CHow can you avoid exhaustion and burnout when you work in an environment where overwork is the norm? It’s not easy to leave the office at 6 p.m., or even at 9 or 10 p.m., when you work in consulting, an investment bank, a start-up, or simply when you have a workaholic boss who believes that everyone must fall into line.
This unfortunately happens more and more, including in administrations, and even associations which “work for the good of humanity”Not to mention the self-employed, farmers, doctors, craftsmen, some of whom do not set limits to their commitment. “Thanks, but no.”…Who dares to do like Bartleby, Herman Melville’s hero, imperturbably refusing any new task?
The idea is not to constantly count your hours at the risk of giving up on any success, but, before the rush of the new school year, to identify the intimate mechanisms and misconceptions that can push you to accept a dangerous pace, or even to inflict it on yourself, at the risk of burnout from which 5 to 10% of workers suffer each year.
Affects efficiency as well as morale and health
Working a lot provides adrenaline and some people find it hard to do without it. But the risks of errors, professional mistakes, and even accidents increase in a proven way when you don’t count your hours. The quality of work of managers, doctors and other professionals is compromised, even if they think they are doing the right thing by encroaching on their rest time.
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A hectic pace generates chronic exhaustion in the long term, which affects efficiency as well as morale and health. “good students” learn to perform, not to set limits. But this aspiration to do well sometimes takes us too far, especially those who suffer from “imposter syndrome” and who, despite their skills, do not have confidence in themselves.
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Nothing is easier for a skilled manager than to take advantage of a feeling of insecurity by making disadvantageous comparisons, by challenging those who are weakened by a narcissistic flaw to do more… When in doubt, be careful! Many employees have incorporated a norm of overwork inherited from their family environment and their schooling.
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Socialized in an environment where professional life plays a central role, having undergone very restrictive studies, they are accustomed to “not listening to yourself” and to consider overwork as normal. With such premises, negotiating their workloads does not occur to them, their private life may seem dull, and some end up fearing the downtime that confronts them with their anxiety. Once again, with such a school and family history, be careful! Believing that one can somehow buy the right to work less later by pressing the accelerator at the start of one’s career is a bet that rarely pays off.
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