As the year comes to a close and the holidays are in sight, it’s completely normal to feel a little bit burnt out.
Over the course of 2022, you likely heard the phrase “quiet quitting”, but it’s one Dr Andrew Dhaenens from UNSW Business School isn’t particularly fond of.
“Because it really is just job withdrawal, when you start to withdraw from your relationships because you’re tired and you don’t have that space,” he told The New Daily.
Burnout has an array of symptoms, not just lack of motivation or low energy.
The Black Dog Institute says burnout can leave you feeling isolated, trapped, cynical or disengaged. People often experience a lack of life satisfaction, they might procrastinate, be irritable, feel exhausted or drained and have disrupted sleep.
It’s also possible people will have physical responses and experience headaches or body pains.
Dr Dhaenens said he often notices someone is experiencing burnout when they start to withdraw from others, or they become really animated over a more quiet issue.
Why do we feel burnout near the end of the year?
Come December, it feels as though everything is happening everywhere, all at once, Dr Dhaenens said.
You may have time off over Christmas, but until then you’re working hard, and on top of that, there are work Christmas parties as well as your life outside of work.
“Fortunately, it’s going to follow with a lull and a quiet stretch and a period where we can rest and recharge and reconnect,” he said.
While it is important to take that break from work, if you do have time off, and reconnect with friends and family, it’s also important to connect with colleagues.
Dr Dhaenens says he likes to think we are all products of our relationships, so even taking time with colleagues and supervisors allows you to celebrate any accomplishments and think about the following year.
Those social events can also be an opportunity to prioritise what work needs to be done over Christmas and evaluate deadlines.
What to do if you’re burnt out
The Black Dog Institute says while burnout is overwhelming, it can be managed and you often don’t need to seek medical help.
A good starting point is practise self-care, things you can do at home that will help you feel a little better.
When you are feeling overwhelmed, it’s important to be proactive with your emotional wellbeing and not just hope things will get better, The Black Dog Institute says.
The institute has a guide on how to use self-care to improve your mental wellbeing.
Exercise, reading, meditation, disconnecting from technology, or talking with a friend or family member are all acts of self-care.
Has working from home made burnout worse?
Working from home can make things easier – but it also blurs the lines between work life and home life.
Dr Dhaenens says the flexibility of working from home can be good to achieve a work-life balance and it can help reduce burnout.
Working from home, it can be difficult to signal whether you’re taking a break or busy working, even when using tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams.
He hopes those tools get better in the future to help people signal when they are out of office or working in a different sort of way.
Overall, Dr Dhaenens has an optimistic view on what 2023 will hold for workers in Australia.
“I think 2023 is going to be a year of values, identity and culture for organisations,” he said.
“While most organisations really can appreciate the flexibility of hybrid work and things like that, It’s important to realise that those are all tools to really help us promote our well being and our satisfaction and our learning.
“But we often want to think about what outcomes we want to have, rather than thinking about how we’re working.”
