How To Tell Your Boss You’re Experiencing Burnout

What is Burnout Anyway?

Burnout is a form of emotional exhaustion resulting from prolonged periods of excessive stress, particularly in work environments (Dall’Ora et al., 2020). Burnout makes us less productive at and satisfied with work. It can feel difficult to bring up when you’re feeling burned out and ask for some time off to reset. We’ve got some practical steps that can help you out.

1. Write About Your Burnout

Start off by listing out the different areas in your work life that are high stress or that make you anxious. This will help you organize your thoughts and identify some of the problem areas. Once you have these ready, you’ll be able to see where you can start making changes, and you’ll have practical examples to bring up when you speak to your boss.

2. Schedule A Meeting

Ask your boss for a one-on-one meeting. Try to schedule it at a time that isn’t between meetings (to prevent it being rushed) and try to reserve a private meeting space or room. This type of meeting requires privacy and comfort to allow you to express yourself best.

3. Share Your Experiences

Frame the conversation productively by emphasizing your commitment, you’re raising this issue because you care about your quality of work and performance. Say something like, “I’ve been noticing signs of burnout, and I want to raise it with you before it impacts my work further.” Using the list created above, explain your experience to your boss. Detail how your burnout is affecting your work and your mental and emotional state, for example, “I’m feeling burned out and it is making me feel anxious at work. I’m unable to concentrate and therefore unable to produce good quality work that I’m proud of.” Give concrete examples of your workload and the hours you’ve put in; this will help give your boss insight and perspective into what has been going on. Finally, propose solutions or adjustments to your workload or current schedule. Consider how you can delegate your work, create clearer goals, or ask for some time off.

4. Rest

Once you’ve established this, you need to plan how you’re going to rest and unwind intentionally. Try to find ways to unwind physically, mentally, and emotionally. Physical unwinding can look like sleeping in, low-energy activities (like watching movies in bed) or getting a massage. Emotional unwinding can include venting to a friend, journaling, crying, or going to see a therapist. Lastly, mentally. Try doing things that don’t require mental heavy lifting. Creative activities, like painting, coloring, and dancing are great avenues for this, because they allow you to express, enjoy and reset yourself.  

5. Make A Plan

Now that you’re rejuvenated, you can reflect on your experience and begin to put in place some structures to prevent future burnout. Here are some of our therapist’s tips on how to maintain your wellness at work:

1. Take regular breaks: Research shows that employees who take breaks every 90 minutes are 30% more focused and productive throughout the day (Choudhury et al., 2021).

2. Be social: Building relationships with colleagues creates a supportive work environment.

3. Move, move, move: Regular exercise has been shown to improve work performance by improving mental clarity and contributing to a more positive attitude at work. Or, during the workday, take short screen breaks and walk around the office or go for a quick walk outside.

4. Be mindful: techniques such as meditation can reduce stress and anxiety.  

5. Eat and drink water: Eating regular, balanced meals provides your body with the necessary nutrients to function and reduces fatigue.

6. Set boundaries: Employees who set boundaries report a 4.4% notable increase in productivity (Choudhury et al., 2021). Boundaries at work can look like: not working during lunch breaks, having set focus times with no meetings allowed and saying no to tasks when your workload is already heavy.

In Conclusion

Work hard, rest hard. Prioritize your mental health by taking breaks, intentionally maintaining your work-life balance, and checking in with yourself regularly.