Part 1.5: Causes of Burnout

                            Part 1.5:  What Causes Burnout

I received some e-mails asking about what causes burnout before I go into the signs of burnout. Here is a 1.5 post to answer those questions.

Burnout is not caused by just one thing and different fields put more or less weight on each category.

Here is a compiled list of some of the factors that can contribute to the symptoms of burnout.

1. Lack of Control (or perceived control) – Individuals who have less control over their job demands or other life situations show higher rates of stress/ depression.

2. Insufficient Rewards – When we work hard and use our resources with no or little return we start to feel like we are just spinning our wheels.

3.  Workload – This isn’t just at work. Workload refers to all the things in our lives we “put on our plate,” so to speak.

4. Work Life Imbalance – Oddly enough this can go both ways. Finding a way to balance work and our social lives is important.

5. Lack of Support (or perceived lack of support) - Feeling isolated can quickly spiral into burnout.

6. Low Self-Efficacy – Self-efficacy is the belief one is competence at a particular task.

7. Mismatch in Values – Believing one thing and doing (or being asked to do) another causes Cognitive Dissonance. Cognitive dissonance is a feeling of anxiety when our beliefs don’t match our behavior.

8. Attitudes of Others – Research supports stress and negativity can be contagious.

9. Lack of Fairness – Perceiving situations as unfair can lead to feelings of disrespect or powerlessness in current situation.

10. PUT YOURS HERE! Although the above nine causes for burnout above have research to back them up, the truth is, what burns us out is subjective. There are things that pull us down and leave us feeling … WAIT!

We will save that for the next section “What are the signs of burnout?”

As always please feel free to e-mail me with suggestions, comments, or life stories. Thanks, M