Are you edgy at work, short-tempered with your co-workers and clients – or, heaven forbid, your boss? Maybe you feel anxious about each work week or shift, or struggle to find momentum in your tasks, slogging from one to the next without energy. Or perhaps you daydream about finding a new profession but can’t seem to break out of the exhausting pattern you’re in.
If this sounds like you, I might have a diagnosis: burnout. You might be “done” with your work but unable to leave, trapped by inertia or finances or a lack of transferable skills. What to do?
In last week’s column I presented five steps to help endure a burnout situation, ranging from balancing your work and home life to compartmentalizing to get through each work day. This week I want to look at steps for getting out of the situation altogether. The first three focus on leveraging what’s possible in your current work; the last three are about leaving this situation behind.
1. Find some "breathing room." You need at least a little energy or head space to build the momentum for change. If you can clear something off your list of duties, or take a few days off, maybe you can slow the treadmill long enough to think clearly. Another, more dramatic, option is to simply quit. But before you do, consider asking about a leave of absence instead.
2. Review your job for new work possibilities. Sometimes it's hard to know if it's the work or the employer or the overall field that's causing the burnout. By changing some circumstances you can gather information to help you make the bigger decision. Whether you take your boss into your confidence is going to be a personal decision based on a risk/benefit calculation. But the more you can change about your job, the more you'll be able to assess what's actually bringing you down.
3. Explore unused work benefits. Are you eligible for tuition reimbursement, conference attendance or professional association membership? Could you be telecommuting? If you're feeling underpaid or unappreciated, have you told your boss? When you're on the cusp of leaving anyway, there's really no reason not to change the dialogue to see what can be improved. Just remember these watchwords: tact and strategy. And maybe timing. The moment when you feel most aggravated is probably not the optimal time to launch this conversation. This is where a mentor or counselor can help by providing perspective.
4. Assess your finances. When it comes to career moves, the most relevant resources are your current skills and your financial position. These are also the two points that tend to make people feel the most trapped in a bad job. The situation is made worse by assumptions: Assuming you're not marketable, assuming you can't afford a pay cut, assuming that a lower salary is inevitable … what you need now is information, not assumptions.
Start by determining how low of a salary you could accept if it meant your freedom. This means stripping away everything (on paper) — including your retirement savings, the kids’ tuition, and even your mortgage and car payments — before adding back only those things that you absolutely must fund. Now: How much salary do you need? Are you really trapped, or just “golden-handcuffed”?
5. Assess your skills. What do you do enjoy doing in your work now? What are you good at and what would you like to learn more about? To do this exercise thoroughly requires writing down every little bit of the work week — meet the client, prepare the agenda, write the presentation, follow up with co-workers, write the proposal … you get the idea. Each of these is a distinct skill in an account manager's repertoire, some of which may be more enjoyable than others. To simply write "Manage accounts" wouldn't allow you to chose the parts you want to leverage in your next work.
6. Make your escape plan. If your current skills are easily transferred to a new employer and you feel that a change of scenery might be enough to revitalize your career, then the most straightforward thing to do is to update your resume and start job hunting.
On the other hand, if you intend to make a career switch, you’ll need time to prepare. First on the list is choosing the new work. If this is difficult, you need to break the logjam by meeting with a career advisor and developing a short career exploration process. Otherwise, you’ll risk losing momentum and starting the burnout cycle all over again.
