Summary.
When the conditions and demands you encounter at work exceed your capacity to handle them, you’re at risk of burning out. And unfortunately, suffering employees are often left to manage burnout on their own. Many find that leaving the organization is the only remedy. How do you know when it’s time to call it quits? Ask yourself the following questions: Does your job/employer enable you to be the best version of yourself? How well does your job/employer align with your values and interests? What does your future look like in your job/organization? And what is burnout costing you in terms of your health, career prospects, psychological well-being, and relationships? If you conclude that leaving your job or organization is the right course of action for you, you’ve already turned a corner. You may not be able to quit immediately. But you can begin to lay the groundwork: Put aside extra savings, update your résumé, reach out to network contacts, spread the word that you’d like a new job, get a coach, or sign up for an online course. The journey back to thriving begins with actions like these.
You have the right to have work that enriches and enlivens you, rather than diminishing you. This is my own personal declaration of human rights at work. It informs everything I do as a coach, management professor, and human being. Yet it’s surprisingly controversial. Managers and employees in organizations around the world have bought into the assumption that pay and other contracted rewards are all you can expect to receive from work (and all that you owe your employees) and that it’s unrealistic to hope for less-tangible benefits like trust, respect, autonomy, civility, and the opportunity to make a positive impact on others. This impoverished view of work plays out in workplace attitudes and behaviors that burn employees out. It also traps people in jobs that harm their well-being and sense of self.