4 Questions to Ask Yourself about Burnout

Many of us don’t know what’s wrong when we are suffering from burnout. We know that something in our life is going wrong, but we can’t tell what. If you think that you may be suffering from symptoms of burnout, ask yourself the follwoing four questions:
1.) Has anyone close to you asked you to cut down on your work?
2.) In recent months, have you become angry or resentful about your work or about colleagues, clients, or patients?
3.) Do you feel guilty that you are not spending enough time with your friends, family, or even yourself?
4.) Do you find yourself becoming increasingly emotional, for example crying, getting angry, shouting, or feeling tense for no obvious reason?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, it might be time for change. The questions above were created for the United Kingdom Practitioner Health Program, but are a great starting point for all workers to ask themselves if you think you may be at risk of burning out.
But who is most at risk?
Any worker has the potential to suffer from burnout, but those who deal with people on a regular basis are especially at risk. This can include retail workers, teachers, those in the medical field, etc.

Within the medical field, emergency service workers, like police, paramedics, nurses, and doctors, are at an even higher risk because their regular work environment is constantly high stress.
A recent survey done by Medscape questioned 15,000 US doctors and found out that 44% of them were experiencing symptoms of burnout. One specific neurologist said, “I dreaded coming to work. I found myself being short when dealing with staff and patients”.
Lawyers are yet another career that is at high risk for burnout. In a survey done by Australasian Lawyer, 73% of the 1000 employees working at a well known London law firm expressed feelings of burnout. 53% recorded that they needed to make a better work-life balance.
No matter what your job is, however, if your you pushed beyond your abilities for long periods of time, you are at risk for burnout.
So as always, stay healthy!
