10 Ways to Deal With Work Burnout

10 Ways to Deal With Work burnout-syndrom10 Ways to Deal With Work BurnoutAdvertising, marketing, PR, and design are industries that seem to pride themselves on how hard they work their employees. Theres a famous saying that has been used by many creative directors and executives over the years If you dont come in on Saturday, dont bother showing up on Sunday. Basically, if youre not ready to work in a sweatshop, we dont want you. However, with the advent of social media, the herausforderung has increased exponentially. Now, advertising messages are being pushed out around the clock, and its not all automated. Someone has to do it, and it is leading to more stress, poor health, and worse. This is unacceptable. Your job is not your life, and it should never be responsible for anyone taking theirs. So, if you feel like its all becoming too much, you need to take a breath, try and relax, and read the following 10tips. They could save more than your sanity. 1.Stop Working Seriously. Talk to your manager as soon as possible and take a break. Not a five-minute break, and not a couple of days at home. You need a complete and total cut-off from work. You should explain why, without sounding like youre whining or getting emotional. Be rational, lay out all the reasons you deserve a break, and why you will be an even better employee when you return. Ideally, you should be gone for at least two weeks, and you should make sure you have no contact with the office. Dont make yourself available for calls. Dont check your emails. If at all possible, find somewhere to go that is the complete opposite of work, and do whatever makes you genuinely happy. If thats laying on a beach drinking cocktails, climbing mountains, or white water rafting, do it. If you dont have any vacation days left, ask for an unpaid break. Find a way to make it work. This is your life, and if you dont do this soon, you could suffer in so many ways. 2.Find a Release For some people, its CrossFit or martial arts. For others, its paintball battles, soccer, racquetball, or bowling. Many people enjoy video games, while others prefer a shooting range or a dozen laps of the pool. The way you release your aggression and frustration is not important, as long as its not harmful to yourself or others. What matters is that you find a way, any way, to let off some steam. Right now, youre a pressure cooker. If you dont open that release valve from time to time, you are going to explode. Perhaps not literally, but youll crack emotionally, have outbursts, or maybe do something from which your career can never fully recover. 3.Take a Break From Alcohol and Caffeine A lot of people deal with the stresses and strains of a hectic work life by turning to the bottle or dosing up on coffee, energy drinks, cigarettes, and much more. While these can sometimes be helpful in moderation, you can quickly become dependent upon them, especially if youre using them to cope with a heavy workload, and th at workload just keeps getting bigger and bigger. And if you get hooked, youll be in trouble. Although something as simple as coffee, or caffeinated drinks, seem harmless, they can be damaging. They can rob you of the much-needed sleep you need, and put undue strain on your heart. And we all know about the dangers of alcohol and tobacco. So, while you may think you need them more than ever, find something else. Something healthy. 4.Ask for Different Responsibilities Burnout in advertising agencies can not only happen from overwork but from working on the saatkorn few clients for months at a time. As the old saying goes, a change is as good as a rest, so talk to your manager about taking on different responsibilities. Can you move on to a different account? Can you work with clients who require you to leave the office more for meetings, shoots, and events? Can you swap accounts with someone else who is feeling worn out? If you are good at your job, the agency will not want to los e you. It can cost up to 400 percentmore than your annual salary to replace you, especially if youre a talented creative, and the agency would much rather put your skills to good use on a different account than see you walk. 5.Have a Heart-to-Heart With Someone Close Another way to relieve a little pressure is to share your problems, thoughts, and concerns with someone who genuinely cares about your well-being. It could be a spouse, a son or daughter, your best friend, a neighbor, or a trusted co-worker (dont go spilling the beans to someone who is known to spread gossip or use the information against you). They do not have to be in the same industry, and they do not have to understand exactly what it is you do. But what they can do is be a shoulder to cry on, which is often all you need to release some of that bottled-up frustration and despair. If you cannot find anyone who youd want to talk to this way, your other option is to write a letter to the person, or people, who are adding to your burnout the boss, a co-worker, or a client. Put down everything you want to say. DO elend send it to them. This is merely an exercise to get some of those things off your chest. 