How to restore an emotional resource if you work with people

What is burnout

Burnout VV Boyko's method of diagnosing the level of emotional burnout is nervous exhaustion, in which a person constantly feels tired, his working capacity decreases, various ailments appear, a feeling of helplessness and apathy arises. Burnout is especially susceptible to those who work with people: doctors, waiters, salespeople, teachers. The “burned out” does not have a desire to respond to customer requests, contacts with them become formal and impersonal, the need to help others causes growing internal irritation and tension.

The term "burnout" was introduced by the SYNDROME OF "EMOTIONAL BURN OUT" IN SOCIAL WORKERS: A THEORETICAL ANALYSIS OF THE CONCEPT by the American researcher Herbert Freudenberger in 1974, but cases of burnout were known before: people were always tired of working with other people. For example, Vikenty Veresaev at the beginning of the last century in the "Notes of a Doctor" described a case: a rural teacher from a cheerful and interested person turned into an irritable, petty, exhausted one. She was brought to a neurologist, the doctor was cheerful and indifferent and treated the patient's problem as a trifle. Two cases of emotional burnout are described here, which manifests itself in different ways: for the teacher - despair, for the doctor - heartless gaiety.

The prerequisites for this syndrome are the "Mental burnout syndrome", V. Ye. Orel, chronic stress, emotional overload, everyday fatigue. The tension is heightened by the high expectations of others: when you work with people, customers expect attention and quality service from the staff.

What is stress and how to deal with it

Stress is the body's response to external stimuli. A person can change the psychology of stress and methods of correcting mood, behavior, well-being and speed of thinking. For example, it becomes difficult to remember something and concentrate on work, a person gets irritated and conflicts over little things, and quickly becomes exhausted.

Stress is not caused by any event at work, but something that you assess as threatening your health, condition and reputation. For example, one waiter may be nervous about an intrusive drunk customer, while for another this is not a problem at all.

Stress is divided by exposure time into short-term and long-term. In addition, it can develop into a disease.

Short-term stress

This is situational stress. For example, a violent visitor is rude, delivery is delayed, and buyers are indignant. The good news is that this kind of stress helps Hans Selye. Stress without distress to solve extraordinary tasks, overcome obstacles, develop a strong defensive reaction. Bad news: this benefit happens. What is Stress? not always and not at all, some people just freeze. Coping strategies (from the English coping - “coping”) help to cope with your feelings and adapt to stimuli, that is, to “digest” a stressful situation. It is a resource for countering the RELATIONSHIP OF EMOTIONAL BURN OUT SYNDROME AND COPING BEHAVIOR OF SOCIAL WORKERS and burnout syndrome.

Someone petting a cat in the back room, someone knitting a scarf during a break - people find their own strategies or use well-known ones. This can be emotional release, rethinking the situation, exercise, switching attention.

Here is a selection of such methods.

Use a calming breath. Its basic rule: inhalation is shorter than exhalation. For example, about four-six. As you inhale, count to four, then exhale for a count of six. Concentrate on your breath, but you do not need to hold it. This technique will help shift your focus and calm you down. It can be used if you are not negotiating, as your breathing can become disordered during a conversation.
Make a "wacky" playlist. This is music that can be turned on in your head, and sometimes in reality, when a tense event occurs. Choose tracks that are completely inappropriate to the stressful situation, make it comic. This ironic technique opposes emotional involvement in conflict: its main purpose is not to let "take to heart".
Tell the unpleasant situation out loud like a story. You can record a video, sing about what is happening for any motive, complain to yourself, tell the cat about what happened in the form of an anecdote. This will help to look at the stressful situation from the outside, to rethink it.
Visualize an obstruction. Imagine what separates you from the annoying environment: brick wall, waterfall, spacesuit, tall tree. This technique will give you a sense of security, you will separate from an unpleasant situation.
Do a short warm-up. A simple set of exercises will help you to come to your senses. Wash your face with cold water, dry your hands and rub your palms together until you feel hot, apply to your cheeks, rub them 5-7 times. Then place your palms over your closed eyes and press lightly on your eyelids. Massage the auricles (lobe and outer part of the ear). In conclusion, try to stand on straight legs several times to reach your toes with your fingers, and then stretch upward, standing on your toes. It is better to do this warm-up after the incident: you will both stretch the muscles tense from stress, and give yourself a break from work.
Keep your hands busy. Working with small details helps to shift attention, but you need to prepare in advance and acquire the necessary equipment. After a stressful event, take a break for tea, anti-stress coloring, construction set, puzzle, embroidery.
Take a short walk. If possible, take a walk in the fresh air. It will turn out to warm up, change the situation and take a break.

The most stressful situation when working with people is a conflict with a client. The following coping strategies can be used here.

Speak calmly. During a conflict, try to speak in a measured way, laying out the problem on the shelves. Don't fall for the aggressor who is trying to speed up the pace of the conversation. Use phrases: "I understood correctly that …", "Let's summarize." Speak in a calm, even tone, address with respect, do not appeal to the personality of the aggressor. Try to look either at the papers or at the bridge of the speaker's nose.
Insist on respectful communication. Do not let the offender insult yourself and cry out. This can be done with the following phrases: “Your emotions are clear, but let's not swear”, “I cannot continue the conversation in this tone. We are talking about the situation, not about me "," We can communicate in writing. " Never take the words spoken in a conflict personally.
Take a break. If the unpleasant situation drags on, leave where the client cannot get: utility room, warehouse, office. You can use various prepositions: "I need to verify the documents", "I will consult with the senior of the shift", "One minute, I will clarify." Once in this room, do 20-30 sharp squats or wash yourself with cold water.

Long-term stress

The pressure of commitment, uncomfortable working conditions, large volumes of responsibilities, frequent rush jobs, not enough rest - all this is a long-term stress that leads to emotional burnout. Here are ways to help neutralize the effects of stress in time and increase your resilience.

