We’ve probably all been there. Sunday night rolls around after an enjoyable weekend and all of a sudden there’s a shift in your mood knowing in the morning you have to restart a long week at work. According to a 2019 Forbes article, more than half of workers in the U.S. are unhappy in the job roles they have. With numbers reportedly as large as 155.18 million employed Americans, more than half having negative feelings towards their job turns into a massive sized problem.
The term “job burnout” is defined by the Mayo Clinic as, “a special type of work-related stress — a state of physical or emotional exhaustion that also involves a sense of reduced accomplishment and loss of personal identity.” With more than half of Americans finding unhappiness in their job, it seems this phrase may be much too common in the work place and homes. It’s safe to assume that everyone at least once has been met head-to-head with some stressful days at work. But when does a typical hard week cross that line and results in job burnout? Let’s discuss the signs and ways you can change your path from running on empty to complete happiness.
What Are the Signs of a Job Burnout?
Having a clearer understanding of the term outside the surface level may actually allow you to recognize where you personally fall into the term and statistic. Even though these signs are common ones, as anything related to similar life topics, everyone is different. Make sure to use your own judgement to more accurately depict what you may or may not be currently experiencing.
Exhaustion
Sometimes, eight hours a night just can’t cut it. Being unable to catch up mentally is a red flag that could be directly traced back to the workload you are responsible for. Small tasks you used to fly through now become prolonged. Large tasks turn into unbeatable mountains you find challenging to even start climbing.
Slipping Work Performance
Do you find less and less acknowledgements coming from your management team these days when it comes to your work? Are you falling more and more behind with regular job duties as your emails keep rolling in and stacks on your desk keep growing to the ceiling? If you find difficulty in comparing yourself to the work ethic you once had, it may have to do with something other than you no longer being the best at what you do.
Negative Thoughts
Your passion may have flown out the window for the thing you once adored doing for your career. Looking at the business you work for and what you do for them every day in a new light may reveal you may not be as excited as you once were. No idea is good enough anymore, Zoom calls always feel longer than they really are, and emails are usually skipped over as you delete them from your inbox without care. Being burnt out leads to somehow finding the negative side of things you once cared a lot about. Work and Home Spill Over
Conversation at the dinner table may have had a bit of a shift recently for you. Being unable to check out when you clock out may cause those new (or old) feelings you have about work to spill over into your personal life. Mentally failing at being present during hobbies or family time, physically showing no interest of life off the couch every weekend, and emotionally struggling to connect to feelings other than that too familiar work stress or worry that is now such a big part of your life.
Ways to Fix Being Burnt Out at Work
At the start of this post, we mentioned the statistic of more than 50% of employees being unhappy in what they do for work. This common feeling may put you or someone you know into a large group of people who work somewhere they wish they could change. But making that change isn’t always a snap of a finger. It takes a lot for someone to work up enough courage to walk away from their role and chase something else. And rightfully so. But knowing what your options are, may make that decision easier for you on what steps to correctly take.
To start, the thought of leaving your current job may not be what you even want. Having job burnout doesn’t have to result in you starting over somewhere new. There are other things you can consider such as:
- Speak with your manager about your current issues on the job
- Create new goals and plans to aim for
- Focus on yourself and revisit a personal hobby you enjoy or want to start
- Create daily rituals such as unplugging on a walk after work or instill quiet times into your workday, if possible
How to Make a Career Change to Find Happiness Again
If your mind is made up and you are more than ready to start over somewhere new, then those options are fortunately available for you to pursue. Regardless of what your past work experience may be, your age, or your schooling background. Current trends are showing us a peek into what the future of work will look like. As a result, the demand for Software and Web Developers have skyrocketed. It instantly created a job security for those with the skillset and a desire for companies to expand their teams with new talent. Growth predications show no signs of slowing down.
With an average starting salary for Entry Level Junior Developers at $65,000+ a year in the United States, it makes complete sense why so many are taking advantage of that demand and shifting careers.
But what happens if you are ready to pursue an exciting new career as a Software and Web Developer but have limited coding knowledge to make it your full-time job? Luckily, there’s options for you there, too. One option that has become a permanent part of the higher education conversation in the last decade are coding bootcamps. An option that challenges traditional college to save time and money with the same end results. When it comes to devCodeCamp, we are no stranger to taking someone with little to no previous knowledge into coding and giving them the hirable skillsets to become full-time developers in only a handful of weeks. The courses we have built in-house from the ground up are designed for you to reach maximum growth for long-term success in a career.
Having the right options available for you to break away from a burnt-out job role is crucial. Entering into a field that is growing, exciting, and offers high starting wages on average could be exactly what you are looking for to help shape the future of technology.
If you are ready to pursue your next steps in a career shift and want to see how our online coding bootcamp can help get you there, reach out now!