Unlike Mayer, I do not believe burnout is about resentment per se.  I think to focus on the issue from this perspective is looking through the wrong end of the telescope.  Companies that struggle with employees who are filled with resentment feel powerless to correct the dissonance.  This is wrong.  In my opinion, burnout is about employee engagement; therefore, a shared problem between organization and employee.  Where Google or any organization that fosters a culture that encourages employee engagement, the topic of burnout is probably less prevalent.  However, organizations that have taken their eyes off of employee engagement through one of Maslach’s six defined mismatches, are likely suffering at an organizational and at the individual level.

Perhaps it is simply semantics at play.  However, I firmly believe in the concept of burnout.  Furthermore, within the information security and technology industries we are fighting a stigma that burnout is an individual problem, not a shared problem.  People that cite burnout are still often seen as lacking the mental toughness to push through stress that comes along with “every job”.

Is it any wonder why burnout symptoms spiral out of control so quickly?  With the “individual problem” perspective, a fundamental lack of sanity checks from the perspective of the manager or organization leaves employees to deal with the problem on their own.  In other words, at what point does the manager ask whether or not he/she is contributing to the person’s feelings?  The manager is likely measured on many key performance indicators, but very few deal with employee engagement.

In summary, burnout is more than simply an individual problem. The problem is a shared problem between the individual and the organization, and in my opinion, the key is to focus on employee engagement as a critical success factor in preventing burnout in the organization. What do you think?

Are YOU in the Danger Zone and What You Can DO about it.

In my work with physician burnout and stress … I have come to the conclusion that our current Healthcare “System” (I use that term VERY loosely) is TOXIC to the Workers. There are exceptions to this trend … an occasional group or practice that believes in and supports physician wellness … and these are the classic “exceptions that prove the rule”.

I have written previously on Physician Burnout, the invisible forces that drain us and why it is simply not a Fair Fight. One statistic is worth repeating.

“Numerous global studies involving nearly every medical and surgical specialty indicate that approximately 1 of every 3 physicians is experiencing burnout at any given time”
Tait Shanafelt MD   JAMA. 2009;302(12): 1338-1340 (physician burnout)

 Physician Burnout … Are you At Risk?

The short answer is  YES! Everyone in every workplace is at risk for professional burnout. AND the healthcare environment is especially stressful because of the nature of the work, the nature of the “clients” and the way the providers have been conditioned (brainwashed is another term) by their medical training.

Understanding Burnout – The Energetic Bank Account

One of the most useful metaphors to understand Physician Burnout is a Bank Account. In this Bank is a store of your Energy. In my experience, that energy comes in three “flavors”

• Physical Energy – your basic “get up and go”
• Emotional Energy – your ability to be emotionally available and compassionate
• Spiritual Energy – your connection to your Purpose in your work … Your “WHY”

Every Single Day you work … there is a withdrawal from this Physical/Emotional/Spiritual Energetic Bank Account. The amount of the withdrawal is different from person to person and day to day.

Your job – on this energetic level – is to Keep Your Energetic Bank account in a Positive Balance. Your life outside of medicine, your health and your relationships depend on it.

Physician Burnout is just another name for a Negative Balance in this Account

Work has drained you beyond your energetic, emotional and spiritual reserves. You have been unable, for whatever reason, to recharge your account. You are in a overdrawn and it hurts. You can feel it and your colleagues and family can see and feel it as well. In many cases you are a last person to recognize your own physician burnout.

 Here’s what Physician Burnout feels like

Physician Burnout – The Three Symptoms

• Exhaustion – you are dog-tired on one or more of the three levels – Energy, Emotion, Spirit
• Cynicism – you have lost your ability to care, empathize, and connect with your patients, staff and co-workers. You may even blame, shame or demonize the very people you are charged to care for – and feel guilty about it.
• Doubt – you may begin to doubt that your work really makes any difference or question the quality of what you do (this is a late and inconsistent symptom that is nearly absent in men)

Here is an article on the different physician burnout symptoms depending on whether you are a woman or man.

