5 Tips On Dealing With Burnout

This article is the final edition of our series on Workplace Burnout.

This week we share our strategies on dealing with burnout.

If you feel that your work has got you in a state of chronic stress, it is time to act. Our tips can be implemented into your every day routine to regain control of the stresses of your job to help you function at your best.

1. Recognise and manage the stress contributing to burnout:

Reflect and identify on what it is that is making you feel stressed and overwhelmed at work.You might like to write a list of all of the things that make you feel stressed on a given day. From there you might be able to see there are things that can be adjusted to make your word day less chaotic. It might be as simple as allotting certain times to check emails,  to minimise feelings of being overwhelmed and distracted by having them constantly pop up on your screen. Alternatively, it may be that you can delegate certain tasks if you feel it is the sheer amount of work that is making you feel burnt out.

 2. Schedule “You-Time":

Pencil in you diary time for yourself and stick with it. Managing burnout needs to be as important as any other meeting or appointment. Make this a time in your week spent on an interest that helps you ‘wind-down’ – something that you find rewarding and really enjoy. You might like to see this as reward for all of your hard work.

3. Be your own best friend:

Think about the advice you would give a loved one who was experiencing the same situation of burnout. What would you say to them? It would probably be along the lines of, “Make sure you are taking care of yourself.” More specifically, this advice may pertain to getting enough sleep, eating well and making time for exercise and relaxation. You want this for those dear to you, so make it happen for yourself.

 4. Make work-life balance more than just a myth

Many people see work-life balance as a distant, unattainable concept. This doesn’t have to be the case. When considering working overtime for the 4^th time this week, taking work home with you or skipping that lunch hour, saying “no” does not make you a bad employee. Overcoming burnout and having a healthy work-life balance will see you become a more productive worker and extend the longevity of your career. Taking regular breaks and not working too many hours are crucial in recovering from chronic work stress.

 5. Socialise & Seek support

Rekindle friendships and relationships that have fallen detriment to the stages of your burnout. Be open and honest about how you are feeling with co-workers, management and your social supports outside of work. You can also  talk to a professional to help you manage your burnout. Your company’s EAP service or your GP are good places to start. Or call Beyond Blue’s Support Service on 1300 224636. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Click here to read part one of our burnout series, 4 Signs You Might Be Burnt Out 

Implementing a Health and Wellbeing Policy For the Work Place

Whether you work for a large or small company, implementing a health and wellbeing policy for the workplace is a great idea in order to get your staff feeling healthier and happier at work. In turn, this will also make them more productive, reduce the number of sick days, reduce turnover, and increase profits. It’s not always easy to devise a health and wellbeing program in your workplace but thankfully we can find many examples of these on government websites. One such example of a health and wellbeing policy template can be found here:
http://healthierworkplacewa.com.au/media/3739/generic-health-and-wellbeing-policy-template.pdf

Applying a health and wellbeing program has not received a great deal of attention, so in this article we will give you some helpful hints and tips that ensure your policy will be long lasting and successful.

Promote your program

The first step in implementing the program is to promote your program. Raise awareness of some of the health issues that are related to what you’re specifically trying to target, such as diabetes and obesity with diet or cardiovascular disease by promoting exercise. In order to have a successful program you have to start a buzz in the workplace that gets people seeing the program in a positive light – you may have heard this as creating a burning platform. The key is to get your management and some key players within your organisation on board. This can be as simple as having health posters around the office, or having a program launch with some inspiring speakers to come along and promote the health benefits.

Manage your program

Putting your plan in action is one of the most fun and exciting stages, however, to make sure it stays on a ‘can do’ basis it is important to make sure everyone is on the same page and that ongoing activities are coordinated efficiently. It is important to have ongoing contact with the staff members that are involved, this can be done by holding meetings monthly, fortnightly or whatever is most convenient. This will help you to assess any issues with the program and any modifications that could be made to make it easier for employees to be healthy.

Evaluate and make improvements

Evaluating the program is a necessity in order to help identify the things that are working well and things that weren’t received too well by employees and can be reduced or excluded in future. On top of this, it is useful to have an idea of what worked well so that you don’t make any unnecessary changes that may deteriorate the quality of the program, such as with exercise or food. A great tool for this is to have informal chats on lunch breaks or when bumping into participating staff in the office. It is important to ask yourself (and anyone else helping to evaluate) did everything go to plan? Did it make a noticeable impact? Were the outcomes as desirable as expected?

The workplace is a great environment in which to promote and improve health and wellbeing. Implementing a health and wellbeing policy in your workplace will help your staff to be happier and healthier and will also improve your organisation as a whole. That sounds like a policy worth investing in to me!

Taking responsibility over satisfaction and happiness

The old saying "do as I say, not as I do" can ring true for many allied health professionals. Constantly having to take on the weight and pain in other people's lives can take its toll, and it's often difficult to point your expertise inward for help.

