“Is it normal that I walk from one room to another while talking to myself?
Is it happening to you guys? Am I crazy?
Look, uh, I just want to say this doesn’t feel right.”
When I shared these words with my remote teamwork I had a lot of answers and experiences to share in order to avoid this stress.
That’s how I describe my feelings and my experience with containment and other strange habits.
The most relevant element for me was to share experiences and to get out of this feeling of boredom.
It can be very healthy to talk to yourself. It is an activity that is often stigmatised and is described in a negative way, but talking to yourself in a positive way can have a stimulating effect on your motivation and mental strength. I start my day with a positive affirmation in the sun and end it by writing down in my notebook any accumulated stress or negative feelings. Keeping a clear mind and expressing yourself in your own way (through the arts, physical activity, writing or talking to others) is the best way to overcome this crisis.
What is burnout
Surely you have heard about burnout before and maybe have even experienced it.
Burnout is a consequence of chronic work stress over extended periods of time and is characterized by three signs such as:
- Emotional exhaustion (feeling tired, drained, unable to cope and frustrated )
- Lack of energy (caring less about coworkers or clients)
- Job dissatisfaction (unhappy or negative feelings about work or the work environment).
How do you know if your remote employees suffer from burnout?
The impact of remote employee burnout affects other team members, your business and your customers. When people are unhappy with their work situation, they can let their colleagues and customers know, intentionally or unintentionally. Negativity within your team can be contagious and customers can be put off by a poor service experience.
You can recognize some symptoms of burnout in remote workers that include:
- Lack of concentration
- Easily upset or angry.
- Inconvenience to people and their work.
- Hopelessness.
- Disengagement or withdrawal
- Seem demoralized, worried or stressed out
- Perpetuating a negative culture in the workplace
- Frequent absences
- Take time to answer and complete a task
How To avoid burnout with APPLE Technique
Anxiety UK, the charity that cares for people suffering from anxiety, stress and anxiety-based depression, recommends to try practising the APPLE technique to feel in control and manage anxiety:
- Acknowledge: Notice and acknowledge the uncertainty as it comes to mind.
- Pause: Don’t react as you normally do. Don’t react at all. Pause and breathe.
- Pull back: Tell yourself this is just the worry talking, and this apparent need for certainty is not helpful and not necessary. It is only a thought or feeling. Don’t believe everything you think. Thoughts are not statements or facts.
- Let go: Let go of the thought or feeling. It will pass. You don’t have to respond to them. You might imagine them floating away in a bubble or cloud.
- Explore: Explore the present moment, because right now, in this moment, all is well. Notice your breathing and the sensations of your breathing. Notice the ground beneath you. Look around and notice what you see, what you hear, what you can touch, what you can smell. Right now. Then shift your focus of attention to something else – on what you need to do, on what you were doing before you noticed the worry, or do something else – mindfully with your full attention.
13 Ways to beat the stay at home burnout
The essential element of productivity is to give priority to your employees because your employees are your greatest asset.
It is important and necessary to know that You get the highest quality and most consistent work from employees who are in good physical and mental health and who feel that their needs are being met because a happy workforce is a productive workforce.
You need to put the needs of your employees first and trust that everything else will fall into place.
Then you should make Your Employees Feel Heard, Supported and Valued.
Here are some tips to beat the stay at home burnout:
1. Pay attention to basic needs
In times of crisis and stress, basic needs may be neglected, including food, water, security and sleep.
That is why we should pay attention to the basic needs of people who are working harder than ever before.
2. Distribute efficiently work hours
Maintaining planned activities (work time, break times, etc.) in our home-based work helps to Keep our minds focused on action rather than rumination (i.e. continuously thinking about the negative aspects of a situation). It is therefore necessary to keep our actions simple and planned: getting up at the same time, dressing as for a working day, imposing work periods on ourselves gives us a feeling of control over the organization of our days.
You need to pay attention to the number of hours you work and make sure you get breaks.
3. Optimize Your Home Workspace
Every employee should think about what changes can make to his work environment to reduce stress level. Try to personalize your workspace to make it a comfortable place to take a short break. Also try to arrange your workspace so that you have to get up and walk to reach your file cabinet or bookcase. This will help you stay active throughout the day and allow you to take a break for a few seconds.
4. Limit the news and be careful what you read
Reading a lot of news about coronaviruses can cause panic attacks and anxiety.
