Yesterday, a friend shared with me teacher Liu Yu's article "Do a line, hate a line". She tearfully "revealed" the enviable truth of academic work:
In order to make a living, I have to continue to "study", which was originally a good career, but I want to tell you a secret. Sometimes, especially sitting in an "academic conference", I feel very, very want to scream.
This occasional feeling of "not wanting to go to work" is probably "job burnout".
What is job burnout?
Job burnout first appeared in the field of psychology in 1974, when a man named Herbert Kodenberg? American psychologists described burnout in a paper? This phenomenon is based on his observation of volunteers (including himself) in a drug rehabilitation center:
Many volunteers are enthusiastic about their work at first, hoping to do their best to help others, but later they become very depressed and tired, it is difficult to control their emotions, and some even have physical symptoms such as headache and insomnia.
In this paper, Herbert called job burnout "serious occupational injury", sometimes it means "real loss":
You have lost what you cherish in your heart-your motivation to engage in this profession, which will bring anger and sadness, which is hard to overcome.
Later, another American psychologist, Christina Masla, and her colleagues made a further study on burnout. According to the famous Masla Hirsch Burnout Scale (MBI), there are three main aspects of job burnout:
1. Severe fatigue
Including physical discomfort, emotional exhaustion, such as difficulty sleeping, inattention, memory loss, etc.
I feel "tired", have the ability to do a job but have no motivation to do it, and often have the idea of quitting. ...
Dehumanization
Actively "humanize" yourself, feeling that your thoughts and feelings are not important and have no influence on the surrounding environment;
Distract yourself from work, customers and colleagues, and appear indifferent and cynical at work.
3. Low utilization rate
You can't get a sense of accomplishment at work, your work efficiency is reduced, and your sense of helplessness is strengthened.
If you are tired and unhappy at work for a few days, and you don't like anyone (including yourself), your efficiency will become low-probably burnout.
Why are you tired?
Masla said that job burnout is a long-term response to chronic emotions and interpersonal stressors at work-that is, job burnout is a signal of problems in the relationship between people and work.
So when looking for the reasons for burnout, we should look at two aspects: the reasons for looking inward at individuals and the reasons for looking outward at work.
First of all, job burnout may be related to these "personal reasons":
1. Personality factors
Research shows that there is an important correlation between personality factors and job burnout. Jean alarcon et al., 2009).
For example, emotional stability, positive or negative way of feeling the world, these factors will have a strong correlation with one of the manifestations of burnout, "emotional exhaustion."
2. Cognitive style
Some studies have found that job burnout is related to some typical "depressed cognitive styles", such as excessive dependence on external cognition, perfectionism, pessimistic attribution, meditation and so on. Wait,? 20 16 )。
Step 3 deal with stress
Research shows that stress resistance is negatively correlated with three dimensions of burnout (? Jean alarcon et al., 2009). Masla Hull mentioned that people who are used to coping with stress events in a defensive and passive way are more likely to feel bored, while those who actively respond are less bored (Christina Masla Hull? 200 1).
4. Self-esteem level
According to Masla's research, the three dimensions of burnout in the scale (fatigue, dehumanization and low self-efficacy) are all related to low self-esteem (Christina Maslach? 200 1).
Second, job burnout may be related to these "work reasons":
Maslach and Leiter use six indicators to evaluate the degree of matching between people and work. If we have one or more mismatches with our work, we will have burnout for a long time.
1. The workload is too heavy
This is the most direct factor related to burnout-the workload exceeds the load you can bear; Another possibility is that the type of work is not suitable for you-you may feel tired even if the workload is reasonable because of the lack of certain skills or characteristics needed for the job.
2. Lack of control
It refers to the lack of control over one's own work, such as being unable to obtain the resources one needs and deciding which way to finish the work.
3. Lack of recognition and reward
Including economic rewards (salary, bonus) and internal rewards (sense of accomplishment in completing a project, praise from others, etc. ).
4. Lack of social support at work
Including emotional support, mutual help at work, and a sense of belonging from the collective. Lack of social support, especially long-term unresolved conflicts with others at work, will increase frustration at work.
5. The latter two: lack of fairness &; Conflict of values
When people feel that they lack a sense of fairness in their work, or some work tasks violate their values, they are more likely to feel tired.
Third, greater social, cultural and economic forces have brought about the feeling that "the psychological contract has been violated"
In addition to the above two reasons, job burnout may also be related to a larger background, such as social, cultural and economic factors.
Masla Hector pointed out that the changes in resource allocation and organization in modern society will make migrant workers feel that their "psychological contract" has been violated:
"Now, people expect employees to pay more in time, effort, skills and flexibility, but they get less in return for career opportunities, lifelong employment and job security. Violating the psychological contract may lead to burnout. "
Work can't meet your expectations, and you can't get the expected return if you pay a lot-burnout is justified.
What about job burnout?
In terms of how to deal with job burnout, most of the research focuses on "how to do it personally", but Masla Herr pointed out that it is actually difficult to solve it fundamentally by oneself because it involves external reasons such as work.
Moreover, compared with life and other fields, people have much less control over the workplace, so whether some personal strategies are really effective will also be affected by the specific environment.
This may show that in solving the problem of job burnout, choice is more important than hard work-try to choose a working environment that matches all aspects of you (values, interpersonal relationships, autonomy, material and spiritual returns), and the possibility of job burnout is lower.
But back to reality, in most cases, we can only deal with it from the personal level. Here are some tips for preventing/coping with burnout:
1. Do something new.
Communicate with managers, let yourself do something different from the routine work, and inject freshness into the work.
2. Take the initiative to rest.
Arrange a "hard time" for yourself, just like completing a work task. Know and perceive your own energy, and take the initiative to charge before "excessive energy consumption".
3. Create a supportive working environment.
If possible, actively establishing a network of support and mutual assistance among colleagues and feeling a sense of belonging in the group will effectively prevent burnout.
4. Schedule an "input time" for yourself.
For example, reading books related to your major and attending seminars and training courses can help you regain the deep motivation of your work.
5. Cognitive behavioral therapy.
At the individual level, cognitive behavioral therapy is considered to be the most effective way to deal with job burnout.
6. Increase the sense of control over the work.
A study in 2007 found that when people feel that they have a greater sense of control over their work, such as being able to independently arrange the order and pace of work and practice their own ideas, their sense of burnout will be significantly reduced. h？ Tinen et al., 2007).
7. If you can't control your work, you can control your life.
If these personal strategies still can't alleviate burnout, you should realize that work is only a part of your life, actively adjust the proportion of work in your life, and leave more room for physical and mental health, friends and relatives, hobbies and so on. This is also a good way-if work doesn't make you so happy, you can establish the order of your life in other ways.
This may be a way to escape from job burnout: before performing the duties of "migrant workers", realize that you are an independent and lively "person" with unique needs and feelings-work is not the ultimate goal, but you are the goal.
When you start to pay attention to yourself, the surrounding environment will also respond to you.
Finally, I hope you can have a determination to "value yourself" in any field of work or life.