Burnout is a type of chronic, unmanaged stress that has significant consequences for our physical and mental health. It’s characterised by feeling exhausted all the time, with no energy for everyday tasks, and little enjoyment in everyday activities. A survey by YouGov for the charity Mental Health UK in 2020 found one in five people felt unable to manage pressure and stress levels at work. Other Research found that burnout among UK workers almost doubled from 2021 to 2022 and that a staggering 88 percent of the UK workforce has experienced burnout since 2020.
Many of us think we can keep pushing day after day, week after week, month after month without any consequences. But we can’t. What I have seen time and time again is that this constant pushing always comes back to bite, it is just a case of when. Many of us are on the road to burnout without even realising it. In the past, we might have thought of burnout as a phenomenon that only affected high-flying CEOs. But it’s fair to say the world of work has completely transformed over the past few years. Pressures on everyone are through the roof, no matter what your paygrade or level of responsibility. Add to that the rise in home working, the cost-of-living crisis and the fact that boundaries between work and home have become increasingly blurred means that it is something that more and more of us are experiencing.
In this podcast, Rangan outlines 7 signs that may indicate you are on the road to burnout: things to look out for in your mood, your behaviour, your habits and your health. Rangan then walks you through 10 practical tools you can think about introducing into your life that will quickly start to help.