Burnout at Work or at Home

· You wake up exhausted after a good night’s sleep.

· You take no pleasure in your activities.

· You have difficulty concentrating.

· Tasks take longer than they used to.

· You are sometimes irritable for no obvious reason.

· You feel “keyed up” all of the time.

· You have ups and downs in your energy level.

· You notice that you keep re-reading the same paragraph.

· You keep misplacing things, forgetting appointments, not remembering what others have just been talking about.

· Everything feels like “too much” and even trivial matters seem monumental.

You are suffering from burnout.

Burnout can be from overwork at the office or it can be from being overextended at home. Single mothers often suffer from burnout¾too many responsibilities with no support. Even married couples can feel burnout with small children at home, a new baby, a demanding job, running a house and the major culprit: the expectation that not only can you do it all, but that you can do it all perfectly.

There is a difference between burnout and depression. Depression is usually not attached to a specific event, is not connected to overload, and continues for an extended period of time. It is characterized by an inability to respond to stimuli, low initiative, and general despondency. It colors all of the person’s life. But burnout, if prolonged can turn into depression.

What is the cure? No, I’m not going to advise you to go to the Caribbean for two weeks and lie in the sun (although that might help) because when you return, if the situation has not changed, then burnout will eventually recur.

You’re not coping with burnout if:

1. You become withdrawn, blaming yourself for not meeting expectations, whether your own or those of others.

2. You get angry, blaming everyone else for your problems, accepting no responsibility for the situation.

3. You deny the stress, keeping a stiff upper lip in spite of feeling terrible. By not admitting how bad you feel, emotional problems can convert into physical symptoms.

You are coping if you try to problem-solve, using others to help you think through whether the unmet expectations that are causing the burnout are realistic.

At work, just because everyone else is on overdrive does not mean you have to be. Are the deadlines self-imposed or do others expect too much? Can the workload be reduced, can resources be added, is the stress time-bound, and will it be reduced in the foreseeable future or will it go on relentlessly with no relief in sight? Who can you talk to in order to shift priorities? Can anything be delegated, postponed, or not done at all? If no help is in sight, you may have to look for another job (never quit one job before finding another, unless you can afford the down time).

Burnout wreaks havoc with our health and should not be allowed to continue for too long unabated.

It’s a different question for burnout at home¾you can’t quit and look for another home with another husband and children who help, are neat, polite, and with enough money for a staff of employees to cook and clean. So, if you have burnout in your own home, get help! Is there a grandmother on your block who will baby-sit in exchange for a small fee? Are there other parents as exhausted as you are with whom you can take turns babysitting each other’s children? If there is a spouse, share chores; if there are older children, teach them how to help.

Both at home and at work, stop every ninety minutes, stretch, drink a cup of tea, sit still for five or ten minutes with you eyes closed, breathe deeply, meditate if you can. Exercising for at least thirty minutes a day helps to reduce stress.

Proper nutrition is critical. Sugar lowers energy levels after an initial short-lived surge. Six to eight hours of sleep are necessary for most people. Don’t watch television until all hours of the night.

Burning the candle at both ends, which many of us do too often, will eventually result in burnout.

Learn to burn that candle one end at a time. The light will last longer.

Lunch with the President

“Mr. President, three years ago I met you at a similar venue and told you then that I worried about you—you answered that you were worried about yourself too—you were a candidate then. I must admit that I have not stopped worrying since and that you are also getting a little too thin.”

This was my opening when I asked the first question at a luncheon held for President Barack Obama last Monday. He laughed and said his wife Michelle agreed with me.

Back in 2007, two weeks after he had announced his candidacy in Springfield, Illinois, Christine Forester, a member of the National Finance Committee, held his first fund raiser in La Jolla in the home of Elizabeth and Mason Phelps. And here we were again, in their home. Mr. Obama remembered that event and thanked them again for opening their lovely house to us all.

The luncheon was held in their large courtyard, covered by a tent, with long tables seating 130 of us. (I counted.) Salads were waiting for us, Chinese noodles over lettuce with pepper and chicken strips catered by Elegant Gourmet. Huge, delicious cookies baked by François, the owner of Girard Gourmet, were decorated with the Obama campaign logo, a circle with a red, white and blue rainbow.

