burnout- Anju Jain

 

There are two types of working people. One who love Monday mornings and other ones who dread Monday mornings. There’s a very thin line between the two types. The first one is excited to explore the opportunities a Monday offers while the latter ones no longer care for opportunities, they are just stressed or exhausted thinking about work. Little do the latter ones realize that the feeling that they are going through may be the telltale signs of a concept known as “Burnout”.

Burnout as a concept is in various forms, structures and feelings. It’s not necessary that burnout will only be felt by professional working people, it is equally found in housewives, children, students and even old age citizens. In short, Burnout is a state that is talked about less but exists in large quantum among the human population all through out the globe. Senior psychologist and business leader, Anju Jain’s book “burnout” captures the essence of this term in detail and helps the reader formulate various ways through which burnout can be controlled and overcome.

The book is a revelation because its one of those books that captures the essence of the topic. It just doesn’t jump on the technical concepts and symptoms and treatment. The book very methodically first makes the reader understand the various forms of burnout through examples of the people whom the author encountered. A part describes how burnout is everywhere yet how still it is unknown to many of the population. The part that shows why and how burnout is out of control dedicates the key reasons attributing to the feeling to societal expectations, organizational cultures and of course individual choices.

There is a very impactful part in this book which draws comparison to the major purpose of survival between current times and ancient times. This part beautifully draws the line as how human needs and wants have changed and how this change has led to the overall change in purpose of survival and in turn this change in purpose has somehow directly or indirectly led to the increase in the feeling of burnout among people.

The next part shows the reader as to what is the cost of not acting on burnout. Again, this part is very detailed and it shows the reader the cost of burnout not only impacts health, but also relationships, finances and performances. The relatability in these portions is absolutely hundred percent. There would be some time in each one’s life when one would have gone through such situations and this makes the reading very personal.

The best portion of the book comes when we enter the part where in the author shows individual strategies to beat burnout. “The Well- Being State pyramid” very beautifully and impactfully describes how one can step by step overcome burnout.

According to the author, finding one’s purpose and knowing one’s priorities are of utmost importance. Without these two factors, one would find it difficult to beat burnout. Sleep, exercise and positive thoughts are often taken for granted by humans but these aspects are very crucial to manage and beat burnout. The author gives some impactful examples as to how these aspects affect burnout.  It’s in this portion that the reader would get introduced to the concept of reframing. Reframing is a way of doing everything through positive alternatives that is finding positives about every situation and infusing certain amount of humor to it.

The STOP system of thinking as narrated by the author is also an effective way of keeping negative thoughts at bay. The acronym works as S- Stop for a moment, T-Take a deep breath, O- Look for options to reframe the negative and P-proceed with more positive options.

The book also showcases how mindfulness can help in controlling burnout. Practicing mindfulness is living and thinking in the present and not thinking about the past or worrying about the future.

There’s a part in the book dedicated to various ways in which one can work smart to build efficiency. This obviously is no secret when it comes to professional people but the people who are not working in organizations or rather self -employed people and students can get great amount of wisdom from this section.

A section of the book very impactfully talks about the importance for creating humane organizations and societies and how this can help people get over burnout very effectively. The book ends with a chart and a routine given by the author that can be useful to the reader who want to bring some change.

The book is a slow read but it would be more of an impactful reading if the readers co relate everything that they are reading with their own experiences. There are aspects in this book which majority of human population may have gone through. Identifying them and then working on them will actually help manage burnout.

The practical examples that the author has included in some of the chapters are very relatable. In those examples many of them were unaware to the fact that they were suffering from burnout. It’s the same with many of us.

This book will be a helpful read for every one working in organizations, for everyone heading an organization, for everyone who are living with people who are working in organizations and most importantly, this book is a must read for young adults who would be gradually stepping into the working world.