6.Find Ways to Make Work More Fun or Interesting In advertising and design, when youre busy on exciting projects it can alleviate some of the problems that come with an exhaustive schedule. Yes, youre busy, but youre having so much fun its not an issue. However, when youre burning the candle at both ends on projects that do nothing to inspire you, thats when burnout can really take hold. When this happens, find ways to make the jobs youre working on more fun. One creative approach used by copywriters and art directors is to challenge each other to get specific words or phrases into the ads (try getting hot air balloon or goat rodeo into dry copy about insurance). Make it a game. It may get rejected. It may pass without anyone noticing. It may even sell more product. 7.Work Away From Yo ur Desk A change of scenery can do you a world of good, even if youre still working 12-hour shifts seven days a week. Most ad agencies will let you work remotely from time to time, especially if youre looking for inspiration. Find a local coffee shop or bar, or go to the nearest park. Its truly remarkable how much this can help with the burnout feelings. However, do not work from home. When you are experiencing burnout, you need to make every effort to separate work life from home life. The last thing you should be doing is bringing work home with you. That association compounds the problem, and before you know it, you associate home with the same feelings you have at work. Draw the line, and do not cross it. 8.Take Advantage of the FMLA Laws Known as the Family and Medical Leave Act, it is a federal law that guarantees certain employees up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave each year, with absolutely no threat of a job loss. Its often used for a major life event, such as the birt h of a child, or a stay in a hospital. But if you really are experiencing severe burnout and mental stress, this can qualify as a good enough reason to use the FMLA protection. See a doctor or psychologist, explain what is happening, and get written proof that you are unable to perform your duties to a satisfactory level due to your stress, burnout, and anxiety. Yes, the leave is unpaid, so you will have to weigh that against the amount of time off you take. In many cases, four weeks is more than enough to recharge and get back to your old self. 9.Get Plenty of Sleep, Exercise, and Eat Well It goes without saying that when we get stressed, we look for ways to feel more comfortable. For many of us, that included eating comfort foods, drinking alcohol, and collapsing on the sofa in front of some TV. However, that will not help your mental and physical state one bit. Dont reach for the chips and the remote. Instead, create a plan to exercise more and eat more healthy foods. And get a good eight hours of sleep every night. No late-night movie binges, and no snacking at midnight. Think of your body as an overworked machine. It needs love and care. It needs the best fuel, the best maintenance, and plenty of time off the road. A few weeks, or months, of this and you will feel ready to take on the world. 10.Quit Your Job As a last resort, you may have to quit the company youre working for. For some people, its a choice between quitting and finding a more reasonable way to earn a living, or persevering to the point of a breakdown. And in that case, its really no choice at all. You cannot afford to become so mentally and physically ill that you become incapacitated. So, find a way to quit. Ideally, youll want to have another source of income lined up, with enough of a gap between quitting the old job and starting the new one to refresh. But if its either quit or risk your sanity, then quit. You will find other ways to earn a living, be it freelancing, or finding a new career path altogether. In fact, some people quit to start a very different line of work, and become happy and stress-free. So, there it is. Burnout is serious. Its not just your work that suffers, but your health, your mental state, and the lives of the people around you. Do whatever you can to repair the damage, and find a way to maintain a good work/life balance.

