When we are in a good mood, stress is transformed into interest
Todd Kashdan
Scholars noticed that after several years of work some people are too close to stress, feel constant fatigue, sometimes headaches, insomnia, general health deterioration, including cardiovascular and nervous disorders. Most authors refer to stress in human professional activity as “emotional burnout”.
Emotional burnout is an individual psychological defense mechanism in the form of full or partial exclusion of emotions. A person cannot be merry, cheerful and happy every day. Boredom, depression, feelings of powerlessness, lack of the sense of accomplishment are familiar to everyone. If these times do not last long they are almost invisible. But sometimes a person is permanently in this state which leads to annoyance because of the slightest trouble, hopelessness, loss of interest or pleasure in work, alienation from (job-related) activities, feelings of cynicism and detachment.
Our nervous system has a limit to “communication” and “mental processes” (e.g. perception, problem solving, attention, etc.). So during a day people can devote full attention only to a limited number of people and challenges. If the number is greater, exhaustion comes inevitably and eventually burnout. This limit is very mobile and depends on the tone of the nervous system which can be reduced with unsteady social environment, bad mood when “fade the colours of the day”, along with unresolved problems, insomnia, lack of sleep and many other reasons [5, 11, 12].
Psychologists and researchers claim that burnout is the result of an extended period of time where someone experiences exhaustion, work in a chaotic or high-pressure environment, demands exceeding someone’s resources and a lack of interest in things someone performs at work [6, 7, 9, 10, 12].
The development of emotional burnout syndrome is largely due to the complex of social-psychological and individual personality traits. I. V. Malyshev marks the following reasons of emotional burnout:
- low compliance with the stress;
- reduced adaptive capabilities at psycho-emotional stress;
- difficulties of social and professional adaptation;
- social inactivity;
- repression of realization of personal potential in profession and career [4].
It is reported that tense situations in the labour activity, mental and physical overloads, managing multiple projects, multiple demands, tight deadlines, over-commitment and unexpected job emergencies lead to occupational stress [9, 13]. Burnout is not a mere consequence of occupational stress. Burnout occurs owing to a complex interaction of personality characteristics of a person, his interpersonal relationships in a professional environment and family life [1, 2, 3, 8].
There are several factors that lessen the impact of stress on our mental and physical health:
- social support;
- optimism;
- balanced diet;
- active lifestyle;
- sleep for 7–8 hours every night [8].
To reduce the destructive influence of emotional burnout, scholars recommend the following:
- regular rest, balance “work-leisure”;
- lower the monotony of work;
- introduce novelty into your life;
- reorganize your place of work, create comfortable work environment;
- be engaged in creativity;
- extend your range of interests;
- widen your circle of friends and acquaintances;
- enlarge communication;
- raise educational level (join refresher courses, seminars, conversation clubs, foreign language clubs, etc);
- pass more time outdoors;
- go in for sports;
- read books;
- go on a journey [12].
To eliminate burnout, one should learn to organize priorities, pace oneself, lead an active professional position, communicate with positive people, get rid of negative emotions and balance personal and professional life.
Thus inability to tolerate higher professional load, depression, personal and emotional distance, lack of communication, low self-esteem, chronic exhaustion and tiredness provoke burnout. Emotional burnout has a negative impact on the performance of professional responsibilities and relationships with colleagues. Burnout has a bad effect not only on professional activity, but also on quality of life. High level of excellence and professional satisfaction, positive emotions from work help to resist and overcome emotional burnout.
References:
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5. Эмоциональное выгорание и как с ним бороться ttp://www.camps.ru/association/children/psycho/psycho-parents/179-jemocionalnoe-vygoranie-i-kak-s-nim-borotsja.html (дата доступа 13.02.15)
6. 10 Signs you’re burning out — and what to do about it. http://www.forbes.com/sites/learnvest/2013/04/01/10-signs-youre-burning-out-and-what-to-do-about-it/ (accessed February 13, 2015).
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