I had expected traffic congestion getting to La Jolla Village Drive and then onto La Jolla Mesa, but the roads were clear as I passed the first check point and arrived at the second checkpoint where there were police on motorcycles and Secret Service agents—all in black suits—who looked into my purse and checked my ID. Golf carts took us the two blocks to the house where a dozen other early arrivals awaited the signal to enter through the large double doors into the foyer. At that third checkpoint we were wanded, and the metal in my hip made it buzz. We waited again until the entrance to the courtyard was flung open to the rows of tables and more black suits surrounding the area.

While we ate our salads, Jared Polis, representative from Colorado and son of Susan and Steve Schutz of La Jolla, spoke to us about the sad state of education in our country. Jared is passionate about the issues facing our nation, he also addressed immigration, trade agreements, the Tea Party and several other topics. He is a wonderful spokesperson for all the things I believe in too and has a great political career in front of him.

We had barely finished our lunches when the President arrived, straight from another such event in San Jose. (He looked fresh. I don’t know how he does it.) His navy-blue suit was impeccable, hopefully the seams were left large enough to make it bigger if he gains the weight back. But then, he’s the President, I guess if the suit becomes too tight, he’ll be able to afford a new one.

A palpable rustle of excitement accompanied his arrival. He really does have a wonderful, contagious smile. He spoke for maybe twenty minutes about the expected topics of immigration, taxes, and healthcare issues, but then said he preferred a discussion. As my seat at the table was a few feet from where he was standing—and I know how to wave my arm—he looked at me and said he would take the first question from the lovely young lady in front of him. I was going to say that I was neither lovely, nor young nor always sure about “lady,” but asked instead about something I was truly wondering about.

I assume, I said, that his staff gives him summaries of all the news media from around the world—he nodded yes—but does he also read in their original the likes of Thomas Freedman, Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, David Brooks, and if yes, what kind of impact do these columnist have on him?

He said he does read them and mentioned that both Freedman and Brooks are good friends and agree with him 80% of the time, but that is not what they write about. Controversy is what makes headlines.

Besides the expected questions regarding our national and global issues, one dealt with the idea of installing a water pipeline to go from flooded areas to draught-affected ones. He thought it would be great, but there is no money for the corps of engineers to build such a pipeline.

One question which struck me was asked by Janice Brown. She wanted to know when he would finally get “pissed off.”

“Now,” he said to great applause.

We also found out that his favorite drink is a martini straight up, but only on Friday and Saturday nights. His favorite movies are the two Godfathers, he likes re-reading Shakespeare, Faulkner, and Hemmingway.

Although there were many more hands up for questions, he had to get on his plane for the next event in Los Angeles. We were asked to wait until he left with his motorcade.

There is a special thrill to be in the presence of the President of the United States, something seems to rub off and make us feel a little bit larger, part of a tight community, part of a proud country, and especially for someone like me, an immigrant who came through Ellis Island not speaking English, the fact that “I Talked to the President” was and is awesome.

Talking Too Much or Not Enough

We have all attended meetings disrupted by someone who takes up all the “air time.” We have also been at meetings where one or more participants do not contribute. This is true whether it is a board meeting, a staff meeting, a faculty meeting, or any meeting in law firms, in hospitals, in corporations, in government agencies, and wherever people meet to discuss the business at hand. As a matter of fact, this can also apply to dinner parties.

Strangely enough, the person who talks too much and the person who talks too little may both suffer from the same problem; they just deal with it in opposite ways.

The person who does not speak may feel he or she has nothing of any value to add or may be uncomfortable interrupting if the discussion is flying at a rapid rate and getting one’s two-cents in means jumping in fast.

Often, it is women who worry that what they have to say will be seen as irrelevant or reveal their ignorance. Most men believe they’re doing well unless criticized, while most women believe they’re not doing well unless praised. As positive feedback is not a norm in most places of work, women don’t know how their contributions are received and therefore are not inclined to risk being wrong by opening their mouths.