These physician burnout symptoms vary from day to day, week to week, depending on how draining your practice is and whether or not you are RECHARGING YOUR ENERGETIC ACCOUNT BALANCE BETWEEN WORK DAYS! I don’t mean to “shout” that phrase … just emphasize the importance of refilling your account when you are not at work.

Physician Burnout – the Three Phases

Your level of physician stress and physician burnout is a moving target from day to day. In my experience, this sets up three common physician burnout SYMPTOM PATTERNS. These symptom patterns define three distinct Phases of Physician Burnout.

I will show them to you visually here. See if you can find your own pattern in the charts below.

==========================

Phase 1

Physician Burnout and stress vary from day to day and you never become symptomatic (feel trashed).

==========================

Phase 2

In Phase 2 you are feeling physician burnout symptoms (fried, exhausted, cynical, uncomfortable) in various amounts.

Phase 2(a)

Physician Burnout Symptoms are only intermittent and you are feeling fine more often than not.

Phase 2(b)

You notice the symptoms of physician burnout more often than not. You only occasionally feel at full strength and “your normal compassionate self”.

Phase 2(c)

It has been a long time since you felt at full strength … and yet, you are “hanging in there” and “doing the best you can”, trying to convince yourself this is how all doctors feel … right?

==========================

Phase 3

In Phase three you are falling into the Danger Zone. Your physician burnout is now having major impact your career and your quality of life outside of medicine. Here you begin to say, “I can’t go on like this for much longer”, or, “I have to find another way to make a living … soon.”

Phase 3(a)

Your baseline is chronic symptomatic physician burnout … you dip occasionally into the danger zone. Note … you never recover to the “doing OK” level of energy and compassion.

Phase 3(b)

You are circling the drain here. Something is going to break very soon. you are seriously contemplating quitting medicine … or have done so already. You may find yourself self medicating with drugs or alcohol, falling into a major depression, your marriage and other significant relationships deteriorating, your health deteriorating …

Your colleagues are probably avoiding you … I know that does not make sense and it is likely to be happening as they are very happy subconsciously that this is happening to ANYONE BUT THEM. You are almost certainly feeling completely isolated and that no one could possibly understand your situation.

Take a look at the graphs above and find where you are right now.

==========================

Why is there no Phase 0?

There is no zero state because there is no way to  spend even a half day at work without resulting in a withdrawal from your energetic bank account. Not possible. Everyone is at risk … all the time. And as the studies show … one in three docs are symptomatic from physician burnout on any given office day … Worldwide, Regardless of Specialty.

NOTE: We have not even mentioned the other members of the team. Nurses, PA’s, NP’s reception, medical records, administration … all of them are working in the same environment. They have their own issues with stress and burnout. Our challenges with physician burnout are perhaps more severe because of our position at the apex of the team where “all the bucks stop with us”.

Physician Burnout – The Three Cures

I believe that all physicians would benefit from an active physician burnout treatment plan. The forces that cause physician burnout never rest … it makes no sense to me that we wait for symptoms and then we are all on our own to figure out how to respond. Here’s the good news…

The tools that work to prevent and treat physician burnout are known, research proven and you can learn them. And I want you to know one very important thing here … (it deserves caps and bold too)

WHAT YOU UNDERSTAND ABOUT PHYSICIAN BURNOUT AND ITS PREVENTION IS MEANINGLESS

YOU MUST TAKE WHAT YOU KNOW AND PUT IT TO USE

The very LAST THING I would want to have happen as a result of you reading this article … is for you to stop there …. comfortable that you now know a bit more about Burnout. Your spouse, your children, your nurse, your colleagues … even your mom … wants you to take the next step and actually do something to lower your own burnout levels.

If you would like personalized recommendations for how to incorporate the physician burnout prevention tools below into your unique practice  … please CONTACT ME using this web form and let’s get started.

