Avoiding and Coping with Burnout

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Avoiding and Coping with Burnout
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Purpose

• Learn about burnout
• Understand how to avoid and cope with burnout
• Create a personal action plan to cope with burnout

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Learning Objectives

• Upon completion of this workshop, participants
  will be able to
• Articulate what burnout syndrome is
• Understand why burnout occurs
• Understand how some people avoid burnout
• Foster personal characteristics that will help
  participants avoid burnout
• Utilize healthy lifestyle skills which will help
  participants cope with burnout
• Develop an action plan for coping with burnout

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Agenda

• Part 1 Awareness Defining Burnout
• Understanding Burnout Syndrome
• Factors that Affect Burnout
• Part 2 Skill-Building Avoiding and Coping with
  Burnout
• Fostering Personal Characteristics
• Developing Coping Skills
• Your Personal Action Plan to Cope with Burnout
• Part 3 Summary, Discussion and Questions

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Defining Burnout

• Emotional Exhaustion feeling that ones
  emotional resources are depleted.
• Depersonalization pulling away, or disengaging,
  from ones job and the individuals associated
  with it.
• Decreased personal accomplishment feelings of
  decline in competence and productivity.

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Factors that Affect Burnout

• Focus on problems
• Lack of positive feedback
• Work overload
• High level of emotional stress

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In-class Exercise 1

• Identifying Your Job Stressors

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Avoiding and Coping with Burnout

• As you can see, the risks of burnout are inherent
  in todays work climate yet even among employees
  doing the same job not all become burned out.
  This can be attributed to either the personal
  characteristics that some employees possess or to
  the coping skills that some employees utilize.

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Avoiding and Coping with Burnout

• Fostering Personal Characteristics
• Employees who possess psychological hardiness
  avoid burnout. Psychological hardiness refers to
  three personal characteristics that some
  employees possess which help them avoid
  burnout--challenge, control and commitment.

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Fostering Personal Characteristics

• Personal Characteristic 1 Challenge
• View Problems as Opportunities

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Developing characteristic 1 Challenge

• Cultivate positive self-talk
• Self-talk refers to the continual, but often
  unconscious, internal dialogue we all have with
  ourselves.
• Positive self-talk is one technique you can use
  to develop a positive attitude and improve the
  way you view your job.
• A positive attitude can help you accomplish
  personal and work goals, reduce your stress
  level, build healthy and satisfying relationships
  at work and home, and enhance your productivity
  and performance.

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In-class Exercise 2

• My Self-talk Messages

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Fostering Personal Characteristics

• Personal Characteristic 2 Control
• High self-esteem and internal locus of control

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Developing characteristic 2 Control

• Increase self-esteem and internal locus of
  control
• High self-esteem means that you recognize your
  strengths, forgive your weaknesses, and have
  confidence and pride in your skills and
  abilities.
• Internal locus of control means you believe when
  good things happen you had a hand in your
  success.
• Possessing these characteristics can help you
  feel as though you have power over the outcome of
  your job and your life.

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In-class Exercise 3

• Developing Self-esteem

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Fostering Personal Characteristics

• Personal Characteristic 3 Commitment
• Re-engage with your job

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Developing characteristic 3 Commitment

• Commit to something about your work
• Employees who possess this quality develop and
  foster strong ties to their organization. They
  feel proud of their employer.
• Similar to the optimists, these employees believe
  that organizational change, while challenging,
  has the potential to lead to future growth and
  development for themselves.

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In-class Exercise 4

• Re-committing To My Job

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Avoiding and Coping with Burnout

• Developing Coping Skills
• Developing a healthy lifestyle will help protect
  you from the harmful stress of burnout. Balancing
  out episodes of stress with periods of relaxation
  is a good way to regain your physical and
  emotional strength to face the next episode of
  stress that comes your way.

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Developing Coping Skills

• Coping Skill 1 Practice Relaxation

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Implementing Coping Skill 1 Relaxation

• Relaxation and breathing techniques are crucial
  to counteracting the negative effects of stress.
• Become proficient in using these techniques to
  help you maintain a healthy balance in your
  stress-filled days.

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In-class Exercise 5

• Deep Breathing Practice

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Developing Coping Skills

• Coping Skill 2 Exercise Regularly

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Implementing Coping Skill 2 Exercise

• The benefits of exercise are well documented in
  terms of helping to achieve a desirable weight,
  healthier heart and lung functioning, improved
  mental and physical relaxation, healthy sleep
  patterns, and an increased biological and
  psychological ability to deal with stress.
• There is some form of exercise for everyone.
• Walking is an excellent exercise and a great
  place to start when implementing an exercise
  program.

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In-class Exercise 6

• Setting Exercise Goals

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Developing Coping Skills

• Coping Skill 3 Eat Sensibly

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Implementing Coping Skill 3 Nutrition

• A persons ability to cope with job stress is
  affected by the bodys energy reserves.
• Poor nutrition will make it more likely that
  health problems will develop and it will also
  reduce your ability to cope with job stress from
  a physical standpoint.

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Eating Sensibly

• Take a look at your eating habits and determine
  whether you are choosing healthy options that
  give your body the fuel it needs to cope with job
  stress or unhealthy options (sugar, sweets,
  alcohol) which only give you momentary pleasure
  and satisfaction.

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Conclusion

• Your Personal Action Plan to Cope with Burnout

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Where do you go from here?

• After you leave the workshop today, please
  continue to work on your personal action plan and
  complete all of the exercises. Coping with
  burnout is a difficult and complex task one that
  requires planning, patience, and perseverance.

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Final Thoughts

• You are not alone in your experience of burnout.
  Seek help, if necessary, and that can start by
  simply telling a friend or co-worker, Im
  feeling really burned out by my job.
• Your feelings are normalwhatever they are. If
  you only take one step make it this one quit
  beating yourself up for feeling the way you feel.
• You can change your experience of burnout. It
  takes hard work and commitment to change but you
  can do it.

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Thank you