more than the fixed office schedule, lack of internal or external transfer policy, unfairly eligibility criteria for bonus, firing policies for employees based on their infractions count, etc.

Unrealistic Expectations of Management

It is quite obvious to expect things when you are hired by an organization however when these expectations are excessive then it looks and feels unrealistic for the personnel as it is they who are expected to give and fulfill all the set expectations by the management.

If this scenario exists in an organization it is quite likely to create stress and burnout there on among employees. Under this condition instead of focusing on their work and towards growth their performance curve declines persistently.

So it is very crucial to set expectation based on the realistic scenarios which their employees can fulfill without feeling exhausted or stressed. When the expectation is realistic and doable this develops a very positive approach in the mind of employees and then without any external pressure, they give their best performance without feeling exhausted or energy-less as it happens in the cases where expectations are quite unrealistic.

Lack of Authority

In many organizations, the work environment or work plans are such that it creates unusual and stressful dependency among employees for accomplishing a task. Like for completing one particular task, it is needed to take authorization from higher hierarchy personnel or management personnel, which are mostly time-consuming and creates the sense of out of control among the employees who are doing that.

Lack of access to certain sites, inability to accomplish a task by own self without taking support or authority from others, affects the work environment negatively. This type of lack of authority or control can even affect the moral values of employees that lead to suck their mental, physical and emotional energy leading to poor performance.

Partiality

Partiality or unfair decision by the management creates a sense of disrespect among employees leading to cause stress and burnout condition. Some common scenarios or incidents which can develop the feeling of partiality and unfair dealing in employees include –

Unfair resolutions provided by management for disputes that occur from time to time for different reasons.
Segregation of workload in an unfair manner.
Inequality in the payment system for the same sets of workload or responsibility.
Partiality in a performance evaluation or giving unfair promotion to non-deserving employees.
Dishonesty in the workplace.

Excess Work Load

Excess workload or work pressure is the most vital reason or cause for burnout situation in employees. This condition develops when the available resources for accomplishing a task or target is insufficient leading to create extra pressure and stress among employees to perform them on their stipulated time.

Again the work overload situation occurs when the task amount is greater than the available human resource or employees leading to create extra burden among personnel to accomplish the unrealistic target which would be easily done by adding some more employees.

This leads to persistent work pressure, over time work situation persistently leading to lack of focus and energy among personnel which ultimately cause stress and burnout at the workplace.

Tips to Deal with Stress and Burnout

As the stress and burnout not only affects the efficiency and progress of the affected personnel but it is a loss of an organization as a whole. However with some smart moves and actions from the side of employers as well as employees the condition of stress and burnout at the workplace can be dealt and managed easily.

Talk to Your Employer

It is waste of your energy to sit and wait for a fair dealing approach from your employer side if you are long been treated unfairly irrespective of task assignment, leaves policies, compensation, and promotional policies.

Now it’s time to open up instead of suffocating inside which will not only hamper your mental peace but will cause burnout situation by sucking your physical energy and well being in all respect.

Talk to your employer or boss directly. Share your concern clearly, make everything clear which seems unfair to you and other issues that affect your peace and sabotage your working capability with your 100% efficiency.

At this point, an employer should also listen to everything carefully and must clear every confusion or misconception if they find the respected employee is carrying unusually. This direct one to one meeting will help you to deal with your stress and burnout emotions and will also increase your confidence level when you started getting a fair deal as per your work effort and devotion.

Understand Your Worth

Know you’re worth first instead of expecting it first from your employer. If you yourself will not understand your work value and, the worth or importance of your effort for the organization, it is useless to expect the same from your employer.

By knowing your worth you can understand well whether your compensation is worthy or satisfactory or your agitation for getting hike is appropriate. In this context, you can ask from the ex-employees or senior employees regarding the company payment scale and on what basis the promotion and compensation package are prepared or planned.

Also, you can clear your queries with your office HR and know how long it will take you to reach your desired compensation scale. Also, keep clear knowledge about the package benefits to understand other than the basic compensation what extra benefit you are getting.

This clear knowledge will be beneficial for you when you will plan for switching in another organization as you can compare your current package and benefits with the newly offered compensation package.

Take a Leave or Vacation

It is quite obvious to feel exhausted or burnout if you are working in a work environment which demands or expect 24×7 presence or availability. An exhausted mind and body cannot give its best performance. So it’s time to plan for a vacation or a small leave for few days.

Go out with your family or friends in the open environment in the midst of nature as because nature is more effective and natural healer especially if it is related to mental concerns or health. So plan a leave, take approval from your boss and enjoy your vacation forgetting about each and every stress and tension regarding your workplace or any other worry.

When you will be back from your vacation you will feel pumped up with the boosted level of energy, which will ultimately help you to get rid of burnout as well as opens up your path for progress or growth.

Take Breaks When You Needs So

For dealing with stressful, exhausting work pressure it is quite essential to take a small break whenever you feel exhausted or lack of energy for further work. This small break in the midst of your working hour will work as an energy booster which will increase your productivity when your mind and body get enough rest at the point when it desperately requires the same.

Occasional breaks are not bad it is beneficial for both the employees as well as for employers as it ensures that they get their task done with full quality as an exhausted mind cannot give hundred percent quality and productivity. So even the bosses should allow such breaks without creating irrational pressure on their employees.

Look for a Satisfactory Job

If nothing is working out in your favor and you think that you are handled unfairly by your boss and management then it’s better that you look for a better and more satisfactory job for you. By switching your job you can get back your lost confidence level that you have loosed due to partial or unfair dealing at your previous office.

Also, this decision will open up your path for satisfactory compensation which you were not getting in your previous organization. This change in your job at the right time will relieve your mental, physical and emotional stress as well as burnout and will open up the path of progress and growth at the new working environment.

The above discussion proves clearly how the growth and productivity of personnel and organizations directly get affected by the burnout conditions which create a necessity to look for stress and burnout compensation as a serious issue without fail.

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Stress and Burnout Causes and Tips to Deal With It