Burnout to Bloomout

Burning to Outshine?

Learn How to Outshine by Turning

Burnout into Brownout into Bloomout

Effective Weapons -----

Buoyancy Alertness Nobility Intuition Scenarioizing Humility

---- to BANISH

Bureaucracy Undermining Rifts Negativity Overworking Unbalance Tension

---- Burnout

‘Burnout’ is a perpetual and widespread pandemic. The findings of prestigious research organisations, referred to later in the blog, reveal that this pandemic, if unchecked, can be catastrophic, notwithstanding technological miracles. We are heading for terrifying conditions as described in a 100-year old essay by George Bernard Shaw titled, “When wealth accumulates and men decay”.

Burnout is caused by

1. radical changes emerging from the technological revolution

2. spread of individualism and

3. burning ambition.

Of these, the last one -  burning ambition - inflicts the maximum ill effects that lead to burnout. Having ambition is a desirable virtue, but when it degenerates into making manipulative and Machiavellian  efforts for senior positions and more wealth, it reaches the burning stage and is divorced from personal values. It turns into a rat race and many are willing participants despite warnings that, even if you are a winner, you are still a ‘rat’.  And such converted ‘rats’ ignore even closest of relationships. There is no wonder that such greedy behaviour finally ends in burnout with devastating suffering.

Who discovered Burnout? According to a Google snippet, “the term burnout was first used as an informal, everyday term. Freudenberger borrowed it from the illicit drug scene where it colloquially referred to the devastating effects of chronic drug abuse.”

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Be ambitious but bloom like flowers

Bloom like a flower

And raise your power

Needn’t wait for promotion

It’ll be beyond expectation

Forget job hunting too

They’ll come hunting for you

Promotions n jobs for a song?

Not always but

If you are in bloom, they throng!

-- (Source unknown)

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Frightening Dimensions of Burnout

A 2022 survey of 15,000 workers across 15 countries by McKinsey Health found that a quarter of employees experienced burnout symptoms. 76% of respondents in a Mental Health America and FlexJobs study agreed that workplace stress affects their mental health and 75% experienced burnout.” 

Many thinkers blame leaders for such a high level of workplace stress leading to burnout among employees. But even leaders are the victims of uncongenial workplace environments. Development Dimensions International's Global Leadership Forecast 2021 reveals that nearly 60% of leaders reported “they feel used up at the end of the workday,” which is a strong indicator of burnout.

According to a study, over four million American workers quit their jobs each month in 2022. And poor mental health is skyrocketing as 70% of the C-suite with the weight of the world—or at least the company—on their shoulders considered quitting to search for a job that responded to their mental health and well-being.

                                                             Depressing Impact

The expert author of  the paper with rare insight further adds, “It is an unresolved question of life and death inflicting ‘silent’ suffering and adversely affecting performance at work and at home. What’s more, it robs one of the joys and pleasures of living. Acute and chronic burnout can ruin health, career, marital and other relationships. It is considered to be the main cause of many ailments like heart attacks, insomnia, anxiety, and depression”.

Maslach and Jackson explain the nature of the impact as a “psychological syndrome characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and a reduced sense of professional efficacy.” (Emphasis added)

To describe the silent, stress-induced suffering as ‘Burnout’ was a highly realistic and apt idea. Because of low levels of technology, scarce resources and many living in isolation, past generations, too, faced burnout. It is very succinctly described in these lines from ‘resanscrit.com’: “In Sanskrit, there is only one tiny difference in the spelling of the words ‘stress’ (Chinta) and ‘funeral pyre(Chita), which in the written script is only an extra dot.” He adds: “Pyre burns a dead body, and stress burns the living.” 

It is an irony that such a horrifying impact of the ‘burnout pandemic’ has not led to a massive, global movement as was the case to combat the Covid pandemic. This task perhaps becomes more difficult because of the stigma attached to mental ill-health.

                                               How to Avoid/ Banish Burnout

Before we search for remedies, the real causes of burnout must be understood.  Gallup lists the primary causes of burnout at work as: “unfair treatment, an unmanageable workload, lack of role clarity and a lack of communication and support”. The meticulous  study has many suggestions for managements like enriching work environment by higher levels of empathy, compassion and kindness.

