Corporate Survivor with Mei Phing : Career Growth In The Corporate World - Ep183: 5 early signs of job burnout and what to do.

Episode Date: September 11, 2023

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Welcome to the Corporate Survivor Podcast, where we talk about how to grow your career confidence, build your skills and value, increase your salary, and the many lessons we learn in the corporate world. For more career support, click on over to www.mayping.com. This is Mayping, your corporate leader turned career coach. I hope you enjoy, like and subscribe. In this episode, I'm going to share with you the first signs of burnout so that you can catch yourself before falling into the black hole. Now, mental health is one of the most popular topics over the past couple of years

and that is really from the fact that a lot of younger professionals, Gen Z, are coming out to the workplace and really prioritizing mental health as part of their career development as well as their self-development. Now, one of the problems I see happening in the workplace right now, having talked to so many young professionals in my online community as well as clients in my career program, The Corporate Survivor, is the fact that many of them say, I feel so stressed out and one day when I wake up, I feel so burnout that I want to quit my job. Now, I think feeling burnout and that's actually a very normal feeling. It's really important to acknowledge how you feel. But I also think that there are many things that you can do and also

to learn how to develop your self-awareness to identify signs of burnout so that you can take action before reaching that final point and feeling that you have to quit because there's nothing else that you can do. So in my experience, there are five stages of burnout that you can identify before the inevitable happens. Sign number one, anxiety at work. In fact, daily anxiety that is abnormal. So let me give you an example. If you are starting a new a new job a new role or you're given a new project it's actually normal to feel anxious right in fact anxiety and excitement is kind of like two sides of the same coin so a bit of anxiety also reflects a bit of excitement that's okay but what's not okay is continuous anxiety so right now i want to ask yourself, how often do you feel anxious? Is it every single

day at work that you feel so anxious that you can't do anything? Then that is a problem. So if you are feeling anxious all the time, I want you to ask yourself, do you have clarity on what exactly your job responsibilities are and have you aligned expectations with your boss? Because of the many people I've worked with, clients, students, even team members when I was in the corporate world, a lot of times people are anxious because they don't know what to do. So my question to you is that do you know what to do, right? If you don't know what to do, make sure that you are setting up one-on-one sessions and catching up with your boss or your senior to align your job responsibilities and this is so important and that's why even in my career program, The Corporate on one sessions and catching up with your boss or your senior to align your job responsibilities.

And this is so important. And that's why even in my career program, the corporate survivor in the three step framework, step one is always about understanding your job responsibilities, understanding the company, the people, the structure, understanding and clarity is always the starting point. So if you're feeling anxious, then pinpoint right now, are there, is there something that you need more information? There's something that you don't know about. Then it's time to go and get that information so the anxiety can just go down. Because if you don't take the right action to manage the anxiety, it will quickly turn into sign number two. And that is being worried all the time, specifically

after working hours and even at home, you're still thinking about your job. So right now, I want to ask you, how often is your work on your mind? How often you are thinking to yourself, I'm not sure if I did a good job, I don't know who's going to email me, will my boss look for me, did I mess up? So if you're consistently thinking about your job, which should stay in your office hours, 9 to 5, maybe for some of you, it's 9 to 9 p.m. The reality is that after office hours, that's after office hours, right? And if you're consistently thinking about your job all the time, that is actually a very big sign that something is not right. That's because likely you have not managed your anxiety, maybe you're

lacking some information and there's some confusion that is creating additional worry and this is now spilling outside of your working hours and that will significantly impact the time that you spend with your family as well as with your friends. So if you find yourself worried all the time, including after office hours, during your personal time, then again, my advice is the same. Making sure that you get as much information as possible to align expectations with your boss or your senior on what exactly needs to be done so that you can enjoy your time off as much as possible. The worry is for you to identify that it's a symptom of a problem, but the most important thing is to actually take action so that the worry doesn't turn into a habit. And I think that based on what I've seen, the people who are unable to manage their anxiety, which creates into a habit and I think that based on what I've seen the people who are unable to manage their anxiety which creates into a worry and then that kind of becomes a daily

habit they burn out very quickly because that daily 24-7 worry is not healthy for you and your family members may not like it as well. So moving on to the third sign of early burnout and that is feeling overwhelmed. Now overwhelmed is a common, especially if you are working in a very busy job in a very intense industry that you feel out of control. However, again, this feeling is very unhealthy. So the question I have for you is, why are you feeling overwhelmed? Again, is it due to lack of clarity because you didn't get the right information that you need or you don't understand the company structure, the team goals? Is it overwhelmed due to lack of clarity or you are overwhelmed because you lack the skills to do a job fast? So I'll give

you an example. When I first worked with one of my clients who is in my career program, the corporate survivor, she came to me and tell me that maybe I feel overwhelmed all the time and that's making me feel like I'm not doing a good job. I don't feel in control. Everything is in a mess, chaos, out of control all the time and I feel that I can't take this anymore. Mentally, I cannot take this anymore. Now, I asked her a couple of questions and as we went through the one-on-one career strategy call together and as she went through the program, she gradually realized that she's actually lacking some of the core corporate skills that are really, really important for her to deliver a job well done.