Lead a healthy lifestyle. Lack of sleep and hunger can increase irritability, so remember the importance of good nutrition and good rest. In addition, regular physical activity (yoga, jogging, swimming in the pool) is a good way to relieve stress.
Take a break from work communication. After a working day, try to be at least a little quiet and alone with yourself. A short walk, breathing exercises, dancing alone are all good options.
Relieve tension. This can be helped by taking a bath, self-massage of the face (pay attention to the browbones, cheekbones and jaw area), muscle relaxation, which is achieved by simple physical exercises.
Find the good in every day. Before going to bed, remember the passing day and try to find something good in it. To look at the events of the day from a distance, you can ask yourself a few questions: "What color was this day?", "What three words would I describe it?" ? ".
Eliminate background anxiety. Fear of negative customer reviews, providing a poor service or bad product (and unconsciously projecting these flaws onto yourself), and tolerable incompetence in work matters that may be rudely pointed out by strangers are just a few of the reasons for anxiety when working with people. Yale professor Robert Leahy talks about Cure for Nerves. How to stop worrying and enjoy life by separating productive and unproductive anxiety.

Productive worrying helps highlight problems that can be solved. Unproductive - includes imaginary “What if?..”. Constant worry, Leahy says, is a strategy for avoiding unpleasant emotions that are much more rewarding to experience. We must admit: no one can be rational all the time, in a good mood and cope with everything.

Let others take care of you. In professions where direct contact with people is assumed, employees give a part of themselves to the client: their skills, emotional support, attention. And often there is a deficit - you gave, and in return you did not receive either gratitude or praise. It is important to make up for this deficit and receive personalized services in which specialists take care of you. You can go for a massage, manicure, relax at a tea ceremony with a master, go to your favorite coffee shop.
Maintain emotional balance. When accumulating a mass of negative, use the "unload-load" technique. First, there is an emotional release, "unloading" of negative emotions (go-karting, shooting at a shooting range, descent from the highest slides of the water park, shouting in an open field - whatever suits you). And then - "loading" positive (travel, going to a concert of your favorite group or to the theater).

Stress that turns into illness

Nervous work at work leads to a decrease in vitality and ailments. The most common of these are sleep disorders, headaches, digestive disorders, and blood pressure problems.

At the end of the school year, the teacher has frequent migraines, she blames every class: "Your head is splitting," - but postpones the visit to the doctor. In the evening, after checking the notebooks, she cannot sleep for a long time and finally takes a sedative, which her colleagues advised her.

Another example is a realtor who sees clients everywhere even after the end of the working day. He is polite on duty with his family, and work matters do not go out of his head. For many years he has been drinking in the evenings to relax and sleep. These are not unique situations: there is a common practice of uncontrolled use of sedatives and alcohol.

Don't drown problems in alcohol

When working with people, you need to be sober: otherwise, you will not be able to respond in time and adequately to an emergency situation, and during routine work it will be difficult to concentrate. Alcohol belongs to the group of depressants - it suppresses Alcoholism and its effects on the central nervous system the activity of the nervous system. A small amount of it initially causes a different effect: relaxedness, confidence, excitement. But after that comes fatigue and drowsiness. In addition, the frequent release of stress with alcohol can lead to physical and psychological dependence on it.

Use sedatives with caution

Tinctures of motherwort, valerian, peony, herbal teas with various combinations of lavender, chamomile and mint are often advised to take to calm down. However, always follow the instructions and make sure that you do not have an individual intolerance.

In addition, people can take homeopathic sedatives without control for many years, the effectiveness of which, according to the latest research of A systematic review of systematic reviews of homeopathy, is no higher than that of a placebo.

It is dangerous to take psychotropic drugs and antidepressants, selected on the recommendations of friends, without a doctor's prescription. Remember, “I helped Masha” - this is not an argument.

To increase resistance to stress, you can take special vitamin complexes containing magnesium. Neurologists believe that magnesium strengthens the nervous system.

Seek help from your doctor

It is worth contacting a doctor if you systematically fail to cope with short-term stress, the consequences of long-term stress affect your health, noticeable psychological problems appear (for example, panic attacks, situational stuttering, persistent anxiety), and sleep disturbances. Depending on the situation, a psychologist, psychotherapist, neurologist, endocrinologist can help you.

How to recuperate

In order to restore an emotional resource, you need good rest and goals, interests that are not related to work.

Build boundaries. There are doctors who, on vacation, tell everyone that they are engineers so that they are not tugged with requests to make a diagnosis. This is not an anecdote, but a privacy protection strategy. Frequent provision of free services to friends and acquaintances, communication with clients on mobile outside of working hours, mixing of personal and business contacts, long conversations with loved ones about work - all this is an invasion of personal life by work. Protect privacy, in which you are not a specialist or a leader, but just a person.
Do things that are important to you. Find strength for what is truly valuable to you, and spend time with loved ones. It gives life meaning, and the inevitable work conflicts and troubles seem to be less significant.
Find a hobby. This is a real outlet! Hobbies and interests reduce the importance of problems at work.
Change your surroundings. Traveling fills with positive emotions, allows you to change the environment and take a break from the routine. This is a good way to relax.
Have days of silence. Take a break from strangers: their presence, voices, requests, as well as your own responsibility to restrain emotions and appear better. This recharge is especially useful for introverts. Spend the weekend when you don't have to do anything. There is food in the fridge, and housework will wait. Do only what you want, interacting with the outside world to a minimum.

Remember, working with people is a constant emotional exchange, so it is necessary to have a supply of positive emotions and not let it deplete. This is possible if you live a fulfilling life and neutralize the effects of stress. Take care of yourself and make the world a better place.