Physician Burnout Prevention is a practice … a regular set of habits you were never taught in medical school or residency … that work in three distinct and separate fashions to keep your energetic bank accounts full.

The Three “R”s

1) RESIST

Increasing your ability to RESIST the forces of physician burnout while you are on the jobis incredibly important. This is much like the shields on the Starship Enterprise. You know the workplace is draining … let’s minimize the drain while you are on the job. Here’s how we do that …

The most well researched methods fall under the heading of “MINDFULNESS”. Now, this is a category of a number of different skills that allow you to be in control of your

• Intentions
• Attention
• Awareness

… from moment to moment while you are on the job. You are aware of stress when it arises, notice negative emotions when you begin to hold on to them … and practice proven techniques to release them in the moment. The effect is you become the “eye of the storm” in the office rather than a victim of physician burnout.

I have created a Guided Imagery Experience you can download for free at this link that will show you how to be the eye of the storm in your office day and get you started on building your RESIST skills.

2) RESTORE

Realizing that the core dynamic of physician burnout is a withdrawal from your accounts of physical, emotional and spiritual energy … the RESTORE step is about restoring your energy and bringing your accounts into a healthy and positive balance.

NOTE: While there are parts of your work that feed you with positive energy (and mindfulness will increase the ability to actually gain energy at work) … most physicians do the majority of recharging off the job.

Curing physician burnout with the Restore step is typically about RESTORING BALANCE.What is important to you outside of your career? What are those things that fill you up, recharge your batteries and your bank accounts.

Sleep, good nutrition and regular exercise are a great start. What relationships, activities, hobbies, experiences build you up, make you smile? What is on your Bucket List?

Restore is also about creating (and defending) BOUNDARIES between your work life and your larger life. This skill is absolutely essential when preventing physician burnout.

I have created the “Satisfaction Mind Flip” free report (here is the link) as a taste of how you can strengthen your Restore muscles.

3) REDUCE EXPOSURE

This third physician burnout “cure” is about reducing your day to day exposure to the draining effects of your workplace.

• Resist is about building up your self defenses against physician burnout while on the job
• Restore is about rebuilding the energy lost while at work
• Reduce Exposure is about lowering the stress present in your workplace by exerting some control in one or more of the following four ways.

1) Keep doing what you are doing now … just less of it.
Such as Part time, job sharing, etc.

I only recommend this if you are truly unable to change any aspects of the WAY you work I list below. If your work environment is burning you out when you participate full time … less exposure to that environment will cause less physician burnout. AND I would still recommend you work to make the workplace less toxic using some of the suggestions below.

2) Change the stressors that lead to physician burnout without changing jobs
… changing the WAY you work. Target those aspects of your practice you find most draining and redesign them. In many cases this means becoming a more powerful leader as you create a system and coordinate your team to address tasks that you currently take on all by yourself.

Leverage, delegate, empower your team, Change your patient mix, your compensation mechanism, the way you chart, the way your team addresses your workflow, your staffing levels. “Scribes” in the ER are an example of this.

3) Change Jobs to a position that is less stressful inside medicine
… a new position, a new practice model (concierge medicine for example), a new group, take on a leadership position. Go back to school for a fellowship or MBA.

4) Quit medicine to retire and/or make a living doing something different. Some positions and careers will utilize your medical credentials … others will not. As an entrepreneur … I can tell you that a clinician’s skill set (the ability to diagnosis and treat) is a universally valuable skill set in any business – even though you almost certainly don’t see that right now.

 Creating your Physician Burnout Prevention Matrix

If we are going to mount a robust defense against physician burnout … and live the best life possible … it makes sense to be skilled and working a proactive plan in all three of these areas. Resist | Restore | Reduce Exposure.