This behavior begins in kindergarten when a teacher asks a question and all the little boys’ hands go up whether or not they know the answer. The little girls will only raise their hands when they’re sure they know. As a result, boys are called on more often than girls and get to practice their responses more.

Of course, there are always other possibilities: Non-talkers may be bored out of their wits, have other things on their minds, or think the meeting is a waste of time and do not wish to participate in what they consider futile.

On the opposite end of the scale are the people who won’t shut up. Either they take forever to express a thought or think they have something important to add after each comment by others. Often this person is a higher-up and arrogantly believes that it is his prerogative to continually emit his opinion or hold forth ad nauseam.

But, it is also often people who feel lower down on the totem pole and want to show that they are not as inadequate as they believe others perceive them. They keep talking to reassure themselves and others that they are indeed as knowledgeable as the next person.

What to do? If you’re the leader of such a group, your task is to ask the non-talkers for their opinions and reinforce the validity of the contribution by referring to it. After the meeting, the leader can tell the non-participants privately that their contributions were helpful and appreciated. If there is no leader to perform this task, anyone who notices a silent person can engage them and validate what is then being said.

As a leader in a group with an over-ebullient person, your task is more difficult. How do you shut up someone without offending? If you guess it is a person who speaks out because of feeling inferior, you would use the same tactics of reassurance and support and possibly interrupt by asking others’ opinions. If it is a higher-up who won’t stop talking, you can discreetly, after the meeting, ask for suggestions as to better equalize the air time. Perhaps they can be asked to monitor how much others talk and discuss his or her observations with you.

It is almost impossible to tell someone he or she talks too much without offending. But saying that junior members are unwilling to express their thoughts and feel intimidated because the talker always seems to have something to say about everything, might be a strategy. Asking them to help you encourage others to talk more will give them a role. If it’s a junior member, he or she can be asked to take notes.

Generally, people speak too much or too little for reasons that can be elicited. Responding to the underlying need to either express oneself or to withdraw might solve the problem¾at least in the short run. In the long run, you may have to live with the problem.

Some years ago we were members of a monthly dinner group of several very congenial couples. Unfortunately, one member was totally unaware that she was using up all the air time, talking non-stop. We were all equally annoyed and equally unwilling to hurt this person. If she had known how we all felt, she would have been devastated, so we said nothing and just looked at each other with dismay as she rambled on, non-verbally agreeing with each other that this was irritating, but that we were stuck. In other words, that silent group support helped. This can also help in other such situations where it is hopeless to change behaviors.

However, I believe that allowing this to continue is a disservice to an individual who is unaware of the irritation that such behavior causes. The ultimate consequence is that such people will not be asked to join other groups, be they work groups or social gatherings, and will suffer from the inevitable ostracism.

So the kind, even though difficult, thing to do is to take this person aside and ask whether they are aware of talking more than anyone else. Whatever the answer, this behavior is usually unconscious and responds to some psychological need. This can be brought to consciousness and then dealt with more easily. If the individual becomes defensive and refuses to acknowledge their over-the-top participation, the whole group might have to confront the person with examples of the repercussions of their disruptive behavior. It is important to be aware that criticism should always be constructive and offer an opportunity for growth.

Is Your Relationship Sick?

1. Does your relationship have arthritis? Everything hurts, you do small things to try and help, but there is no cure. Every motion irritates, and there is no letup.

2. Does your relationship have migraines? Even though you are both there, one of you is really absent, lost in some private pain.

3. Does your relationship have blood clots? One of you is stuck doing things that are ineffective or even hurtful, repeating the same pattern over and over.

4. Does your relationship have high blood pressure? One of you is always angry, with a chip on the shoulder, ready to blow off steam at the slightest provocation.

5. Does your relationship have a low pulse rate? You’re both just treading water, lost in apathy, with no joy or fun, only dull routine.

6. Does your relationship suffer from loss of vision? Have you lost sight of the reasons you’re together, the values you share, the goals you had?

7. Is your relationship hearing impaired? Do you pay attention to what each of you says, or do you feel like you’re talking to a wall? Are you sharing your intimate feelings, thoughts, needs, and concerns with each other?