However, there is a school of thought that maintains that much depends on the individuals. The prime lesson is in the advice in the Bhagvad Geeta - udharet atmanam atmanah, na amanm awasadyet - which means “Let a person be lifted up by his own self; let him not lower himself; for he himself is his friend, and he himself is his enemy.”

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A centurion on the top of the world sans Burnout

Henry Kissinger

Kissinger played a key diplomatic role in normalising ties

between Washington and Beijing in the 1970s when he served

as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor in the

administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford.

He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He became a centurion on May 27, 2023. And in July 2023, he

was back in China, where President Xi Jinping told him

that “old friends" like him will never be forgotten.

In October 2023,   he was at a fundraising event attended by the Who’s Who 

and, as per a report, everyone lauded the 100-year-old’s

“social calendar” as “busier than most of the people in this room”.

The following week, Kissinger was supposed to speak at Rice University

along with two other former Secretaries of State, Hillary Clinton and  Baker.

Where is the stress?

Where is the burnout?

Only bubbling with zest till the final rest.

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Open Mind & Constant Change 

According to psychology experts and confessions of reformed victims, ‘Burnout’ is all in your mind and it is up to you to banish it. Dr Gary R Simonds MD MS FAANS, a medical specialist, in his exceptionally frank article “How Much of Burnout Is Self-Inflicted?” in ‘Psychology Today’ admits how he got caught in self-inflicted burnout and explains the remedial measures.

The world is upside down.  Therefore, each one of us has to ensure that we have what it takes to thrive in a constantly changing environment. We must make changes in attitudes, knowledge, skills, and companions. According to a Forbes survey ”half of all skills will be outdated in two years”.

We must also ensure that our families and friends are also aware of the changes that we are dealing with. Else, this can cause as much stress as the job and the work itself.  

It can help to focus on watching the weapons : Buoyancy Alertness Nobility Intuition Scenarioizing Humility  and  factors:       Bureaucracy Undermining Rifts Negativity Overworking Unbalance Tension  listed in the blog title for avoiding/ banishing  burnout.

‘Do What You Love’: A Panacea for Burnout

The conclusion of the above revelations by researchers from eminent organisations is  that pressures created by excessive workloads and outdated workplace environments in organisations, except a few, lead to unprecedented stress and burnouts. But, when we say business is people the individuals have to take initiative to reform the practices and participate in corrective programmes.

We have to apply the principle of giving more emphasis to  the  ‘vital few’ over ‘trivial many’. And the most vital factor is for each one to decide to do what they love. Confucius says, “if you love what you do, you will never work a day in your life.” So no work ,no stress, no burnout. This is not a philosopher’s fancy, but a principle that many practice. Everyone envied an academic topper from a business school who had bagged placement as the CEO’s Special Assistant in a  trillionaire company. After a few months, his classmates met him and asked “how is the journey in a trillionaire company?” He told them he left the job after 3 months. Why, asked the friends? He said that the CEO would sit late in the night and sometimes called him at odd hours. He was fed up. The trillionaire voluntarily chose to work at ‘odd hours’ because he  loved and  enjoyed what he was doing. For the assistant, however, this was not the case and it led to stress. 

What percent of people do what they love?  

A minority, as revealed by the following Google Snippets: 

• The results showed that almost 30% of students felt that they chose the wrong subject to major 

• As a practical matter, about 80% of students in college end up changing their major at least once, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. On average, college students change their major at least three times over the course of their college career. 

• Another source suggests that a staggering 99% of people choose the wrong career path.

• 85% of people are dissatisfied with their jobs worldwide. 

All of this leads to crucially important lessons to live life happily sans stress or fear of brownout or burnout:

To ensure life is not a battle, but a constant flow of joy and happiness, live:

Lovingly, Imaginatively, Faithfully and Enjoyingly

and not

Lazily, Ignorantly, Fearfully, Erratically

Those living in the first style bloomout and those adapting the second style face brownout and if not corrected, a burnout.

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