Just imagine

• You are skilled at remaining centered, calm, focused and compassionate at work even on hectic days
• Your energetic bank accounts are full, your life is balanced because you have proactively structured it to be this way
• Your workplace has a smoothly functioning team, seeing patients you enjoy in a reasonable volume for a satisfying wage

Each of these three points are not staggering individually … and when you put them together into a complete package the odds of you being anywhere south of physician burnout stage 2(b) is very small.

If you would like personalized recommendations for how to incorporate the physician burnout prevention tools above into your unique practice  … please CONTACT ME using this web form and let’s get started.

Source:  http://healthworkscollective.com/dikedrummond/31669/physician-burnout-three-symptoms-three-phases-three-cures

As a leading physician staffing company, we at CompHealth are hearing more frequently from doctors searching for alternative practice options to combat burnout. To better understand this trend, we partnered with a top market research company to survey 1,000 physicians about workplace stress.

Our findings clearly show that doctors are concerned not only about stress due to insufficient rest and the monotony that often comes with the job, but also how it affects their quality of work. While it’s widely regarded that job stress negatively impacts work quality, for physicians, the impact can have a more damaging effect. It’s important that we address these stress and burnout issues for the sake of patient care.

According to the survey, 63 percent of the doctors were concerned about the impact of stress-related factors. What can be done to alleviate this problem? When physicians come to CompHealth searching for answers, the solution we offer them is to try locum tenens.

Locum tenens describes a physician who fulfills short-term assignments at medical facilities on a contract basis. They work side-by-side with the facility’s permanent physicians, enabling the staff to work a less demanding schedule, and take time off when it’s needed and deserved.

The locum tenens physicians also benefit because they are able to work a more flexible schedule while enjoying professional development and personal fulfillment. The experience they gain from different practice settings and diverse patient cases helps them learn new techniques as well as share knowledge and skills.

Enabling physicians to control their work schedule helps reduce stress, ensuring they are working to the best of their ability when they are examining patients. It’s startling that 67 percent of all physicians we surveyed are often forced to choose between resting and effectively serving patients. As locum tenens, physicians are less likely to have to make that choice.

Some of the highlights of the physician stress survey include:

Seventy-four percent of hospital physicians are less likely to get the rest they need as compared to 64 percent of private practice physicians
Forty-five percent of survey respondents believe patient care would improve if more doctors had avenues to avoid burnout and monotony; an additional 28 percent felt the opportunity to work on new cases was important in this area
Twenty-five percent believe the quality of care would improve if doctors were given the opportunity to contribute to under-served areas
Ten percent indicated they would appreciate working on high-risk cases that challenge them to improve quality of care
It has been our experience that the locum tenens option provides significant relief to physicians experiencing burnout. They arrive at the facilities certified, credentialed, refreshe,d and motivated to serve their new communities; benefiting the patient and resulting in better patient outcomes. No wonder 92 percent of the physicians we surveyed have a very favorable view of locum tenens and believe it to be a worthy practice option to explore.

Melissa Byington is president of CompHealth locum tenens (www.CompHealth.com), the founder and leading provider of locum tenens. The CompHealth Survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 1,000 U.S. physicians ages 25+, between February 3rd and February 17th 2012, using an email invitation and an online survey. Results of any sample are subject to sampling variation. A full methodology is available upon request.

Source links:

CompHealth: http://www.comphealth.com/

Locum tenens: http://www.comphealth.com/locum-tenens/

Wakefield Research: http://www.wakefieldresearch.com/

Source:  http://www.healthnewsdigest.com/news/Patient_230/Physician_Stress_Affecting_Patient_Care.shtml

The top three sources of stress for IT admins are management, tight deadlines and the users they support.

Source:  http://www.eweek.com/c/a/IT-Management/IT-Administrators-Experience-High-Stress-Levels-214238

After so many years of being asked to walk on water, it’s understandable that you and your cohorts in IT would be feeling a little burnt out. Before throwing in the towel, take a look at six suggestions for rejuvenating your career, presented by Cindy Waxer at InformationWeek.

