10 Signs You're Already Burnt Out at Work

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According to Dr. David Ballard from the American Psychological Association, job burnout is an extended period of time where an individual experiences exhaustion and a lack of interest in things often resulting to poor job performance. If left unchecked, burnout can create serious effects on your heath, happiness, relationship and job performance.

Sometimes it's hard to notice when the physical, emotional, or mental exhaustion from work is taking its toll. In order to avoid burnout, check yourselves from early signs so you can combat it early:

1. Exhaustion/ Lack of Motivation

A clear sign of burnout is when you feel tired all the time, according to Forbes. Exhaustion can be emotional, mental or physical. This is a feeling of being completely spent.

If you consistently lack the energy after work to do regular things like cook, go to the gym or spend time with your family, then there are high chances your experience burnout, Business Insider adds. It can also be harder to get up in the morning. It seems you to drag yourself into work every day.

2. Frustration, Cynicism and Other Negative Emotions

This is feeling disillusionment about with everything, reports Forbes. You might notice that you feel more generally pessimistic than you used to. While everybody experiences some negative emotions from time to time, it's important to know when these are becoming unusual for you.

More so, your co-workers may pick up your misery and may approach you to ask if everything is alright, Business Insider adds. You may also feel that you're losing hope for a turnaround.

4. Cognitive Problems

Burnout and chronic stress may interfere with your ability to pay attention or concentrate. When we're stressed, our attention focuses on the negative element that we perceive as a threat. However, when stress becomes chronic, this narrow focus continues for a long time. In turn, you may have difficulty paying attention to other things, says Dr. Ballard to Forbes.

5. Slipping Job Performance

Another indication of burnout is when there's a big difference in your performance from previous years. Forbes said that burnout tends to happen over an extended period of time, so taking a long-term view of your performance might reveal whether you're in a temporary situation or experiencing more chronic burnout.

6. Interpersonal Problems at Home and at Work

This can happen two ways, according to Forbes: 1) you may develop more conflicts with people around you or you withdraw and 2) talking to your co-workers and family members. You often find yourself zoned-out. You may often find yourself over complaining to your partner or close friends.

7. Not Taking Care of Yourself

You have the tendency to engage in unhealthy coping strategies when experiencing burnout. You may find yourself drinking too much, smoking, not eating healthy or enough or not getting enough sleep.

8. Being Over Preoccupied With Work

If you're exhausting mental energy thinking over your job even outside the office, then your work is interfering with your ability to recover from the stresses of your day, reports Forbes. You may find yourself unable to slow down and relax.

9. Generally Decreased Satisfaction

This is the tendency to feel less happy to almost about every aspect of your life. You might feel dissatisfied or even stuck at home, in the community or with your social activities, Dr. Ballard says.

10. Health Problems

Over a long period of time, serious chronic stress can create real health problems like digestive issues, heart disease, depression and obesity, reports Forbes. So, in order to stop the situation from getting worse, check yourself for symptoms and take relaxation seriously.

Check out the video below for other ways to detect burnout: