Job Burnout Symptoms & Recovery

Speech-language pathologists are regarded as part of a special group of occupations called “helper” professions. Helper professionals address a patient’s or clients’, physical, psychological, emotional, or intellectual well-being. Doctors, nurses, psychologists, social workers, counselors, clergy, and therapists are all deemed to be helper professionals because of the vast array of issues they address and support.

Those in helping professions will often feel the stress and exhaustion of work more severely than other professions because of the caring nature their work requires. This overwhelming stress can often time lead to job burnout.

What is Job Burnout?

Job Burnout can be defined as a state of exhaustion, whether it be physical, mental or emotional, that also includes a sense of loss with your personal identity and a sense of reduced accomplishments. Someone who experiences job burnout may also feel a sense of hopelessness. Being in a helper profession, your job has many stressors that can come from colleagues, clients and their families. Your to-do list is ongoing, and every duty feels like a fire that needs put out immediately. When tension starts to overtake you to a point of constant dread and negativity, it’s time to examine if what you’re experiencing is truly stress or the beginning stages of burnout.

Job Burnout Symptoms

Feeling burned out goes beyond stress and exhaustion. Signs of job burnout can include feelings of anxiety, frustration and depression. These job burnout symptoms can affect not only your emotional health but your physical health as well; burnout can seep into almost every part of your everyday life.

Work-Life and Self-Care

As a helper, your focus is usually on the needs of your clients but unfortunately, that can lead you to ignore your own personal needs. Overlooking a work-life environment where there are too many demands and not enough resources may also contribute to feeling burned out.

It’s easy to focus on others and their success rather than seeing the warning signs of poor self-care or a poor work atmosphere.

Job Burnout Recovery

Some people believe that if they’re struck by job-related stress and burnout, it means leaving their job but that doesn’t have to be the case. By changing parts of your lifestyle, it is possible to disarm job burnout before it gets the better of you. Here are some ways on how to cope with job burnout:

Create a fulfilling non-work life – Surround yourself with passions outside of work to serve as calming safeguards between you and your job. If you don’t have hobbies or passions outside of work, consider starting something new or exploring something you’ve been interested in that is not related to your career.

Set boundaries – Taking paperwork home can be tempting but it’s not helpful towards maintaining a balance between home and work. If you must take work home or work from home, establish a time when you unplug and put away whatever you are working on. This includes unplugging from paperwork and email.

Create a healthy lifestyle – Too little sleep, working through lunch, sitting for hours on end at a computer; none of these are good for your health. It’s important to not only get plenty of sleep but have an active, healthy lifestyle. This can mean eating better, getting more exercise, or getting a check-up.

Dealing with Job Burnout by Reaching Out

Before you dismiss those negative emotions, anxiety, or feeling drained, reach out to someone. It can be extremely cathartic to have others to talk to. Online support groups or in-person groups where you can express your frustrations can often lift those negative feelings and offer a different perspective on how you feel.

You have an obligation to take care of yourself. Surviving burnout means taking action and committing to reducing burdens on you and refilling yourself as a whole.

At VocoVision, we pride ourselves on promoting a healthier work-life balance by offering flexible schedules to our therapists and work-from-home positions, so our clinicians have more time with their families and to exercise their passions. It’s never too late to make a change in your career – start today by checking out our teletherapy positions here.