Start by determining whether you are truly fed up or just temporarily stressed out, recommends Rachel Russell, a director at IT staffing company TEKsystems. If anxiety and exasperation are always with you, it probably indicates that a career change is in order. Be aware, though, that your personality may be particularly susceptible to job burnout. If you have a difficult time saying no to people, don’t really know how to push back effectively or tend toward cynicism, the burnout you feel may be largely a function of mindset and approach.

To recharge your batteries within your organization, look beyond the IT group for other possible opportunities. You may find that your level of exasperation prevails throughout the organization, or you may find that another area would be a better fit for you.

After so many years in a given role, one can lose one’s motivation and it may be a sign to start something new. In other words, if you feel like your job is sucking out your soul, find something else that you can get excited about. On the other hand, feelings of burnout could result from an eroding skill set. If you haven’t had any career development in a while, it might just be time to learn something new in your field.

Finally, don’t neglect the imperative of getting away from it all from time to time. Be sure to take a real vacation every year–one that does not involve your smartphone or laptop.

For more:
- see Cindy Waxer’s article at InformationWeek

Source:  http://www.fiercecio.com/story/tips-getting-past-burnout/2012-04-18

More and more IT professionals are getting fed up with their jobs and the constant pressure of having to perform miracles with increasingly limited funds, pay, and accolades.

“With the state of the economy, and IT departments having to do more with less, we have seen an uptick in the number of IT professionals getting fatigued,” noted Rachel Russell, a director at TEKsystems, a provider of IT staffing solutions and IT services. “In some cases, they’re even a little resentful because of the amount of work they have to take on in order to keep the lights on in their organization. They’re tired.” 

Fortunately, career burnout doesn’t have to lead to server room temper tantrums and a one-way ticket to unemployment. Russell offers six tips for IT career rejuvenation and getting yourself back in tip-top shape. Let the healing begin.

1. Ask yourself if you’re simply stressed or honestly burned out.

Every IT employee has a bad day or two, or three. But the occasional fit isn’t cause for concern. Rather, it’s important to determine whether the negative feelings you’re harboring are a temporary glitch or a constant companion. “One indicator is how long the stress has been carried around,” said Russell. “Everyone goes through moments of high stress, but if it’s been a consistent type of anxiety that the employee has been carrying around, or gets to a point of real negativity, then it’s likely burnout.”

[ Security pros' salaries are on the rise. See 4 Tips: How To Land An IT Security Job. ]

2. Know thyself.

Like it or not, there are some personalities that are simply more prone to career burnout. So before you blame a demanding IT manager or a disastrous deployment for feelings of burnout, you may want to look deeper inside. “The personality of wanting to please, not being good at saying no, or not being able to push back in a diplomatic way–these people tend to get hammered,” warned Russell. “There is so much work to be done out there and if you don’t know how to push back effectively or handle your priorities, you’ll get overwhelmed. Also, people with more of a cynical bent to their personality can achieve burnout. This lack of positivity can be draining and lead to burnout faster.”

3. Explore your company.

When you’re suffering from career burnout, it’s easy to feel as if there’s no escape. However, oftentimes the answer is right under your nose. “It’s important for employees to network beyond their IT department so they know what opportunities exist outside of that group and team,” said Russell. “That way they’ll know if the frustrations they’re running into are really prevalent across the enterprise or unique to that department or area.”

4. Reignite your passion.

Are you overwhelmed by a recent ERP project? Or are you no longer inspired by what you do for a living? If your day-to-day duties are starting to feel soul-destroying, it may be time to switch careers altogether. “When IT professionals start feeling the passion putter out and can’t think of new ways to innovate, or they’ve tried to innovate many times to no avail, then it’s time to look outside of what you’re currently doing,” advised Russell.