When your boss acknowledges your hard work, when a client gets great results because of your help, or when someone waves after you give way to them in peak hour traffic this can be enough to make our day! But when your hard work goes unnoticed, a client makes unfair complaints, or the driver you let in doesn't even bother to wave, we let it get to us and allow these external factors to influence our mood, satisfaction and overall happiness for longer than it should. We focus on the trivial things in our life and depend a little too much on what happens around us, what others do and don’t do to make us happy.

So how do we take responsibility for our own happiness and not let trivial external factors influence us too much? Let’s look at some potential solutions:

1.       Emotions and the Mind

Learn to accept your emotions, even the not so warm and fuzzy ones!  

It is argued by some health professionals that most of our problems come from an inability to adequately experience our emotions, especially so-called negative emotions, because we don’t allow ourselves permission to express them. How can this be resolved?

(a) Writing about negative emotions after having a bad day at work, using a process called cathartic writing can help. Research has shown that people who write about their deepest emotions are less depressed and more positive about life. However, make sure to check out some guidelines and examples before you begin. 

(b) Laugh. Take some time out to have a giggle! We have to remember that sometimes we take life way too seriously. Laugh at the little things but also don’t be afraid to get creative. Play a game of charades, google funny cat photos, spend some time talking about something funny that happened at work, or rent a comedy. Laughter really can be the best medicine!  

(c) For more pervasive problems like chronic road rage, seek assistance from a mental health professional before you break your horn. This will allow you to better understand your feelings and what strategies to put in place to assist the situation in the long term.

2.       The Body

Experts tell us time and time again how the mind and the body are connected. This means that if we do not look after our body, then this can have a negative effect on our happiness too. Here are some tips to keep your body (and mind!) in check:

(a) Get plenty of quality sleep – Yes, your parents were right when they told you that you’d wake up grumpy in the morning if you didn't get enough sleep. To improve your sleeping habits, try going to bed at the same time, develop a standard pre-sleep routine such as reading a book or taking a warm shower or bath, and avoid things like caffeinated drinks and chocolate before bed.

(b) Exercise. Physical activity can open the brains pleasure pathways, releasing endorphins, which make you feel great. And if running a marathon isn't your thing you could try meditation or stretching exercises like Yoga and Pilates. When at work, take a quick stroll around the office block or organised with a work friend to take a walk to the local café or cafeteria for a lunch catch up.

(c) Healthy Eating. We need good nutritious food for growth, healing and healthy functioning. Try to eat a balance diet of healthy, wholesome, fresh foods and skip on foods that are highly processed. Eating meat and fish, rich in protein, iron and Omega 3 fatty acids will give you that extra energy to get through the day. Not a big meat eater? Try eggs and vegetables like lima beans and lentils which provide a healthy alternative instead of grabbing a dim-sim or potato cake from the local café on your lunch break.

So now you have a few tools to get you started in finding your own happiness! Keep adding to your new happiness tool box and you might even be the next work-life balance guru!

4 tips for a healthier workplace

Is your company making you sick? Been stuck in that uncomfortable office chair all day? Becoming

accustomed to the sounds of colleagues sniffling their way through flu season or are you tempted on a regular basis by nearby snacks to get you through the day? 

If you answered yes to one or more of those then don't panic, but your workplace may be having a negative effect on your health, and in turn may be affecting your productivity and even desire to work! There are some simple changes all leaders and individuals should incorporate into daily routines to combat the wrath of the unhealthy workplace:

      Get out of the chair

Sitting is the new smoking. No really, if you’re like most office workers and are sedentary for more than 6 hours a day, you’re putting your health at risk. Research suggests that our fat burning mechanisms switch off when we’re inactive, consequently we’re putting the sit into obesity. Set aside some time after completing major tasks and go for a walk around your office.Talking to others around the office, and using your lunch break to get some fresh air will also help to keep your mind fresh and ready for the day's challenges!

     Avoid Temptation
When you're day is feeling extra repetitive it can become all too simple to take frequent walks to the fridge or food table. Test out that will power against unhealthy snack choices, you know you have it in you. Better still; bring simple pre-prepared snacks to work from home. It’s a full proof plan; you’ll have healthy snacks to scrape you past 3:30-itis and you’ll save money!

     Hygiene
Is there anything more soothing than the background noise of sniffling and coughing in the office? Well that’s debatable! We can’t control our colleagues but we CAN protect ourselves from contracting that dreaded flu. Practicing good hygiene and hand washing is always important, but even more so in the winter months, or when a bug is going around the office.

      Walking meetings
 Have you ever considered going for a walk outside the office with a colleague to discuss your ideas? It’s a productive and healthy alternative, so long as your walking meeting doesn’t turn into a conversation about what shocking revelation took place on your favourite TV show last night. Who knows, the fresh air might motivate you into realising new and interesting ideas.

A lot of these tips are centered around getting up and getting moving but it’s of paramount importance. Australians now spend the equivalent of a full working week sitting down. This may seem alarming for some but does anyone actually spend much time out of their chair at work? If you focus on all of the above tips you will be well on your way to jumping back onto the health bandwagon.