3 Types of Burnout, and How to Overcome Them

Research shows that people don’t burn out in the same way or for the same reasons. Because of this, it’s important to identify the type of burnout you may be facing. You may even be dealing with a mixture of one or two of these types at the same time. In this article, the author describes three types of burnout—overwork, underwork, and neglect—and gives readers pointers to look out for and tips on how to overcome each type.

Take a moment to remember a person who has burned out. You probably picture someone overbooked, overwhelmed, drowning in multiple demands and competing priorities.

But burnout is much more nuanced than just being busy and tired.

For years it was believed that everyone reacted in the same way to chronic stress at work. However, research has shown that burnout manifests in different ways depending on an individual’s work environment and their internal resources, including commitment to their work and coping mechanisms.

Let’s take a closer look at the three types of burnout and how to overcome them.

Overload Burnout

Overwork burnout occurs when you work harder and more frantically to succeed, often at the expense of your health and personal life. This is the type of burnout most people are familiar with, and it is also the most common.

Overwork burnout typically affects highly engaged employees who feel obligated to work at an unsustainable pace. This drives them to physical and mental exhaustion.

Workers with Overwork Burnout tend to cope by taking their emotions out on others (ie, complaining about how tired and overwhelmed they are). This subtype is also quick to jump into problem-solving mode and create more work and responsibility for themselves, which only adds to their stress levels.

Signs to look out for:

• You overlook your own needs or personal life to meet work demands
• You invest more than healthily in your commitment to your career or ambitions
• You compromise your well-being in order to achieve your goals

How to address it:

Researchers find that there are two ways to get out of overwork burnout. First, it is important to develop stronger emotion regulation skills, such as B. Naming and processing your emotions and reshaping negative self-talk. For example, you could rephrase the belief that in order to be successful you have to work all the time to “enjoying my life helps me be more successful”. After all, rest is not a reward for success. It is a requirement for achievement.

Second, it’s crucial to separate your self-esteem from your work. “By learning to maintain a certain distance from work…” write researchers Jesús Montero-Marín and Javier García-Campayo, “thus individuals could avoid over-commitment and prevent burnout.”

Strive to diversify your identity—to create self-complexity—by investing in different areas of your life beyond work. You might choose to dedicate time to your role as a spouse, parent, or friend. During the pandemic, one of my clients restored an old identity by renewing his pilot’s license. Volunteering with the Civil Air Patrol proved to be a healthy compulsion to get away from his computer while also contributing to his well-being.

Underchallenged burnout

You may be surprised that if you don’t do enough, burnout can result. Underload burnout could be viewed as the opposite of the overload subtype. It occurs when you are bored and unstimulated by your job, leading to a lack of motivation. People experiencing under-challenged burnout may feel undervalued and frustrated because their role lacks opportunities to learn, room for growth, or a meaningful connection with peers and leaders.

Workers who feel their jobs are monotonous and unfulfilling tend to lose passion and become cynical and lethargic. They manage the stress of underchallenging through avoidance – distraction, dissociation, or thought suppression (i.e., commanding themselves to “stop thinking about this”).

Signs to look out for:

• You want to work on assignments and tasks that are more demanding
• You feel that your job doesn’t give you opportunities to develop your skills
• You feel that your current role is hindering your ability to nurture and develop your talents

How to address it:

When you are demoralized it can be difficult to take care of many things. Lower the stakes simply by exploring your oddities. Set a goal to learn a new skill in the next 30 days to boost your motivation. Start small and don’t overwhelm yourself. Maybe you spend an hour or two a week learning to code, or spend 20 minutes a day practicing a new language.

Taking steps toward something that feels fun and meaningful to you creates a momentum flywheel that can lift you out of a funk. Even if the skill isn’t directly related to your job, you’ll likely find the positive energy spilling over to reinvigorate your passion for your work—or inspire your career to move in a new direction.

You can also try creating a job to turn the job you have into the one you want. Again, small steps are key. Focusing on incremental changes can yield big results. Take my client Alice, a lead in product management. As the pandemic progressed, she felt increasingly underwhelmed by her role, which consisted primarily of managing team performance. So I gave her an order. For two weeks, she tracked which tasks generated the strongest psychological flow. A clear pattern emerged: Conversations with customers enlightened her, as did solving challenging workflow problems. Alice’s manager was excited when she proposed a new research project that would combine these skills to innovate the company’s core product.

neglecting burnout

The last type of burnout is the worn out subtype. This is also known as neglect burnout because it can result from feeling helpless in the face of challenges. Neglect burnout occurs when you don’t get enough structure, direction, or guidance in the workplace. You may find it difficult to keep up with demands or otherwise feel unable to meet expectations. Over time, this can leave you feeling incompetent, frustrated, and insecure.

The weary worker copes through learned helplessness, which occurs when a person feels unable to find solutions to difficult situations—even when they are available. In other words, people with learned helplessness tend to feel unable to do anything positive about their situation. In other words, when things aren’t going the way they should at work, people with neglect burnout become passive and stop trying.

Signs to look out for:

• They stop trying when work situations don’t go as planned
• You give up in response to obstacles or setbacks at work
• You feel demoralized when you get up in the morning and have to face another day of work

How to address it:

Find ways to regain a sense of agency about your role. Try making a to-don’t list. What can you get rid of by outsourcing, delegating or delaying? Look for commitments that you all need to say “no” to together, and hone your ability to set stronger boundaries. A good place to start is to identify situations in which you experience intense feelings of resentment. This is an emotional signal that you need to set healthier boundaries.

Also, consider talking to your boss about your workload. You could explain how you currently spend your time and ask, “Are my priorities aligned with yours? What should I change?” Or, “If we could get Project A off my plate, I would have more time to focus on our team’s strategic priorities and ultimately achieve the key goals we evaluated against.” Your manager will likely be thrilled that You think about the big picture and take initiative.

Above all, focus on what you can control. Be optimistic about self-care outside of office hours. Create routines and rituals that ground you, such as B. a daily walk or keeping diaries. When you’re feeling helpless at work in the face of shifting tides, some semblance of predictability is essential.

. . .

Because people don’t burn out in the same way or for the same reasons, it’s important to identify the type of burnout you may be facing. You may even be dealing with a mixture of one or two of these types at the same time. When you identify where you are right now, you can more easily find targeted solutions to solve the specific challenges that lie ahead.