5. Go back to school.

Career burnout can sometimes be a case of arrested development. For this reason, Russell recommends that IT professionals keep their skills fresh. “You have to stay passionate and a lot of that passion comes from being invigorated and feeling like you’re learning,” she said. “There are so many different training and learning certifications out there–you can take things online, you can register for community college courses. IT changes so fast, just keeping pace and feeling like you’re fresh is an excellent option.”

6. Take a week off. Seriously.

“By off, I mean off,” says Russell. No smartphone, no email, no telephone calls.

http://www.informationweek.com/news/global-cio/careers/232900293

Following a few years of following the traditional post-college career path, I decided to strike out on my own and build Accompl.sh full-time. It’s been a bit of a roller coaster of emotions, productivity, success and failure, and it has helped me to better understand what I need to do to keep myself on task.

I’ve learned that it’s entirely possible to put a LOT of hours into your job, get a good night’s sleep and still make time for fun.

Here’s how:

1. Figure out what matters

An obvious first step, but an important one. If you don’t know (or aren’t told, as the case may be) what’s important to you, it’s pretty impossible to focus on it. These days there are a few things that matter to me:

• Growing my business (70%)

• Cooking more and eating better (15%)

• Personal growth and learning (15%)

Knowing what you want to and need to focus on helps to filter out all of the noise and distractions. Assigning a weight to a certain bucket in your “what matters” list helps to eliminate the need for a lot of time-consuming decision making.

2. Figure out what’s hogging your attention

There are two ways to attack this one: Become extremely self-aware, or use an app that does it for you. A combination of both is most effective. Start paying attention to how you spend your time. How many times a day do you check Twitter? How many days a week do you find yourself sucked into primetime TV shows? How many times did you check Facebook before your morning coffee?

I’ve been using RescueTime for a while now, and though I don’t actually check on my statistics very often, I know I’m being tracked, so I tend to be on my most-focused behavior. And when I do check my stats, I can see where my huge time-sinks are.

3. Kill those things

Get them out of your life. Or at least minimize their potential for distracting you. Notifications and status icons are a gateway drug — you thinkyou can just check one or two, but before you know it, an hour has gone by and what have you accomplished? Nada.Some things to consider killing:

• Growl notifications: I turned these off during college and never looked back.

• Twitter notifications: You know the ones that make the icon in your menu bar turn blue whenever there are unread tweets? Disable that now.

• Alert Sounds: My exception to this rule is the “first IM received” notification in Adium. You’ll especially want to kill things like the sign-on/sign-off alert in your IM client.

• Your TV: If you have one, unplug it from the wall. It makes it a lot more difficult to just casually flip it on for a show and get caught up from 8 to 11 p.m.

4. Get stuff done

Now that all of the distractions are out of the way, get to work! You’ll be amazed at how much more time you have in your day now. Maybe you’ll use it to get more work done, maybe you’ll finally get to go out to dinner with those friends you’ve been ignoring for the last few months, or maybe you’ll find a new project. The options are endless! Enjoy it!

5. Rinse and repeat

Keeping your time in check is an ongoing process. Every couple of months (or couple of weeks if you feel yourself slipping), stop and take an audit of your time again. If you have something like RescueTime running, you can just check in on your stats and adjust as needed.

6. Productivity is great, but balance is better

Don’t forget to build in time for play. Not everything you do needs to fit into your “what matters” buckets. Sometimes you just have to turn off your brain. Burnout is a much bigger problem than losing a few hours to a movie or aimlessly poking around Facebook. Don’t forget to have a social life. Don’t forget to water your plants. Don’t forget to have fun. Most importantly, don’t burn out.

Source:  http://www.businessinsider.com/a-productivity-plan-for-accomplishing-what-matters-most-2012-3

Burnout isn’t the result of too much work. It’s the result of not getting what you want.

So says Google Vice President Marissa Mayer, 36, the company’s first female software engineer and its 20th employee when she joined the company in 1999. In her first five years at Google, she pulled at least one all-nighter a week. “It wasn’t just me, it was everyone,” she told an audience at the 92nd Street Y in New York last night. She also discussed her status as a woman in a male-dominated industry.

