Burnout is now an Official Medical Diagnosis, Says the World Health Organization:
If you feel chronically exhausted or frustrated with your work, keep making small mistakes or feel stuck in a cycle of unproductiveness, you may want to take a trip to your doctor. Even if it isn't burnout, it's worth getting checked out.
Why does burnout happen?
Burnout occurs when you feel overwhelmed, emotionally and mentally depleted and unable to keep up with constant demands at work. As stress continues to mount, you may feel hopeless, disinterested and resentful when it comes to your work life.
According to the American Institute of Stress, Americans now work longer and harder than before: In one generation, the number of hours worked increased by 8% to an average of 47 hours per week.
Some other startling statistics from the Institute of Stress:
- 25% of workers have felt like screaming or shouting because of job stress
- Nearly 50% of workers say they need help learning how to manage stress
- More than a third of workers (35%) say they feel their jobs harm their physical or emotional health
And from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health:
- 40% of workers report their job as being very or extremely stressful
- 75% of employees believe on-the-job stress is much higher than it was a generation ago
- Workers associate job stress with health issues more than they associate financial or family problems with health issues
As for what to do about it? There are no hard-and-fast rules, but the suggestions basically amount to separating from activities that lead to "immediate reaction required". Only check your e-mail in the morning, at lunch, and at the end of the day. Log out of chat applications whenever possible. Reduce the amount of time spent on social media. Go for a walk without your cellphone or media device.
In a nutshell: take back control of your life.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bradley13 on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:01AM (6 children)
"Reduce the amount of time spent on social media."
Yes, I think this is a valid point. Not so much social media at work (which there shouldn't be much of), as in breaks, at home, in your free time. Social media takes attention - it is not relaxing. People need "off" time, time to be bored. With social media, they jump from the stress of their jobs to the stress of politics/gossip/whatever right back to the stress of their jobs - with no down-time in sight.
Just as an example: my wife and I have instituted one electronics-free evening a week. Have a nice dinner, watch the fireplace, take a walk - whatever. No phones, no TV, no computers. I went to play pool with younger son on Sunday, as we do periodically; we also have no phones while playing. Really be there with the other person. It makes a huge difference - recommended.
Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday May 30 2019, @01:52PM (5 children)
When "social media" means interacting on subjects with any degree of acrimony, absolutely. Social media, can, however, be relaxing if you're reading interesting and non-acrimonious content — generally this is only consistently found in fora that are hobby- or pursuit-specific. I'm very relaxed when I'm surfing a mineral images collection forum [flickr.com], for instance. Zero stress, notable and consistent levels of pleasure.
What? Absolutely not.
You were close on it when you noted that [some] social media is not relaxing; Getting away from that is what people need. Time to relax, to obtain a reflective state of mind or engage in pursuit of some non-stressing goal. That is not the same thing at all as being bored. Boredom is annoying; it is a state where one is not satisfied. That is not likely to be associated with relaxed or happy.
--
Sometimes people want to have full conversations
in the morning. It's okay to ignore those people.
(Score: 2) by Freeman on Thursday May 30 2019, @06:15PM (3 children)
Work can be quite "boring" depending on what kind of work you're doing. Having a break in the constant cycle of media consumption isn't a "time to be bored". Though, many people may see it as that. Having a break from work, societal pressures, and noise; is called fishing. Okay, maybe that's TMB's version. My version would be going to the park with my kid, playing table games with friends/family, gardening, or working on a hobby. Unfortunately, a lot of people having forgone hobbies for Facebook / Favorite Random Phone App.
Joshua 1:9 "Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee"
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Thursday May 30 2019, @07:04PM (2 children)
My version is rock collecting, with my phone turned off.
--
I'm having people over to stare at their
phones later, if you want to come by.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday May 31 2019, @01:34AM (1 child)
Do you have any Indian sex stones?
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday June 01 2019, @09:00PM
For those not already aware: Indian sex stone = "a fucking rock".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by urza9814 on Friday May 31 2019, @02:34PM
I agree with OP. I *need* boredom, otherwise I lose all motivation. It's been pretty constant throughout my life since early highschool at least -- gimme two or three days with *absolutely nothing* to do, and on day three or four I start building something or kick off a new coding project or whatever. Doing absolutely nothing has a certain appeal to it sometimes, and that has to wear off -- ie, boredom needs to fully set in -- before I can get back to being productive.