For Those Who Want to Stop Revving Their Engines and Spinning Their Wheels

This is about burnout — not cars

By choosing to read this, I’m going to assume that you already know something about ‘burnout’. And if you’re one of the unfortunates who have experienced ‘burnout’, then you’ll know only too well what it feels like to be burnt out. I’m, therefore, not going to waste your precious time with definitions and lists of symptoms and causes when there is more than enough of that information available elsewhere on the internet and in self-help guides.

Nor am I going to burden you with the blow-by-blow, ‘this happened to me’ details of how I came to hit the wall. To be perfectly honest, I was never officially diagnosed with ‘burnout’, but I can guarantee you I ticked all the boxes, and now that I’m somewhere on the other side of it, I hope that sharing my insights will help others understand and better deal with their own unique situations. Because that’s the thing. Everyone’s situation is different and one person’s response to a set of circumstances is different to the next person.

I’m also not going to enter into the debate about whether or not ‘burnout’ is a legitimate psycho-medical-legal condition. All I will say on that particular subject is that for anyone caught in the opposing currents of exhaustion (physical and mental) and frenetic activity that typifies ‘burnout’, the academic stalemate is singularly unhelpful.

Personally, I find the term ‘burnout’ rather offensive. I’ve had conversations with others who have suffered ‘burnout’ from toxic workplaces, and they, like me, agree that it’s an unfortunate label. It’s unfortunate because it apportions blame on the sufferer, as in, it’s the sufferer’s fault for working themselves to the bone. For not saying, ‘no’. For not asking for help. For not meeting deadlines. For letting themselves be used. For being a perfectionist. For not being good enough. Cognitive dissonance sets in when colleagues, friends, family, and even treating psychologists all adamantly insist, ‘It’s not your fault’. Well, who’s fault is it? Believe me, when you’re the one suffering this thing they call ‘burnout’, wrapping your battered head around the ‘who’s to blame’ question only makes matters worse and adds further insult to injury.

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