“Part of Google was it was the right time and we had a great technology, but the other part was we worked really, really hard,” she said. “It was 130 hour weeks. People say, ‘there’s only 168 hours in a week, how can you do it?’ Well, if you’re strategic about when you shower and sleeping under your desk, it can be done.”

Asked whether she still maintained such a crazy commitment to work, Mayer said that she did, and declined to pay lip service to the notion of work-life balance.

“I don’t really believe in burnout. A lot of people work really hard for decades and decades, like Winston Churchill and Einstein,” she said.

Avoiding burnout has nothing to do with making sure you eat three square meals a day or get eight hours of sleep a night. “Burnout is about resentment,” she said. “It’s about knowing what matters to you so much that if you don’t get it that you’re resentful.”

When she has sensed that an employee was becoming fatigued or annoyed with long hours, Mayer has taken the person aside and asked them what really mattered to them outside of work. For one employee, making nightly 1 a.m. phone calls to her team in Bangalore, India didn’t bother her. What did was missing her children’s soccer games and dance recitals because she was stuck at work. “So, we say you’re never going to miss another soccer game or be late for a recital.”

“You can’t have everything you want, but you can have the things that are really important to you and that empower you to work really hard for a really long time on things that you’re passionate about,” she said.

Mayer also talked about her decision to join Google after earning a masters from Stanford University. She turned down 13 offers, including those from consultant McKinsey and Carnegie Mellon University. Google was far from a sure bet.

“There were already twelve search engines [on the Internet] and it was unclear why the world needed another one,” she recalled. “I could see this being the joke of family reunions for years. Even the name of the company is a punchline…Google!”

Mayer has long been one of Silicon Valley’s most visible technical women, but she seemed conflicted about playing up her minority status as a female geek. Asked if she was the only the only woman in her Stanford computer science courses, she said that she didn’t remember.

“Asking the question, I worry, sometimes can handicap progress,” she said. “I lived in a bubble. I was really good at chemistry and biology [growing up]. No one ever said, ‘Wow, you’re really good at this for a girl.”

“If I felt more self-conscious about being a woman it would have stifled me more,” she added.

Source:  http://it-jobs.fins.com/Articles/SBB0001424052702303404704577309493661513690/How-Google-s-Marissa-Mayer-Manages-Burnout

As March comes to a close and Spring brings with it warmer, longer days, it’s natural to start thinking of spending time outdoors with friends and family, and wanting to make the most out of your weekends. That’s where Summer Fridays come in, if your company can swing them.

Last summer, this blog outlined the benefits for companies (that you might want to share with your boss), including burnout prevention and procrastination reduction. This year, why not start planning now so you’re all but guaranteed this perk by the dog days of July?

Here are 4 things to do to ensure you’ll be enjoying longer weekends by Independence Day:

Show (not tell) that you’re reliable.
Before you even ask about Summer Fridays, you want to alleviate your boss’s biggest fear–that work won’t get done. By asking for 1 on 1 time now, he or she will see you’re proactive as well as efficient. “These meetings are a good chance to sync up on work priorities and find out if your boss would [even] be open to Summer Fridays. In addition, regular meetings with your boss are also an opportunity to align on your performance and the goals you should be focused on attaining, if not exceeding,” says Rusty Rueff, job site GlassDoor.com’s workplace expert.

Suggest re-arranging your hours.
When requesting any time off, including Summer Fridays, you want to cause the least disruption. The ultimate way to do that is to rearrange your hours, instead of asking for less of them. “For example, you could work longer days Monday through Thursday so that you can enjoy three-day weekends during the Summer. Four 10-hour days might be the better way to approach the conversation versus ‘I’d like Friday’s off,’” notes Rueff.