8. Does your relationship experience dizziness:? One of you often changes plans without consulting the other or has mood swings and is unpredictable.

9. Does your relationship have a heart murmur? You long for love to be expressed in words and actions: a flower, an evening out, handholding, an unexpected kiss or hug, an admiring glance, loving whispers.

10. Is your relationship constipated? Everything is held back, held in. No one talks or shares anything. Neither of you knows what the other is thinking nor feeling. You don’t know about each other’s daily experiences.

11. Does your relationship have diarrhea? You talk, but you say nothing—an endless stream of words without substance, chatter with no relevance to anything meaningful.

12. And finally, does your relationship have a spinal-cord injury? Neither of you can stand up straight, say it like it is, shoot from the hip, confront the reality of your situation, or make tough decisions on how to improve matters between you.

If your relationship is sick, what is making it ill? Is there a toxic environment? Are there needs not expressed and therefore not met? Can you help each other by asking what would make your partner happy and then do something about it?

Relationship sickness can be cured, not by Band-Aids, not by antibiotics, but by constant care, constant watchfulness. Better still, sickness can be prevented by constant love.

How do you do it? First, take the time to sit down together and look over the twelve illnesses. Do any fit your relationship? If not, is there something else? Ask each other where it hurts and what would alleviate the pain. Tell each other what you appreciate and what helps and then what the needs are and how these can be fulfilled.

There are four important questions couples should ask and answer:

What would you like me to

Stop?

Start?

Do More of?

Do less of?

Be honest with each other, which means be willing to be vulnerable and express feelings that may be embarrassing, e.g., when you do such…I feel…. Don’t dismiss feelings, thoughts, needs, hopes, fears; examine their validity, acknowledge their impact, and look for ways to help each other.

Then, try the following: Cuddle in bed even for just a minute before getting up. If you both read the paper during breakfast, hold hands for a minute. If either or both of you work, be sure you know where to reach each other—in other words, know each other’s schedule of activities. When you get back together in the evening, inquire not only about the day’s events but reactions to it. (E.g., Were you upset when…? Where you glad that…?) Once in a while, bring home a flower, a favorite candy, a silly object you ran across. Give hugs at the kitchen counter, squeezes in the garage, a kiss in the laundry room, and a frequent “I love you” everywhere else.

This may sound trite, but it works. It costs nothing, is not high risk. Try it, you may like it.

Too Many Choices

For those of you who have not read the article by John Tierney in the New York Times Magazine of August 24, 2011 called, “To Choose Is to Loose.” I would like to summarize some of the main points as I feel it is one of the more important topics I have seen in a long time. The caption under the title reads, “the very act of making decisions depletes our ability to make them well. So how do we navigate a world of endless choices?”

We are not aware during our daily activities of how many choices encumber our brains non-stop. For instance, we start the day with shower or bath, plaid or stripped, regular or decaf, whole eggs or whites only, heels or flats, taxi or subway. Then we continue throughout the day with staple or paperclip, buy now or wait for sale, speak up or keep quiet, paper or plastic, wash or dry-clean, chocolates or flowers, book or magazine, strength training or cardio, keep driving or ask for directions, cash or credit, go out or stay home. The list can go on ad infinitum—it is just a sample of how bombarded we are with constant decision making.

What happens is that our brains get tired. Tierney calls it decision fatigue which explains why ordinarily sensible people buy junk food, splurge on clothes, and let the salesperson talk them into an unneeded upgrade. It is different from physical fatigue, because we’re not aware that our brain is tired and our brain begins to look for short cuts either by acting impulsively, not thinking through consequences, or by saving energy and doing nothing, avoiding making any decision, which could also lead to unintended consequences.

Psychologist Ray F. Baumeister coined the term “ego depletion.” The more energy you use to avoid temptation (such as ordering dessert) the less energy you will have to avoid other temptations, so you may end up eating half that box of chocolates. One of the examples given is registering for wedding gifts—after deciding on flatware, china, glasses, table linens, towels, and sheets, the exhausted couple just pick whatever is displayed, stop making choices, and start asking the salesperson, “What do you suggest?”

