Recognizing Burnout

Stress Management

According to various surveys, 8 out of 10 employees working in any modern organization suffer from various stress-related disorders, though they may not be willing to admit it. As companies chase increasing levels of quarterly earnings and reckless competition, management put excessive amounts of pressure on all employees, from the janitor to the CEO. Such excessive amounts of work, customer demands, constant communication, bad projects, competition, etc., all result in employees working almost round the clock and cause early burnout.

Burnout is a very common problem with employees these days. The 24 x 7 work culture is leaving no meaningful time for most employees to rest and recharge their batteries. Today you can easily burn yourself out by the age of forty and get high blood pressure, diabetes, migraine problems, nervous disorders, etc. For example, software programmers get problems like bad eyesight, wrist problems, headaches, etc., by working long hours on the computer. Salespeople suffer from fatigue and bad eating habits leading to all kinds of health disorders. Business managers can get sleeping disorders, digestive problems, fatigue, and other ailments due to extensive travel. The list can go on and on for every type of career. Contrary to what many believe, burnout is not a fad. It is real and exists all around. For example, a couple of years ago I received a news item that was floating around in the industry.

Six software professionals under the age of 33 have died and two top executives from renowned software companies have become paralyzed because of stress-related heart ailments in the last six months in Chennai, says a study by Mitran Foundation, a Bangalore-based voluntary association of practicing doctors.