Since the 1970's, the words "burnout" and "stress" have become important parts of our vocabulary. People like Freudenberger and Maslach have researched and written on the topic and have identified various causes of burnout and stress in our lives. The MBI (Maslach Burnout Inventory) lists 6 burnout causes. It may perhaps surprise you that working too much is only one of the causes for burnout. I have often said that there is a difference between being tired IN work and being tired OF work. It is the latter that is a much greater cause of burnout. A work environment that does not match our skill set, our passions or values, or one where we feel we have no control, or that do not offer us sufficient reward--- all these contribute to burnout. Burnout is exhaustion and diminished interest.
In this article I wish to comment a little about the impact of technology as it relates to stress. We have reached a point where for many people, technology tends to make it so that we never unplug from our jobs. You know the experience! You are enjoying a nice lunch or dinner and your friend's cell phone rings. With a shrug he or she says, "I am sorry, but I really need to take this call! I hope you don't mind." You sit there for 15 minutes while your dinner partner discusses details about his or her work. Sometimes I have felt like saying, "If you want to conduct your business then go ahead. I'm leaving!" Immersing the phone in the water glass has also crossed my mind. The same thing happens on the golf course! It irritates me.
Technology has done strange things to us. It has not really made us overloaded with work, but it surely has created a kind of "work-home, work-socializing, work-play" kind of interference. This interference is very destructive. Our leisure is intermittent. Therefore we tend to think we work more these days. Statistics show that this is not really the case but it seems that way. We are never unplugged from our work. Leisure time is not really dedicated leisure time. It lasts only as long as it takes for us to allow technology to interrupt us.
Another phenomenon about work and technology is that when we are forced to slow down we go crazy. I am talking here about the idea of "gridlock". I am not using the term as it is used in politics but to describe our strange behavior when we are forced to slow down. Let me illustrate:
-You race through traffic to get to the airport. Then you stand in endless lines to check in, clear security, etc. It drives us crazy.
-You are put on hold when making a phone call. 60 seconds seem like hours. You endure countless mechanical options. Then your call is cut off by an incompetent person or a malfunctioning machine and you have to start the whole process again.
-Your computer freezes up or is slow to connect to a website or internet connection. Such computer glitches make our blood boil. The whole matter is usually only a matter of seconds but we pound our desks, utter profanity, kick the dog, (or whoever or whatever is nearby), and so on.
Do you have any symptoms of 'hurry sickness"? One of the ways I help people in life coaching is to work with them on what I call a "balance wheel". It is a way to see for ourselves just where we spend our time and how we can get our lives in the kind of balance that we desire for stress free (OK, stress diminished) living! Contact me for details! I would love to talk with you.