When you are anxious, your thoughts can get out of control and you begin to think about catastrophic results. That’s why you should limit the amount of time you spend reading or watching things which aren’t making you feel better. Perhaps decide on a specific time to check in with the news.We must take into account that There is a lot of misinformation swirling around – stay informed by sticking to trusted sources of information.
5. Stop Feeling Like You’re Failing
Remote workers seem to have an inner critic who never sleeps. This inner critic makes employees question just about everything, including their performance.
That constant criticism isn’t good for anyone and makes you feel like you’re failing. Be bold and tell your inner critic to shut up! You’re doing a great job.
Some days you’ll feel like you’re barely surviving at-home. But you’re a good employee and you can’t win every struggle. In fact, you don’t even need to try to win every battle.
6. Know your stress factors
In order to avoid and breakthrough burnout, you need to identify your stress factors. What are the things that make you stress throughout the day. Write it down or do a mental note and stop it right on it’s tracks.
Stress is also a culprit of burnout and knowing what factors increases your stress, it’s going to help you to find ways to eliminate it.
7. Look at the positive
Sometimes when you’re so overwhelmed, so stressed, so tired, and done with being a stay at home, it’s hard to look at the positive. But, really really look at it 😉
When you look at the bigger picture, this is your life,
I hope these tips can help you feel less burned out and more happy as an employee! Start living the life that you want even if you’re a remote worker, because you can!
8. Recover Yourself
Thinking about what you do after work is essential to recover yourself and whether these activities really help you recover.
It is important to note that psychological detachment is essential to recovery although it is not as easy to achieve.
That’s why it’s important to personalize and choose the recovery activity that best suits you and provides the best antidote to your particular form of stress and burnout.
Even if you don’t have a lot of time, it’s important to set aside some time to do something that you find satisfying. Taking the time to recuperate has been shown to help people feel more engaged at work and protect them from the long-term consequences of job stress and the risk of burnout.
9. Avoid Negative People
If your support system is not behind you, then employee burnout can quickly appear on the horizon. Avoid negative people who don’t support you.
While you can’t avoid everyone, you can ensure that the majority of people in your life are supportive and always there for you.
10. Find your support system
Just as you want to avoid negative people as much as possible, you want to surround yourself with as many positive people as possible. If you don’t already have a support system in place, create one.
Without a good support system in place, you can quickly become an overworked employee who is heading straight for burnout.
11. Get inspired by music
Music is a great source of inspiration. You can relate to it and depending on what song you’re listening to, it can make you happy and ready for the day. You can listen to an upbeat song and even start dancing. It just gets your job in a positive way.
When I put music on, I want to achieve my goals and be more productive, it’s crazy but so true! And of course, it automatically gets you in a good mood
12. A book can be your best friend
This is another way that I relax and give myself much needed time. I read a book. It’s just as simple and effective. Reading a book relaxes and makes you happy.
Lose yourself in your favourite book, in a quiet place in the house where no one can go and ask you.
13. Create some virtual team building activities
Leading virtual team building activities is the best solution to increase productivity and overcome your remote employees burnout.
It’s simple and you can try it now. You can consult some virtual team building here.
How To Beat Burnout after Coronavirus?
Being separated from other employees are often stressful. However, in step with the CDC, a number of these feelings can still be felt even after you allow your quarantine. The CDC points out that a number of these feelings include :
- Mixed emotions, including relief after quarantine
- Fear and worry about your own health and therefore the health of your loved ones
- Stress from the experience of monitoring yourself or being monitored by others for signs and symptoms of COVID-19
- Sadness, anger, or frustration because friends or loved ones have unfounded fears of contracting the disease from contact with you, while you’ve got been determined to not be contagious
- Guilt about not having the ability to perform normal work or parenting duties during quarantine
- Other emotional or mental state changes
The CDC also urges individuals with preexisting mental state conditions to continue with their treatment and bear in mind of recent or worsening symptoms.
To summarize
Faced to the vacuum created by the coronavirus, we must quickly build new positive benchmarks to carry the firm during this era of confinement. it is a matter of reinventing one’s life, with two main challenges: avoiding negative emotions, like anxiety or depression, and tedium, especially for those that are alone. Creating new motivating, energizing habits is meant to assist us keep our spirits up.
In this time of health crisis, morale is down. But some people are taking advantage of this point to develop good habits.
And you! How do you feel in this confinement period? Don’t hesitate to share your feelings and experiences with us.