The more options—whether buying a car or ordering a suit—the quicker fatigue sets in and so one chooses the default option.

In an experiment involving the timing of paroles given or refused, 1100 decisions were analyzed over the course of a year. Prisoners who appeared in front of the judges early in the morning received parole 70% of the time, while those who appeared later in the day were paroled less than 10% of the time. The fatigued judges chose the default option: remain in jail.

What experimenters tried to do next was to see whether the brain can be made to function even when fatigued, and the answer was glucose. Glucose could reverse the brain’s propensity to stop deciding and give it a burst of energy. This explains the dieter’s problem with willpower. We start off refusing the doughnut for breakfast, but by dinner have no willpower left for the chocolate cake. The Catch-22 is that in order not to eat, the dieter needs willpower, but in order to have willpower, the dieter needs to eat. Baumeister showed that in order to start making good choices again once depleted, people need “a sugary pick-me-up,” but not a beverage containing a diet sweetener.

The prisoners who normally would have that 10% chance of getting paroled by appearing in the afternoon in front of tired judges were taken in front of judges who had just eaten and got approved 60% of the time. I personally don’t know how much choice prisoners have in the timing of their appearances. I’m guessing not much, but according to this research, the judges should find the opportunity to eat a snack before their brains start turning off.

People with the best self-control are the ones who structure their lives so as to conserve willpower. They don’t schedule back-to-back meetings, avoid all-you-can-eat buffets, and instead of having to decide whether to exercise every morning, they schedule it in advance. Even the wisest people won’t make good choices when their glucose is low.

So don’t make decisions late in the day nor on an empty stomach. The best decision makers, Baumeister says, are the ones who know when not to trust themselves. We all now have a good excuse for the piece of chocolate mid-afternoon.

Anger: To Vent or Not to Vent, That Is the Question

I used to read that not expressing your anger, holding on to it, would lead to physical symptoms of illness, so the advice was to vent your anger. Then I read that to express your anger will only make you angrier, raise your blood pressure, and not help to resolve the situation. So the advice was to swallow your anger.

Now I read the latest research, which suggests that the above advice can be harmful. So what’s the real story?

Most studies have always involved men and the relationship between anger and heart attacks. Men who are easily angered, easily irritated over small things, who are generally anxious, are more likely to suffer heart attacks than their calmer counterparts.

We used to think of Type A personalities as those who are always in a rush, who do three things at the same time, who push their way to the front of the line, who interrupt others, finishing their sentences for them.

What has been found is that the only Type A behavior that is harmful is hostility. In other words, it is not that you are in a rush, it is that you’re angry at the slowpokes around you, honking your horn and cursing.

Little research has been done on women, when the first large-scale study at the University of Tennessee looked at anger in the lives of average, middle-class, American women. Five-hundred-thirty-five women between the ages of 25 and 66, working fulltime outside the home, were given questionnaires.

The researchers found that what typically triggered an angry response was feeling that one had been treated unfairly or disrespectfully, not being able to meet one’s own expectations, others failing to live up to expectations, and frustrating situations at work that could not be changed.

Generally, issues concerning power, responsibility, and justice were all the triggering mechanisms for angry reactions.

Older women seemed to get less angry, perhaps because they learned to suppress anger as young women or because they just mellowed with age.

The researchers also found strong evidence that venting anger by yelling, screaming, or lashing out was more harmful than keeping it in. Venting anger more disrupted relationships, creating further problems for both the giver and the receiver of the wrath.

Women with low self-esteem were more easily provoked and saw innocent acts and words as personal affronts. The women who expressed their anger in an attacking and blaming fashion were also more likely to be depressed. Ruminating about the provoking event worsened the angry feelings and was associated with an increase in blood pressure.

On the other hand, women with high self-esteem neither suppressed their anger, nor expressed it, but discussed that anger in a problem-solving way either with the person who provoked it or with a friend, reducing the feelings of anger and sparing the potential recipient from an outburst.