So for example, she was lacking in communication skills. She didn't know how to build relationships. She didn't have very sharp critical thinking and she didn't have good productivity skills. So these are the four core corporate skills that I can definitely cover in another episode why these are the only four corporate skills

that you truly need to do a job well done to avoid overwhelm and so forth but after going through the program this student came back to me saying that okay maybe I think I have a lot of skills deficiencies and it's very difficult to accept that there are things that I'm not doing well but given the fact that I'm overwhelmed all the time, maybe it's time for me to start improving my skills. And if that is your situation, that means that you are feeling overwhelmed due to lack of skills. And the good news is that

you can start enhancing your soft skills right now to manage your overwhelm and also to be successful in any job, any company or any industry that you take on in the future. So it's a transferable skill that you can apply as you go along. And the best thing is that you actually feel happier because the overwhelm will

go away. But with clarity, confidence and competence, you can basically do anything. However, if you choose to ignore these core corporate skills and ignore the feeling of overwhelm because you think that, well, I think it will get better. You don't take any action. You will quickly move into feeling number four. And that's sign number four, and that is stress. Now, stress is already a more chronic situation coming from overwhelm. Because overwhelm is like, fine, right? It's a bit crazy, but you're not losing your mind. But when you're in the stress mode,

it's the time that you will start feeling like everything is going against you. You may start taking things very personally. You may start blaming people. You may think that your boss don't want to help you. People are ignoring you. So when you're in the chronic stress mode, most of the time you're so emotional that you can't really think clearly anymore. And that's really, really unhelpful. And the worst thing is that when you're in the stress mode, it actually makes it more difficult to get help because you may feel that you're just so busy that you can't even ask for help. Now that's a significant problem and once you're stressed,

your efficiency goes down, your effectiveness goes down and everything will start to be really, really messy. In fact, your people relationships, your networking is all going to be messy and again it does affect your personal life as well. So you really want to be mindful as to when the overwhelm turns into stress. The overwhelm, feeling out of control. Stress, everything is a disaster, right? So it's a bit of the mindset thing. But usually when you're in the stress stage, the feelings will be a lot more intense and you'll notice that you stop asking for help.

You stop asking for guidance and all these are not helpful things and if you fail to identify any of the first four signs the first four feelings which is anxiety worry overwhelm and stress ultimately you'll move into step number five and that is job dissatisfaction and frustration to be honest when you're at this frustration point most of the time you probably want to quit your job already. That's based on what I've seen so far. And this is the point where every single day, you don't feel happy at your job. You feel that you're stuck. You feel that you'll be in this situation forever. You feel that there's no hope. And it could be even some of the negative feelings coming in by looking at other people around you and wondering how come they have better opportunities than you, how come they can do different things, how come they're performing at their job and not you. So it is a point that could really destroy

your confidence and self-esteem and as much as possible, we don't want to get into stage number five, which is step number five or rather sign number five and that's frustration, dissatisfaction, feeling stuck, feeling like there's no hope. That's not a very good situation because very quickly it can turn into depression, it will start affecting your mental health, and your self-esteem may take a very long time to recover as well. So one, two, three, four, right? If you're able to identify your anxiety, worry, overwhelm, and stress, I'd say that you can still improve yourself. So one of the concepts that I teach is the three-step career growth framework. And specifically in the first two stages is getting clear on the corporate world, getting confident with corporate skills.

And then the last part is getting visible with personal branding. And you want to make sure that you are applying these three steps that I teach in the exact order because that is really the best way that you can be proactive and really make sure that you don't fall into the realm of anxiety, worry, overwhelm, and stress. And you can actually get ahead and be proactive because this is really the best way that you can stay in control. And the reason why I created the three-step framework, I created it for myself in the corporate career. And before applying the three-step framework in my career,

I was always really stressed out and I didn't know what was wrong. But after applying the three-step framework, I had a lot more clarity, confidence and competence. I also learned how to get visible at the right time. And that's why I never felt stuck. I never felt that things were out of my control. I know that I have the right strategy to really make the most of every single job, every single company

that I'm in and that the power is always in me. So I hope this episode gives you a very good idea as to how do you identify and observe your emotions and to be able to take as proactive action as possible so that you can continue on a positive momentum instead of a negative momentum. Okay? So if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below. How are you feeling in your career right now? And if you want to learn more about my three-step framework

and my career program, The Corporate Survivor, designed for 9-5 professionals just like you, then check out www.matepin.com. Till then, all the best and I'll see you in the next episode.