<story><title>Why I Collapsed on the Job</title><url>https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Collapsed-on-the-Job/242537</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lxr</author><text>I agree you need to catch it early. I often wonder what the most time-efficient form of mitigation is.</text></item><item><author>cyberferret</author><text>Burnout doesn&amp;#x27;t differentiate between gender, race, sexual orientation, social status or the size of your bank account.&lt;p&gt;Much like when I was in flying training and we were subjected to the altitude simulation pressure chamber so that we could each identify how we individually experienced the onset of hypoxia, I think it is important that everyone notates down the onset of burnout at home or at work.&lt;p&gt;For me, Stage 1 is when I start feeling myself getting irritable and snapping at those close to me for no reason at all. S2 is when I start having trouble sleeping, and get a really stiff neck leading to headaches.  I&amp;#x27;ve got to catch it at that point otherwise if it moves to S3 - crippling headaches, inability to focus on simple tasks or S4 - inability to even get out of a chair due to the feeling of extreme fatigue, then the recovery process is SO much longer and harder.&lt;p&gt;Keep a working journal, or better still, ask someone close to you that you can trust to note any out of character behavioural changes and advise you of them so that you can start to detect patterns and take action to mitigate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Angostura</author><text>Back in December; my stress levels were pretty high. I&amp;#x27;m a can-do kind of employee; I really enjoy the adrenaline of sorting out an interesting unexpected problem on a short timescale.&lt;p&gt;But I was faced with multiple deadlines and some unexpected work came up and I was called up for jury service ( a not very nice case). I took my laptop home and tried to finish the projects after a day in court.&lt;p&gt;One day, at lunch in the court, I was thinking about a project and found myself silently weeping. So I got straight on the phone to my boss and explained that I;d just found myself crying, thought that this was probably a bad sign and thought I should stop on that project.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m lucky in that I have an employer that values me, trusts me and takes their duty of care seriously. It probably helps that I&amp;#x27;m a man in my 50s. They told me to knock off the project completely and commanded me to stop thinking about it until after Christmas.&lt;p&gt;So, IF&lt;p&gt;* You have a good employer.
* You have the courage to admit weakness&lt;p&gt;The most effective thing to do is to tell your boss asap and ask for reasonable accommodation until you feel better.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m back to doing stupid amounts of work, but my boss trusts that if it feels like it is causing me problems I will tell them, and I trust that they will deal with me reasonably.</text></comment>
<story><title>Why I Collapsed on the Job</title><url>https://www.chronicle.com/article/Why-I-Collapsed-on-the-Job/242537</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Lxr</author><text>I agree you need to catch it early. I often wonder what the most time-efficient form of mitigation is.</text></item><item><author>cyberferret</author><text>Burnout doesn&amp;#x27;t differentiate between gender, race, sexual orientation, social status or the size of your bank account.&lt;p&gt;Much like when I was in flying training and we were subjected to the altitude simulation pressure chamber so that we could each identify how we individually experienced the onset of hypoxia, I think it is important that everyone notates down the onset of burnout at home or at work.&lt;p&gt;For me, Stage 1 is when I start feeling myself getting irritable and snapping at those close to me for no reason at all. S2 is when I start having trouble sleeping, and get a really stiff neck leading to headaches.  I&amp;#x27;ve got to catch it at that point otherwise if it moves to S3 - crippling headaches, inability to focus on simple tasks or S4 - inability to even get out of a chair due to the feeling of extreme fatigue, then the recovery process is SO much longer and harder.&lt;p&gt;Keep a working journal, or better still, ask someone close to you that you can trust to note any out of character behavioural changes and advise you of them so that you can start to detect patterns and take action to mitigate.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Cthulhu_</author><text>The most time-efficient already implies you see burnout as something you just have to push through and get back to work. This is wrong; the most time-efficient way is to avoid getting it altogether. Stick to regular working hours, don&amp;#x27;t take your work home, stick to 5 working days a week if possible. And if you&amp;#x27;re in a managerial position, your job is to delegate work, not do things yourself anyway in addition to trying to delegate things.</text></comment>