You just might be burned out
The Monday hollowed husks
You know the ones. The poor phantoms shuffling into the office just in time for whatever sanctioned debauchery of a meeting some exec/business owner/torturer of souls gains joy from inflicting upon the helpless attendees.
Or maybe it’s the person reaching for their 4th cup of pod-based coffee by 9:13 AM in the hopes that maybe the next cup will give them the emotional strength to endure the next four hours they have to spend on yet another presentation.
In normal operating conditions, this might be the thing they (or you?) enjoy…or it’s at least tolerable. For some reason, it just hasn’t been… something has changed.
The likely source: post-COVID burnout
I won’t harp on about COVID as a thing, we all went through it.
What many haven’t realised is the sheer exhaustion it caused. For most businesses, teams and leaders COVID was 5 years of leadership energy expended in 5 months.
If your organisation was positively impacted you were running your legs off to meet demand, GSD (Get $hit Done) and capitalise on the opportunity. If your organisation was negatively impacted, you were in a cage match fighting an opponent that you couldn’t see, predict or knockout; your only hope was to run out the clock on that match.
Either way, you’re most likely knackered, burned-out, over this $hit.
What are the symptoms?
Burnout is a nasty little demon. It creeps up on you and suddenly you’re there and simply can’t cope anymore. Some symptoms of workplace burnout can include the following (just to name a few):
Fatigue that doesn’t seem to improve regardless of how much you sleep
Inability to tolerate uncertainty
Inability to handle the normal nonsense that occurs in the workplace
Crankiness at everyone for everything all the time
Loss of interest in the things/projects/people/goals that normally motivate you
What can you do?
Let’s get you through this ‘end of year’ rush and on track for a kick@ss 2021 (it’s seriously just around the corner). Here are some actions to get you through this rough patch:
You made it this far. So many people/leaders/businesses have thrown in the towel, but not you! I know, that offers little solace from the case of the Mondays, but a bit of reflection and acknowledgement goes a long way.
Endure but have a plan. The clock is ticking down rapidly towards the holiday ‘shut down’ which is only 6 weeks from now. Given 2020 started 497 years ago (or at least that’s how it has felt!) six weeks is nothing. Press on and focus on what your goals are for 2021.
Take control. Sick of Jan’s status meetings? Tell her you’re focussing on key projects and you’ll instead be opting out of the meeting but are happy to read the minutes/actions list (if there ever are any). Tired of Joe holding up your project? Meet with him, tell him what you require (non-negotiable) and get the momentum going.
One last thing…
I know you, and you’re not someone flaky non-achiever… but you are still human.
This year has been a marathon, but don’t give up in the final mile. You’ve made it here and you belong on the other side of the finish line. Finish on a high, we both know you can.