Living in a retirement community as I do, I find that when residents are angry about a seemingly unimportant thing, it may be healthy. Being upset may be a way to have a voice; it is a sign of caring about the way things are done or not done. In this case, the opposite of anger is apathy—giving up on one’s wishes, expectations, or needs.

One cannot write about anger today without discussing rage: the out-of-control feeling that overwhelms us and dictates our behaviors usually to our detriment and to that of others. Rage unleashes cortisol, the stress hormone, which clogs our arteries. Spouse and child abuse are due to rage¾often unleashed by an insignificant event. We have all read about road rage¾common to people with a low tolerance for frustration. Then there is the rage fuelled by political agendas that propel people to suicide bombings, anger large enough to overcome our innate urge to survive. Anger threatens, rage kills.

So to vent anger is bad for your relationships. “Ruminating” about it raises your blood-pressure. So suppress it until you can talk to the offending person and explain the impact of their behavior. If that is not possible, talking about the angry feelings with a friend helps.

But most importantly, don’t allow yourself to be easily provoked. In other words, mellow out, try not to take it too personally, it is the other person’s problem for having upset you, not yours. Remember that when Peter gives feedback to Paul he says more about Peter than he says about Paul. If it’s an event out of your control and not anyone’s fault, blame is not an option. The strategy is the same: talk about it with a friend.

Letting Your Unconscious Do the Work

Most of us function from our left brains: logical and linear. We think through problems, make lists of pros and cons, examine alternatives, and weigh the possible consequences. Very often this process does not provide us with satisfactory answers. So we toss and turn at night and obsess during the day, not knowing what to do.

Then, out of the blue, at an odd time, in a strange place, out of context, while doing something totally irrelevant, come the solutions. What happened? Our right brain, intuitive and holistic, took over.

Most of us have had this experience of finally figuring out something after we stopped working at it. Is there a way to make this type of insight, which happens outside of our control, more accessible?

When we talk about our unconscious, we often also mean our intuition. Women talk about intuition or listening to their instincts, men talk about having a nose for something or following a hunch. We are all talking about the same thing: listening to our gut reactions.

What do we mean when we say: “this just feels right to me”? It is the difference between knowledge and knowing. “Knowledge” is fact, painstakingly learned through study, listening, and observation. “Knowing” is a private experience that often cannot be explained to others, it is our intuition. Our minds process a huge amount of information that we are only dimly aware of, and sometimes, that information is the key to solving a problem.

I believe that we can train our unconscious mind to take over when our conscious mind has given up trying. The following strategies are worth trying.

1. At the end of the day, either upon leaving your office or before going to sleep, jot down the problem you’re dealing with using a few, key words, then forget about it.

2. Think of the problem just before starting a non-work-related activity.

3. Move your body: Studies at Purdue University show that any form of physical exercise seems to activate creativity.

4. Think of three people whose problem-solving ability you respect and put yourself in their shoes, how would they look at the problem. (If I were “X,” I would…)

5. Pretend you are the problem; how would you resolve your dilemma? Don’t be afraid to write down the silliest and most outrageous thoughts that come to mind.

6. Make room for the expression of feelings: I am excited, I am fearful…. Gut feelings are data too. This is the creative part.

7. Talk to people outside your field. Some surprisingly new ways of looking at the problem may occur to them, and explaining it to others may help you see things more clearly as well.

Over all, stay in touch with your unconscious by allowing your mind to wander where it will. Daydreaming is an important part of the creative process. Your right brain may know the correct path to take, even if it seems circuitous to your left brain. As a fleeting thought passes by, capture it by writing it down right away. It is disconcerting how quickly it disappears, and you sit there wondering: “What was that I just had a flash about?” Later you can look over all your notes using your left brain to analyze the ideas.

I wrote the following poem about our two brains.

Right Brain/Left Brain

While the right hand

adds numbers

the left one is doodling

While the right arm

lifts weights

the left one is hugging

While the right foot

walks the narrow path

the left one dances a jig

While the right eye

is looking

the left one is seeing

While the right ear

is listening

the left one is hearing

While the left brain

is studying

the right one just “knows”

As you see, it is important to sometimes let go of control so that you can regain it by going through the back door, or perhaps it is through a window or even down the chimney.