How to Promote Your New Job by Quitting

How to Promote Your New Job by Quitting How to Promote Your New Job by Quitting Quitting one job for a better one happens all the time but promoting that better job with the employer youre leaving? Whats that?Thats exactly what Chris Holmes, 31, an aspiring baker who resigned from his job as Border Agency official at Londons Stanstead Airport did He wrote his resignation letter in frosting on one of his cakes (note namen of his cake is shown at the link)- a letter that included an invitation to order more cakes from him, if the first was a hit.Written in delicate swirls, the letter declared,Today is my 31st birthday, and having recently become a father I now realize how precious life is and how important it is to spend my time doing something that makes me, and other people, happy. For that reason I hereby give notice of my resignation in order that I may devote my time and energy to my family and to my cake businesses which has grown steadily over the past few years.I wish the org anisation and my colleagues the best for the future and I remind you that if you enjoy this cake, you can order more at www.mrcake.co.uk.Beneath the sweet surface of that resignation cake and whimsical story is a savvy employment-segue strategy- indeed, a smart resignation strategy Find some way to strengthen your new job by promoting it with your soon-to-be ex-employer (without necessarily being cute).Two Kinds of Great Parting ShotsIn attempting this, it is important to distinguish two kinds of self-promoting parting shots1. Those, like Holmes resignation format, that not only offer some value to the current employer (e.g., in the form of a free quitting-day cake), while generating social and economic value for the departing employee (e.g., as a nice gesture and as potential future cake sales), but that are also designed to elicit that employers validation of the reason for quitting to take that new job (e.g., if the cake is a hit in the office, quitting to get rich and/or have fu n making more of them will be validated as the smart thing to do).Psychologically, this will put the current employer in a double bind the valued-employee resignation (a bad thing) takes the form of a free, fantastic cake (a good thing).This means, as a minimum, a certain level of employer ambivalence about the resignation (as well as about supporting the budding cake business that has pirated one of his valued employees). In some instances, this may prompt pleas to not quit and an employer offer of revised, improved working conditions.2. Resignations that promote the resigning employee, rather than that employees next job. Here, too, a cake can be used with good effect, as it ritualistically was at China Daily, Hong Kong (where I worked as an editor and writer a few years ago).Virtually all resigning Chinese staff in my department followed the tradition of providing a big schachtel of choice cakes to mark their own departure, irrespective of what their next job was to be.In the cas e of an employee who is being let go, the farewell cake may have the effect or serve the intention of triggering some employer guilt, gratitude or ambivalence (even if only as evidence of employee self-redemption, atonement or self-validation).Common to both of these forms of parting shots is the intended or merely resulting employer gratitude or ambivalence, plus some form of self-promotion (of ones character or ones next job).If Holmes had himself been at all ambivalent about quitting or about his new job, the cake might have become a catalyst for a counter-offer from his employer, to make the job he was resigning from more attractive.The first form is unique and different from the second, inasmuch as it also provides a justification for resigning. To the extent that Mr. Cake Holmes baked resignation letter has gone viral on the Net, the justification for quitting and doing it in the manner that he did has and will become even stronger.This latter point suggests another variation of the self-promotional resignation Consider resigning in some spectacular fashion that will make you an Internet sensation and inundate you with job offers.This tactic approximates the cake model very closely, since the unusual form or circumstances of such a resignation, like Holmes cake, enhances the prospects for success with the next job.The key difference, however, is that a dramatic, off-beat resignation, such as lowering yourself on a rope or with suction cups outside a window on the 23rd floor to dangle both your body and resignation in view of your boss, will only enhance your chances of getting your next job, not of succeeding at a job you are leaving to take. (Of course, if you try this kind of Spider Man stunt, you may only enhance your odds of proving you are odd.)Following the Way of the CakeI offer the following as suggestions of ways in which to emulate Mr. CakePoliceman leaving to work for the federal government Write your resignation on a photo of an armored perso nnel carrier (APC) and mention that once you are working for Homeland Security, youll try to get your town police department a great deal on at least one new or refurbished DHS- subsidized Bear Cat APC.Accountant quitting to go to work for the IRS Use the back of an IRS audit authorization form and suggest that your current boss file his return in a timely, more accurate and complete way.Used Ford car lot sales manager moving on to a Mercedes dealership Tell the Ford manager that, since he knows the difference between a Ford and a Mercedes, he may be interested in a managers discount that may be arranged on a Mercedes lease.University staffer or instructor switching schools Suggest to your current department chairperson that a program affiliation between the two schools is something worth exploring, e.g., student exchange, technology sharing, which you could help facilitate. (Ive done that, more than once.)Some such ideas may be too whimsical or hard to pull off, e.g., the APC deal others, such as the university affiliation plan, provide sober, feasible resignation options that can simultaneously promote ones next job and oneself.As a minimum, even if a resignation doesnt promote a next job, it should be designed to be as self-promoting as possibleespecially when its a piece of cake.

