Burnout Is Not Caused By Just A Toxic Working Environment

According to Joanna Denton, many individuals stay silent when they are going through tough times (Photo © David Cordner)

According to Deloitte’s Burnout Survey, 84% of Millennials have experienced burnout at their current job and nearly half have left a job because of it. It is safe to say that burnout is a phenomenon of our working era.

One of the people who have faced burnout is Joanna Denton, who today openly speaks about her experiences. At the time of the two burnouts Denton had over the course of five years, she was still working in the corporate world specialising in tax.

“I used to really love my job,” Denton says. “Even if it was high pressure and long hours, I was working with great people, doing really interesting work – and I don’t think you do the job I did for so long if you’re not really loving it.” Despite the pressure coming from a demanding position, Denton doesn’t blame the environment alone.

“When I look back to my burnouts now, I had a lot of self-doubt and I didn’t much believe in myself,” she says. “I compensated for this with long working hours. I double-checked and triple-checked things before passing them on. At the end, I was exhausted. Not exhausted in a way that goes away with a good night sleep, but in a way that lingers. I had anxiety attacks and once spent an afternoon and evening at the ER because I thought I was having a heart attack. I was constantly filled with worry and fear. It was like all of my body was screaming for me to stop but I just kept pushing forward. In the end, I couldn’t be bothered with the job I had loved in the past.”

“I believed that if I didn’t work for 15 hours a day, I wasn’t performing as well as I should and I was not professional enough.”

Joanna Denton

Denton underlines that unlike often thought, the symptoms do not end with work. When dealing with a burnout, she did not want to go out or do things, and even simple things such as taking a shower were challenging or felt unimportant. She also started to shut herself out of her social circles by cancelling things at the last minute or simply not going, all of which are typical symptoms for people dealing with burnout.

Controlled by fear

According to Denton, many individuals stay silent when they are going through tough times or heading into burnout because they are afraid. Afraid of being seen as broken, fear of seeming weak, fear of our own immortality, even fear of not knowing how to handle the difficult situation that burnout is. It can get very complicated and sometimes the fear ends up creating a vicious cycle.

“I personally used control as my coping mechanism,” she says. “Instead of admitting that I was worried or anxious, I just tried to control everything even harder, creating a vicious cycle like this.”

Internal belief systems play a part

Denton reminds that despite a common notion, changing jobs is not always a key to recovering from burnout. She underlines that finding a single party to blame for burnout is neither simple nor beneficial. While corporations and the pressure set by the society have a crucial role to play, and some working environments can be more toxic than others, contributing also to Denton’s own burnouts was her own belief system and the need of performing well.

“There are some people who come to work, do their job, close the day ontime, and go home without sparing a single thought to it afterwards. They are arguably less likely to burn out. And then there are the people who have something to prove, either to themselves or the others, who want to show that they have what it takes to succeed, and who are pushing themselves all the time. These people are under a higher risk of burnout because of their own belief system, particularly when they are working in an environment that is high pressure with long hours and high stress.”

“The important thing to keep in mind is that we are the CEOs of our life and destiny.”

Joanna Denton

Breaking the unhealthy beliefs systems is crucial

Even when getting out of a possibly toxic environment that has enabled the burnout to develop, people may carry out the bad habits and beliefs that have played a crucial part in developing the burnout.

As an example, Denton mentions her own belief system of how professionalism equals to working long hours.

“I believed that if I didn’t work for 15 hours a day, I wasn’t performing as well as I should and I was not professional enough,” Denton says. “Ever since high school I have had these patterns of pushing myself further, and that led into my first mini “burnout” at the age of 16.”

“Even now, as an entrepreneur, I brought those patterns and beliefs into working. I am my own boss now, and no one is telling me to work long hours, but when I first started my business I was pushing myself to work the same kind of hours as before. Over the last few years working for myself I have changed these habits and worked on the beliefs. For example, now if I have a workshop in the morning, I take the afternoon off afterwards; while in corporate life, I would have had to move on to the next meeting..”

For Denton, counseling has been an important part of the recovery, allowing her to develop skills to change unhealthy habits and belief systems. Because of this, she encourages everyone to get help, even if it is hard, and reminds us that burnout is not a competition of who has it worse.

“Your self-esteem and self-confidence can get so low that it might be hard to believe that you deserve help,” she says. “Because of your belief systems and these self-esteem issues, it may feel like you are not having it hard enough, or that if life is not hard, you are not living it right. The important thing to keep in mind is that we are the CEOs of our life and destiny. By handing all the responsibility for our burnout to the environment, for example the working place, we give away some of our autonomy in solving the situation.”

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