4 Signs You’re a Burnt out Manager

 4 Signs You’re a Burnt out Manager! – Management doesn’t have to be a forever role!

How do you know that you are a burnt out manager. It can certainly be challenging, often stressful, but how do you know when you’ve had enough of management? We so often spend time looking at the world from the ‘ordinary’ employee’s point of view and how we can make their lives more productive and meaningful in the workplace.

Managers generally spend less time thinking about their own personal wellbeing and how they’re coping with the hustle and bustle of business.

Burnt out manager symptoms

There are a range of symptoms which indicate someone is feeling burned out. Stress affects us all in different ways. For managers, it can be a long process to that final burn out but there are plenty of opportunities along the way to rectify things, if the vital signs are noticed in time.

• One of the most notable symptoms is chronic fatigue – you basically feel tired all the time, even when you are at home trying to rest. It’s easy to let this become the norm and many managers simply put it down to the wear and tear of the job.
• You may also be thinking about work constantly from the moment you get up the morning to the time you go to bed. Indeed, you can spend several hours tossing and turning with work on your mind rather than recharging your batteries.
• You might start to get angry at the people and then feel overly self-critical for feeling that way. The anger might be directed at bosses who are implementing the wrong strategies or putting too much pressure on your department.
• When you burn out you naturally become cynical about the world around you. Negativity creeps in and you are suddenly quick to get irritable, snapping at those in your charge when things don’t go right.

What causes a burnt out manager?

There are plenty reasons that lead to a burnt out manager and here are just a few:

• The wrong goals: Your business either has unclear goals or confused ones or they simply haven’t communicated them properly. If you’re not sure where you’re heading, it can be pretty near impossible to get there.
• Bad strategy: That bad strategy forms the basis of poor goal setting. It comes from the top down so often isn’t the managers fault at all, especially when there’s a more autocratic approach where options are never discussed.
• Exploitation: Good managers can be exploited especially by employers who are trying to save on costs. That could mean you are working on far too many things at once, stretching your team and causing everyone to stress out.
• The wrong management approach: If you’re pushing a management style that doesn’t suit you, it can make you feel under pressure and even inadequate. This often happens when managers are forced to be too autocratic.
• Work overload: When there’s no respite and no end in sight, it’s difficult to see the woods for the trees. The longer this goes on, the more chance there is of you batteries starting to drain.
• Work life imbalance: Most of us want a decent balance between our home and work lives and this is often difficult to gauge, especially in the modern world. It requires you to question whether you are happy and that’s something many managers who are career minded will avoid. A creeping imbalance, however can have a huge, detrimental effect on the individual both physically and psychologically.
• Your employees are driving you mad: The staff you work with may well be troublesome and that could be because of the industry you find yourself working in, the policies of the company or simply the individuals themselves.
• Lack of training: You don’t have the necessary tools to do your job properly and need to update your professional development. This is one reason why managers find it difficult to cope. Adding to that skill set can make a huge difference.

Unfortunately, burn out among managers is not uncommon and seems to be a particular issue with our more intense information age. It should be something that concerns business owners as well as individual managers – losing a top performing employee can cost time, money and even reputation when it comes to finding a replacement.