Get together some prime examples.
You’re not the first person to propose Summer Fridays, so find out what worked for friends at other offices. And talk to colleagues at your own company. “Find out from old-timers at your company if Summer Fridays were ever done before or even proposed. Maybe this isn’t acceptable in the company culture. It doesn’t mean you can’t change that but you want to know how uphill this battle will be,” says Caroline Ceniza-Levine, partner at career consulting firm Six-Figure Start, adding that you should also ask about the company’s history on other flexible schedule issues, like telecommuting. “These might be a proxy for how they’d feel about Summer Fridays,” says Ceniza-Levine.

Remember: timing is everything.
“You want to ask on a day when the boss is in a good mood,” says Sharon Armstrong, author ofThe Essential Performance Review Handbook. This might sound obvious, but it’s crucial to start planting this seed early and when your boss has time to consider it. Asking in April is going to give everyone involved enough time to make it work well in July and August.

Source:  http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-500395_162-57404702/4-things-to-do-now-to-get-summer-fridays-in-july/

I always used to think that burnout happened when you worked too hard for too long without any respite. It was the physical, mental, and emotional exhaustion that resulted. In the past, we’ve all experienced bouts of burnout that might have been cyclic, seasonal, or occasional. But lately, many of us have been living with it daily. With the downturn in the economy, companies have cut back on staff, funding, and resources to support all the work that needs to be done. In fact, as we struggle with having less, we’re being asked to do more. It’s like the wicked stepsisters in Cinderella. We’re trying to stuff a big foot into a tiny shoe and then being frustrated and surprised when it doesn’t fit.

However, there’s another aspect to burnout. It’s when your efforts don’t produce the results you expected. Let me give you an example. Most of us understand that there’s not a lot of money available for salary increases. So, even though we’re working longer hours and taking on more, we don’t really expect a raise or a big bonus. What we do expect is recognition for our contributions, appreciation for what we’ve accomplished (namely pulling rabbits from hats), and backup when we need it. It’s when we don’t get the things we expect out of all we put in that produces burnout. Burnout is more than working long and hard. It’s working long and hard and not getting what we feel is our fair due.

So, what can you do to prevent or alleviate burnout in your workplace or chapter? Here are some ideas.

1. Lower your expectations so that they are realistic with past returns.
2. Let people choose from a list of rewards when a job is completed well. Plaques may be cool to some, while time off may be coveted by others.
3. End every big event or project with a celebration. In fact, you may want to create a celebration committee. I bet this committee position won’t be hard to fill.
4. Make the work fun. Build in breaks, add activities, interject humor, provide snacks and treats.
5. Focus on team output. Don’t burden a few, but spread the tasks out equally. Allow and encourage members to take parts of the job that are new to them or stretch their comfort zones.
6. Realize when too much is too much and pull back. There’s a reason elevators post weight limits and have bells that give warnings when it’s exceeded. Correct the situation before the crash occurs.
7. As situations change, take a hard look at past procedures and get rid of extraneous “stuff.” Change what you do, how you do it, how often it’s done and make the work fit the time and number of hands available. Analyze cost vs. benefit not only in terms of money, but people.
8. Force individuals to take breaks. Discourage long hours, eating on the run, weekend catch up, vacations not taken, etc. After some time off, you can come back and get twice as much done than you would tackling a job dog tired. Attitude needs to be refreshed, just like a stuffy room.
9. Look for creative ways to fill holes. Volunteers, interns, temps, barters, co-ventures can all be ways to add bodies. Equipment, furniture, and supply trades can shore up empty places and cabinets. Upgrading and sharing, like purchasing a new printer two people can use, might be better than each person wrangling with an outdated, close-to-non-functional one.

Burnout may be rigueur du jour at your workplace or chapter. But it doesn’t have to be. With a little thought and planning, you can turn your work life from havoc to haven.

Source:  http://www.iaap-hq.org/blog/work-advice/susan-fenner/extinguish-burnout