Exhaustion begins to be felt at this point in the year. Fatigue piles up, the workdays seem longer, and ending the week with little energy becomes almost routine. But what happens when that tiredness is no longer just fatigue and may be pointing to burnout?
Burnout, also known as the work-related wear syndrome, is much more than being tired: it appears when exhaustion becomes persistent and starts to affect the relationship with work, with others, and even the expectation that something might change. While fatigue can be relieved with rest, in burnout sleeping or taking a few days off does not always suffice.
In Argentina, nine out of ten workers say they are “burned out”, a phrase that foregrounds a problem that often settles in quietly. How can we distinguish fatigue from burnout? Why does there come a time when disconnecting or taking vacations no longer suffices? And what responsibility do organizations have regarding this exhaustion?
Regarding this topic, Lucía Vallejo, an ontological business coach, spoke with Para Ti and explained what the warning signs are, what lies behind that feeling of being “burned out,” and what changes can help regain control over one’s own work.
“Burnout doesn’t arrive suddenly, it comes on gradually, and almost no one notices until it’s already at the limit”
-How can we distinguish “normal” work fatigue from burnout? What signals should alert us?
-There’s a very simple test. Think of Sunday night. If what you feel is “the weekend was so short,” you’re tired. If what you feel is “the same thing again,” that’s something else.
Fatigue is cured by sleep, you rest and you’re back to your old self. Burnout isn’t cured by sleep, because it isn’t in the body. It’s a judgment about the future: “whatever I do, this will stay the same.”
There are other signals that tend to appear together: you start isolating yourself, you stop proposing ideas, you get irritated by things that didn’t bother you before, and the body warns you with aches, insomnia, and tense muscles.
Burnout doesn’t arrive suddenly, it comes on gradually, and hardly anyone notices until it’s already at the limit.
“Rest restores your energy, but it doesn’t change what consumes it”
-Why does there come a point where sleeping, taking vacations, or disconnecting for a few days is no longer enough to recover energy?
-A simple analogy is the cellphone. If it runs out of battery because you used it all day, you charge it and that’s it. But if you have an app running in the background twenty-four hours a day, you can charge it every night and by noon you’re back at twenty percent.
Vacations are the charger, and the ways of working, of leading, and of relating are the background app. Restores your energy, but it doesn’t change what consumes it, and every time you’ll need more charger to replenish it.
That’s why you come back after two weeks and after three days you’re back to the same. What exhausted you wasn’t your energy, but your expectation that something could change.
“Meditation is not enough to compensate for a poorly designed organization”
-When does burnout stop being an individual problem and become a consequence of how work is organized? What responsibilities do companies have?
-I use a very practical criterion, learned during my years as a project manager. If a task is delayed, you look at the task. If all tasks are delayed, you stop looking at the tasks and look at the planning.
With people it’s the same. If there’s one burned-out person on a team, you look at the person. If there are five burned-out people in the same team, the problem lies in the organization.
And the data point in that direction. When Argentinian workers are asked about the cause of their exhaustion, the first factor is not workload but the way they are treated by their superiors. The second is not knowing what is expected of their role, and workload comes third. The first two are about communication; you don’t fix them by doing less work.
The responsibility of the companies starts there. Define clearly who decides what. When they set priorities, also state what is taken off the list, because prioritizing without removing anything is simply adding.
Train leaders, who are often excellent technicians promoted for their expertise and who were never taught to ask how their people are doing. And review what they are recognizing: if recognition always goes to the person who answers at eleven at night, you’re training others to do the same.
What isn’t enough is to answer a design problem with an individual solution. A yoga class or a mindfulness workshop adds to the mix, but meditation isn’t enough to compensate for a poorly designed organization.
“A small, steady boundary changes more than a grand plan”
-What can a person do who recognizes they are burned out but cannot resign or change jobs in the short term? Where to start to regain energy and motivation?
-Many people think that quitting would solve their problem. Sometimes it does. But in my experience, if you leave without learning to set a boundary, the company changes and you carry the pattern with you.
I would start with three questions: what exactly is consuming me; what part of that is the context and what part is mine; and what conversation have I not had yet.
That last one is usually the doorway. What exhausts you isn’t only the load, but the sense of having no real say over your own day. There’s always something, even if small, that you do have control over.
A small, steady boundary changes more than a grand plan. Letting people know what time you stop responding to messages. Saying “I can’t get to everything; we need to decide what comes off the list.” Ask for help once a week instead of putting up with it.
It’s important to note that, if exhaustion has already taken hold in the body and mood, this does not replace a consultation with a health professional. Coaching supports earlier, when there is still room to choose.
“Most people who burn out don’t know how to ask, they know how to endure”
-What role do boundaries, conversations with bosses and colleagues, and the possibility of asking for help play in preventing burnout?
-They act as triggers. Most people who burn out don’t know how to ask; they know how to endure.
There are three conversations that almost never happen. The request, which to be effective needs three things: to whom, what, and by when. The promise, because every “yes, go ahead” is a promise and many are given as a habit, without asking what they displace. And the pending conversation, the one you don’t have with your boss, your partner or your client and that you have been postponing for months.
Let me share a real case. I worked with a client who was burned out: her clients texted her at any hour and she always replied, in real time. When I asked why, a thousand reasons appeared, none of which were true. The real reason was the fear of losing the client.
Then I asked another question: how many clients explicitly asked you to be available 24/7? None.
The availability wasn’t requested by the client; she offered it herself. What we worked on in coaching wasn’t teaching her to say no, but to agree on a mode of working, communicate it, and sustain it.
Because setting a boundary and signaling it isn’t delivering poorer service: it’s delivering a service compatible with your way of working and sustainable over time.
Lucía Vallejo is an Ontological Business Coach, Specialist in leadership and team development. Civil Engineer and Project Manager. Founder of Coaching de Raíz
