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Burnout​—Are You Next?

BY AWAKE! CORRESPONDENT IN JAPAN

“Waitresses in Sweden, teachers in Japan, postal workers in America, bus drivers in Europe and assembly line workers everywhere are all showing increasing signs of job stress.”​—MAINICHI DAILY NEWS.

NOBUAKI was exhausted. Working day and night, he had recruited 130 employees within four months. He was the sales manager for a new branch of a major supermarket chain in Japan, and in his efforts under pressure, he had employed people who failed to meet the standards he expected. They fought each other and complained about their lot. On top of that, a male employee ran away with a female employee. Nobuaki was having headaches every day. Soon he could not go to work, and on the days he forced himself to go, he would come home immediately. He was burned-​out, like a match that has finally gone out.

Full-​time housewives also experience burnout. After two years of being at home with her three children, Sarah became very impatient with them. “I felt as if I was doing and doing and doing, but it was just a bottomless pit,” she declared. When a mother works secularly and rears children, the possibility of burnout increases. Betty, in her 40’s, found herself in the situation of balancing motherhood and a career, trying to fulfill both roles to perfection. She tried to please everybody​—her husband, her children, her employer, and her colleagues. Her blood pressure was up, and minor incidents irritated her. She suffered burnout.

Burnout hits unlikely victims as well. Shinzo, a capable Christian minister, was full of vigor and ideals. He went to help in an area where there was a great need for Christian teachers. Within a few months, however, he felt exhausted, and he shut himself in his bedroom all day long. He felt as though he were in a tunnel with no way out. He had difficulty making decisions, even about what to eat for lunch. He did not feel like doing anything. He was completely burned-​out.

What Is Burnout?

What then is burnout? Herbert Freudenberger and other researchers took up this term in the mid-1970’s, and it came to describe “a state of exhaustion resulting from involvement with people in emotionally demanding situations.” Also, “physical or emotional exhaustion, especially as a result of long-​term stress or dissipation.” (American Heritage Dictionary) There are, however, depending on the researcher, shades of difference in the definition of this term.

Although burnout has no precise medical definition, victims are identified by symptoms such as fatigue, lack of enthusiasm, helplessness, hopelessness, and malaise. The victim feels extremely tired and gets irritated over minor incidents. Nothing will ignite him to action. Everything seems overwhelming, and he may desperately seek help from whoever comes his way. All efforts in the workplace and at home may seem pointless. A sense of hopelessness prevails. If you have these symptoms coupled with malaise, a lack of enjoyment in anything, then you could well be experiencing burnout.

Burnout can affect work and family life. You want to avoid it. But how? To find out, let us first see who are prone to burn out and why.

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Symptoms of Burnout

“Job burnout refers to a debilitating psychological condition brought about by unrelieved work stress, which results in:

1. Depleted energy reserves

2. Lowered resistance to illness

3. Increased dissatisfaction and pessimism

4. Increased absenteeism and inefficiency at work.

“This condition is debilitating because it has the power to weaken, even devastate, otherwise healthy, energetic, and competent individuals. Its primary cause is unrelieved stress, the kind that goes on day after day, month after month, year after year.”​—The Work/​Stress Connection: How to Cope With Job Burnout, by Robert L. Veninga and James P. Spradley.