1. Exhaustion

2. Apathy

3. Demotivation

4. Personal neglect

5. Depression

6. Fatigue

7. Frustration

8. Cynicism

9. Little concentration

10. Lack of sleep

Some posts and articles list these feelings and actions as symptoms of "Burnout", defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a state of chronic stress.

For me, this list is as ambiguous and generic as when we discovered the symptoms of COVID-19 described at the beginning of 2020.

In fact, the list is so ambiguous that 9 of those 10 symptoms I consider my own personality traits.

Well I'm exaggerating, maybe 8 of those 10 symptoms.

The issue is that, while these articles, posts, blog entries and newsletters have good intentions, they only speak of the tip of the iceberg of what is a much deeper problem than what we might see.

Confucius, one of the most important thinkers in China and humanity for creating a school that did not distinguish between social classes had the following phrase:

"We don't see things as they are, we see things as we are"

My reflection on this phrase is that we are responsible and creators of our own reality, of our opinions and thoughts, everything we see we observe through glasses with the prescription of our life history.

I confess that I read the lists, posts, blog entries and other pieces of content about the symptoms of "Burnout" with great disbelief because, from my life story, they fail to describe the terrible feeling of being in a hospital bed, limited to natural movements and think with great anguish all those work activities that I will not be able to deliver next week. Whenever I read those aforementioned symptoms, a part of me thinks that they could be potential indications of other types of illnesses, problems or challenges.

A horror story that I experienced when I neglected my health to focus on work occurred a few years ago. I went on vacation with my sister's family, I experienced amazing days with my nephews. I had never enjoyed my days off so much, and yet, among my luggage I brought my laptop from work. Although I did not use it to work, taking it with me represented a toxic shadow that followed me, it was a mental reminder of "my permanent work availability" if required, I lived with the anguish that at some point I was going to receive a work email that would going to take away the peace I was feeling. During those vacations I remember that I was sick, I thought it was just a cold, I had a very annoying cough that everyone noticed and even though I bought medicine to "heal" the symptoms, I didn’t get better. When I got home from that vacation, coughing was so painful that my ribs were completely sore. Even so, I didn't take my discomfort seriously, I didn't give it importance. My priority was to go to work and be present and available to everyone, not get out of what was happening to me. For this reason, when my mother suggested that I should see a doctor, I was very annoyed and replied:

"I don't have time to go to the doctor."

Not having time to go to the doctor was very expensive for me later on, as it turned out that I had pneumonia and I spent a week in the hospital.

Of course now in retrospect, I am very sad about that very punitive attitude that I had towards myself, that I felt guilty of not being productive and that I have hurt myself by having those thoughts, I can attest that I got to that situation for reasons like chronic job stress and my blurry, confused vision that couldn't make out priorities worth defending, like time, balance, and life.

Although these posts, blog entries, and lists in the form of graphics denote signs of Burnout, it seems to me that they fall short in describing real scenarios of what it is like to experience the pain of "Burnout." From my own experience, it's almost like being stuck in the wrong multiverse, where you're trying your best not to drown and learning to live with little air in your lungs because you don't know any better.

The symptom of "poor concentration" of "Burnout" is one that is worth describing in more detail, also because by coincidence while talking with my sister, she told me about an experience in which she was managing several tasks and people in perfect symphony at the same time, but everything changed when someone approached her with one more task, my sister tells me that she froze because in her words "I had reached the limit of my mental bandwidth". I like to think that there was an "imbalance in the force" (because my sister is a Jedi master) and she just couldn't handle the situation anymore because it was getting out of her manageable control. If we think of the Conductor of an orchestra, we can observe that he is in charge of creating and directing the harmony of the music that the audience is listening to, if someone suddenly adds an unknown ingredient to the mix, such as a bagpipe, it is very likely that we will hear a very dissonant melody.

And I think the last thing we want is for the soundtrack of our lives to be dissonant.

Finally, my reflection on this thought or criticism is that the posts on social media, although they are only a "clickbait" or, I repeat, they may have good intentions, at least I suggest for us, that we are on the side of readers, that we exercise the awareness of these situations, we have the power of understanding that allows us to "see beyond the obvious", break down and ask ourselves why? How these situations make us feel, as a friend told me, it is important to "check in" inwards, ask ourselves, how do I feel today? How did I feel yesterday? And how am I going to feel tomorrow?

This article was translated by @ross.gspr

Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal opinions of the authors and do not reflect the views of affiliated organizations. The information is for informational purposes only and not intended as professional advice.

References:

Biro, M. M. (2022, February 16). How To Tackle Unconscious Bias In Your Workplace. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/meghanbiro/2022/02/15/how-to-tackle-unconscious-bias-in-your-workplace/?sh=3867948d6dc3

The Toxic Effects of Branding Your Workplace a “Family.” (2021, November 10). Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2021/10/the-toxic-effects-of-branding-your-workplace-a-family