Stress is a natural human response to things that our minds perceive as threatening or challenging, and it’s something that we all feel from time to time. After all, between personal relationships, responsibilities at work and home, and other life events, there are plenty of reasons for us to feel stressed. Stress is an integral part of our lives and is with us from the day we are born to the day we die.
So we cannot do away with it, but it’s all about managing stress better and not suffering from burnout. Anyone can suffer from burnout. It is not a sign of weakness.
Burnout can be treated, overcome, and prevented in the future. Here are three case studies of individuals who had to go through professional burnout and related issues: 1) A 22-year-old high performer, who was a newly minted corporate lawyer from a top law school. Just three months into his dream job with one of the top law firms in the country, he was presented with low mood, anxiety, disturbed sleep, negative thoughts, and lack of confidence after doing 72-hour shifts of continuous work routinely in his first three months.
Though he was finishing work and meeting deadlines, he dreaded making mistakes. His boss was piling work on his table to the point that he would wake up at night to check whether he had received any work emails or made any mistakes in his drafts, as any mistake would result in a public dressing down by his boss, who would never take 'no' for an answer. 2) A 45-year-old IT professional who.