4 Psychology-Backed Ways to Be More Likable -The Muse

4 Psychology-Backed Ways to Be More Likable -The Muse4 Psychology-Backed Ways to Be More LikableHumans are a quirky lot. We like to believe were hyper logical, but our behavior- and research- suggest otherwise. Were heavily swayed by the people, messages, and circumstances around us- but, wait, this is actually a good thing Understanding the peculiarities of our psychology can be advantageous.Specifically, there are four psychological insights that you can use as a starting point to build strategic relationships and garner goodwill throughout your network. Why do this? Well, to get ahead, of course. Im elend talking about manipulation. Im talking about making small, simple moves to cultivate professional relationships and be mora likable.1. Show UpIf you want to connect with someone, you have to be near that person, preferably in the same physical space. Obvious, right?But theres some interesting research that suggests that people tend to favor people theyve seen before- even if they didnt interact- over those theyve never laid eyes on. And, the more they see those individuals the more they like them (this also works on things, FYI). Known as the Mere Exposure Effect, it suggests that a starting point for connecting with others is creating opportunities for paths to cross. How to Do ItGet creative, but dont go overboard. If theres someone you want to connect with, maybe you find yourself grabbing coffee at the same time, or you strike up conversation while you both wait for the elevator. Why it MattersYou cant connect with someone you never see. There are lots of ways to pursue an introduction to a key person, but just getting in front of them first may boost your likability and improve your chances of hitting it off when you do meet.2. Find Common GroundIn The Best Place To Work The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace Ron Freeman explains, The more we have in common with othersthe more we tend to like them. This similarity doesnt have to be a deep, philosophical belief, nor does it need to be work-related. You might like a certain musician, app, game- whatever. The options for finding common ground are endless. How to Do ItBe genuine. Surely, you can find one area to connect on, and when you do, dont forget it. Build off of your mutual interest in cold brew coffee or outdoor concerts, and find a way to work it into future conversations.Why it MattersDiscovering you share a similarity with a co-worker helps to form a trusting relationship. And when you have trust, theres room to grow and collaborate together. 3. Be a GiverSeveral years ago I helped a friend move in the sweltering Texas heat. It was a truly miserable day. But I did it because my friend had helped me in the past. Enter the rule of reciprocity. In his book Give and Take Why Helping Others Drives Our Success Adam Grant details how givers often come out ahead in the long run compared with matchers and takers, in no small part because their actions endear t hemselves to others. How to Do ItThink of a problem you can solve or practical aid you can offer someone you want to connect with. Even just lending something small can work beautifully I read this book recently about leadership I thought you might enjoy reading it, too.Why it MattersWith gestures like these, youre not only proving your chops as a dependable colleague and team player, youre setting yourself up to be able to request help when you need it. Thats important- considering that no one makes it to the top without support. 4. Do as They DoIf you really want to boost your likeability, research out of Duke University suggests mimicking the person youre talking to. Thats right- do as they do and speak as they speak. When you understand how this dynamic can literally make you better liked, its a no-brainer thing to begin doing. How to Do ItThe key here is subtlety- overdoing it could backfire. If the other person leans forward as they speak to you, gently lean forward as well. Dont get caught up in trying to literally copy every move. You want to look natural, not forced.Why it MattersMimicry is part of what connects us to others. It signals our alignment with the person we mimic. In fact, people intentionally behave differently from people they dont want to be associated with. Bear in mind that none of these approaches are magic. These are, at the end of the day, simply insights that might be helpful if used correctly. If you want to build strong professional relationships and be liked, start by treating others well, use these psychological insights to give you an edge.