When talking about working remotely, a lot of people would imagine a person enjoying a stress-free, cozy work environment, sipping a cup of hot coffee, tackling work according to their own schedule. While these things can be true for some remote workers, this isn’t always the case for everyone. Working from home isn’t always a bed of roses. In fact, it poses a few risks to one’s mental health and wellbeing. Just because you’re working in the comfort of your home doesn’t mean you’re spared from stress and burnout. After all, it’s still work that came along with a new set of challenges: anxiety and inability to separate work from personal life which can put you on the brink of burnout.So how do you know you’re actually suffering from work from home burnout?
Here are the red flags to watch out for!
Noticeable changes in your mood
One of the telltale signs of work from home burnout is a noticeable change in your mood. If you’re more irritable and annoyed even at little things, or there are times when you suddenly burst out in anger, it may be a sign of burnout. Also take notice if this is happening more frequently because if it does, you may need to do an honest assessment of your current work situation and start doing something about it.
You procrastinate
Procrastination creeps in every now and then and while occasionally procrastinating may be normal, finding yourself doing it more often than usual may be an alarming sign of work from home burnout.
Have you found yourself moving from a steady, productive pace to being lazy about work? Has your work output significantly reduced and you ended up accomplishing a lot less this month than you have in the past? If this is so, then you’ve burned yourself out.
You begin to adopt unhealthy habits
When experiencing job burnout, you’re looking for ways to feel better and comfortable. Burnout isn’t comfortable. It makes you feel exhausted and tired. It doesn’t make you happy. Therefore, you seek ways to offset that discomfort even if that means adopting unhealthy habits. You want to soothe the negative feelings and try to cope by consuming alcohol, unhealthy food, doing retail therapy and so on.
It’s manifesting on your physical health
Burnout is something that shouldn’t be ignored because it can be detrimental to your physical health. It manifests in the form of headaches, gastric problems, insomnia and even other serious ailments. When you notice these changes on your physical health, it’s a sign indicating that you’re most likely experiencing extreme work stress and burn out.
Take a close look at how much time you spend working. Maybe you’re not getting adequate sleep, rarely eat on time and you barely get some exercise.
Working from home may seem like the ideal setup but it doesn’t mean you’re spared from stress and burnout. Watch out for these red flags and signs of burnout. Do something about it before it takes a toll on your health and wellbeing.
