How to Beat Pandemic Fatigue and Burnout
The number of ways that COVID-19 has impacted individuals and businesses alike is countless. Upended work schedules, virtual schooling, isolation, reimagined business operations, loss, taking endless precautions to stay healthy, canceled vacations, and chaotic childcare arrangements are just some of the stressors we have experienced over the past nine months. When stressors keep piling up and we’re unable to effectively manage them, our body responds with the all-too-familiar feeling of stress. When that stress lingers, we become fatigued and eventually… burnt out.
Right now, many of us are feeling “pandemic fatigue”. We are nine months into this crazy reality and no one is certain when it will conclude. We want to tackle what pandemic fatigue is, what burnout is, and some ways to best cope with it all.
What is Pandemic Fatigue?
We have been inundated with safety protocols, to-do, and not-to-do best practices since mid-March when the coronavirus caught wind in the United States. We have been operating in a constant state of adaptation, survival, and isolation… all things that are exhausting to the human psyche. Compound that by 9 months and we are just straight out fatigued. Incorporating new things into our routines is always a challenge, but those new things aren’t typically a “do or die” mantra. This is what we mean by pandemic fatigue.
What is Burnout?
Typically, burnout terminology is used in relation to our professional careers, but it isn’t confined to that. We can feed burnout in every aspect of our lives. When something with such vast impact like a pandemic happens, burnout can be all-encompassing. Doctors Emily and Amelia Nagoski define burnout as, “the experience of being overwhelmed and exhausted by everything you have to do. And yet, somehow, still worried that you're not doing enough”. Are you currently feeling burnout?
The combination of stressors and the uncertain nature of COVID-19 lead to pandemic fatigue and pandemic fatigue combined with an inability to manage our stress drives us to burnout. We are only human, so don’t feel like you’ve failed just because you feel burnt out!
Methods to Beat Burnout
It would be rude of us to acknowledge the existence of these struggles without offering a solution, so we’ve assembled a list of attainable methods to put up a strong fight against pandemic fatigue and burnout.
Connect with others and welcome vulnerability. Remember those doctors we mentioned before? They studied burnout, how it manifests itself, and how to remedy it. Through their studies, they found that the best answer to burnout is through connection and attaching yourself to the world around you so that you can allow yourself to be taken care of. Through meaningful connections, we become more vulnerable, and being more vulnerable grants us the flexibility to allow weight to be taken off of our shoulders. Just because we are social distancing doesn’t mean connecting with others is impossible, it may just take some creativity!
Find something that makes you happy and do it over and over. Buy into self-care. If you know exercising makes you happy, be sure to set time aside to exercise. If creating something beautiful makes you happy, set time aside for that. Find your happiness and feed it. Don’t forget about your basic necessities–eating, sleeping, and hydrating–as they are the baseline of self-care.
Carve gratitude out of challenges. We are all faced with challenges, but when you let those challenges beat you down you will quickly become fatigued. A way to combat that is to find gratitude with each challenge. Read this for tips on how to embrace challenges with gratitude.
Seek support if you’re feeling helpless. Whether this is seeking help from your manager about something career-related, finding a friend’s shoulder to cry on, or finding professional help, you should never be ashamed to speak out when you’re struggling. Communicating loud and often is always a welcome strategy when fighting any sort of struggle, fatigue, or burnout.
Conclusion
COVID-19 has been quite a buzz-kill, but we’ve made it this far! Connections, self-care, gratitude, and communication are all ingredients for the perfect recipe for burnout elixir. We hope you all finish out the year strong and never lose sight of the important things in life.
If Who Staffing can help you in any way with building a process that allows you to win the war on talent, please feel free to reach out to start a conversation or go here for more information about us.
