4 Signs You've Reached Burnout Status

Speaker 1 · 0:00

Welcome to The Leader Assistant Podcast, Episode 9. Please review on iTunes.

Speaker 2 · 0:10

The Leader Assistant Podcast exists to encourage and challenge assistance to become irreplaceable, game-changing leader assistants. This episode's quote is from Max Lucado. A man who wants to lead the orchestra must turn his back on the crowd.

Jeremy · 0:29

Hey, everyone. Welcome to Episode 9 of The Leader Assistant Podcast. Today, we're going to talk about a topic that unfortunately hits a little close to home for me. We're going to talk about burnout, and we're going to talk about four signs you've reached burnout status. So unfortunately, at my last job, I burned out. I mean, I was not in a good place. But the worst part is I didn't know until I was in between jobs and kind of was looking back in hindsight. I kind of learned a lot when I had about eight months or so in between jobs to kind of consider and think through what it was that went wrong and how I could have recognized the signs of burnout sooner. So I wanted to share four signs that you may be burning out today, and hopefully this will help you, you know, catch it before it's too late. Unfortunately, I did not catch it and crash and burn and it took me a while to recover. But thankfully, I'm doing a lot better these days. And we can talk about in the next episode, episode 10, we'll talk about how to avoid burnout so that you can not make the same mistake again. So this this describes how I was or how I was feeling when I was burning out. Something didn't feel right, but I was too busy to figure out what it was. I was stressed. I was exhausted. But I thought, you know what, everyone else is too. So I just sucked it up and pushed through. Just keep grinding. No one cares how healthy I am. That's that's just what I thought. They just want me to produce. That's what I convinced myself. The closest to me, my wife, and even my boss, eventually, they spotted that I was burning out first, but they don't always have the courage to speak up, or they're too busy themselves, or they might be burning out themselves, or they don't know how to address it, or how to even name what's going on. And sometimes they do point something out like my lovely wife did several times, but I just didn't understand or didn't listen, and it was just too far gone to really snap out of it in that moment. So the word burnout, the verb burnout means to cause, to fail, wear out, or become exhausted, especially from overwork or overuse. That's from the Merriam-Webster dictionary. So hopefully, you realize you don't have anything left in the tank before you end up in the hospital with stress-induced illness, or you end up doing something you can't take back, like cheat on your spouse, steal money from your employer, or fall into substance abuse. So if you're suffering from burnout or you're heading that direction, how can you make drastic changes before it's too late? How do you remind yourself that your overall health directly impacts your ability to produce? So we're going to talk, again, in this episode about recognizing the burnout first, and then we'll talk about how to avoid it in the next episode. To recognize, I think one thing we need to remember is we just need to stop making excuses and make better use of our time and energy. Working harder, faster, and longer does not equal more productivity. Well, again, we'll talk more about avoiding burnout in the next episode, but here are four signs or four ways to tell that you're approaching burnout. Sign number one is you're physically ill more than usual. Do you find you're taking more sick days than others in the office? Now, some of you may have chronic issues or serious illnesses, which obviously is a challenge in and of itself, but I'm talking about just general colds or flus or whatever it is. Are you staying home sick a lot more than you usually do? Or a lot more than those around you? If everybody in the office is sick, that's one thing. You just think, oh, well, everybody's doing it. But if people keep saying, man, you're sick all the time, and why are you sick all the time? Then there may be something up with that. In other words, consider the possibility that being sick all the time could be a direct result of you working too much and pushing yourself too hard. All right, here's a fun one. A few years ago, as I talked about, I was burned out and this was me. So sign number two is you get irritated or angry very easily. I was so overworked and exhausted, and unfortunately, very easily irritated. If you don't believe me, you can ask my wife. She will tell you all about that time. There are more than a couple verses in the Bible that talk about being slow to anger, which unfortunately did not describe me at the time. I was definitely not slow to anger. I was quick to anger. I'm not proud to admit it. Again, you can ask my wife all about that time. It was not a fun time in our family. If other people are frightened or on edge around you, consider it a warning. You are likely in the midst of burnout. So that was me. My wife was kind of on edge around me, and it's such a shame that it came to that. But thankfully, through job change and kind of a rude awakening, thankfully, we're in a better place now. All right, sign number three. You can't remember your last day off. Now, by day off, I mean you didn't check your email. You didn't get a text from your boss. You don't have to call someone in the office to check on something real quick. Maybe you had one recently, but when was the last time you had a few days off in a row? If it's been a while, it's time to take a real vacation. Like we talked about in episode seven, use your vacation days, take a vacation. All right, sign number four. You're tired all the time. How many cups of coffee do you need to stay awake or stay alert throughout the day? Are you tired even after your day off? Are you doing stuff on your day off that re-energizes you or are you doing more work and are you doing stuff that drains you? How much sleep do you get each night? If you're tired all the time, it's likely due to many factors, but if you're not getting at least seven hours of sleep every night, start there. Next, you can try other things to combat your sleepiness. For example, don't eat after 8 p.m. You can exercise. You can eat healthy food. You can also start by just going to bed early. Check out this simple chart from the CDC in the show notes at leaderassistant.com forward slash nine. It's leaderassistant.com/nine in the show notes. I'll put this chart in here, but it basically talks about how many hours of sleep is recommended based on your age. So check that chart out. Look at your age. Look at how many recommended hours of sleep the Center for Disease Control suggests you get, and try to start getting more sleep. So again, next week we'll talk about avoiding burnout. I just want to encourage you to be honest with those around you about what's going on. Let someone know you're struggling. If you see these signs and you're checking all the boxes and all four of these signs that you're burned out, tell your boss, tell your spouse. It's better that your boss or your coworkers find out now, as opposed to when you end up so burned out that you quit or you end up getting fired because you can no longer produce. So be honest with yourself. Are you approaching burnout? To recap, are you physically ill more than usual? Do you get irritated or angry very easily? Can you remember your last day off? And are you tired all the time? If you can relate to one or more of these signs, then slow down. Don't ignore it. Okay, thanks for listening, everyone. Again, next episode, we will talk about avoiding burnout and how we can avoid it before it's too late. So be sure to subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or Google Podcasts, wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find those links at podcast.leaderassistant.com. And again, the show notes for today's episode will be at leaderassistant.com/nine. Lastly, I just want to share a resource that I have called the 30 Day Assistant Challenge. I put this assistant challenge together. It's a 30 day email course where you get a challenge or an encouraging note every weekday for 30 days in your inbox. And I put this together because one of the reasons I burned out in my last job was I was not networked with anybody. I was not connected with other assistants. So I was kind of working under a rock and not putting myself out there and learning and even being in community with other assistants that could tell me, hey, you looks like you're working too hard or it looks like you're burning out. So I put this email course together, had about 500 to 600 people go through the course so far, assistants all over the world, and would love to have you join us. There is a standard package for $29 and you get 30 emails in 30 weekdays. You can sign up at assistantchallenge.com. Again, assistantchallenge.com. It's my 30-day email course that is designed to challenge you and encourage you to become a leader and to step outside of your comfort zone and to really network and grow your leadership skills as an assistant. So check that out at assistantchallenge.com.

Speaker 1 · 10:52

Help my dad out in review on iTunes. goburrows.com