Burnout comes when the reality of life is less than ourexpectations. And it

Today, I’m going to talk about a common psychological problem caused by life in the modem world-- burnout, which comes when the reality of life is less than our expectations.
   School teachers and full-time housewives with children at home are among the highest-risk groups likely to suffer from burnout, says Michael Lauderdale, director of the University of Texas’school of Social Work’s Research Cema, who began studying burnout 10 years ago. He first noticed symptoms of the condition among human service agency workers, but says the condition affects everyone to a degree. Burnout, he believes, comes when "we have expectations of our jobs, marriages, or lives, and the reality we arc experiencing is less than our expectations."
   "We’re in a time of high ambiguity about what life means in terms of social roles and in terms of what we’re to do with our lives. I don’t think that people have greater expectations now than in the past--I think it’s just harder to keep your experiences in place because the times keep changing on you. An example of the rapidly changing times would be a young college student who is advised to get a degree in business." If you’re a sophomore now, by the time you get the degree, people with business degrees could be a glut on the mar ket. The idea that the private sector could solve most of the world’s problems could vanish by then.
   Lauderdale divides the symptoms of burnout into three stages. First is confusion. The worker may voice general complaints, such as "I don’t feel very good" or "I just don’t have any pep." Sometimes, chronic backaches, headaches, or colds appear. A worker may seem to lose his sense of humor. He may seem inattentive in a discussion because of the list of things to do running through his mind.
   Moderate burnout is characterized by more illness and absenteeism, and a "cocoon phenomenon" begins. In that state, workers seem to have gray faces at 3 p.m. in the office, but after 5, it’s like a butterfly coming out of a cocoon. Their voices lilt and they are spontaneous when they walk out of the office. The "cocoon phenomenon" is a result of people compartmentalizing their lives, Lauderdale feels. Accompanying that is "lots of clock-watching and counting the days until Friday."
   In the third stage of burnout, which he terms despair, "the person pulls into a shell and minimizes work and social contacts as much as possible. There is depression and crying, an increase in drinking, risk-taking and drugs. I related a lot of my work with abusing parents as being the third stage of burnout. They are highly burned out as parents."
   Although the bulk of literature about burnout is work-rclated, the syndrome can occur in any of the multiple roles most people perform--spouse, friend, parent, employee, supervisor. Also, burnout in a job may not begin at work but may be a spillover from the worker’s dissatisfaction with other roles, such as being the parent of a teenager.
   People can learn to improve their skills at recognizing burnout and at doing something about it, Lauderdale suggests. A frequently used low-risk strategy is one he calls "the quick break". Examples include rear ranging the furniture, getting a new haircut or new clothes, taking a vacation, or going to a concert or football game. Other major change responses include compromising and trying to accept the current level of success or income, moving to a new environment or situation, or changing oneself by lowering expectations of work or redefining its meaning.
   Labeling the syndrome with the buzzword "burnout" tends to trivialize the problem and make it lose its meaning, he cautions. "I would emphasize that burnout isn’t passing fad, and it goes away beyond the work world. I don’t think men suffer more than women, but I think men may have more burnout on the job, while women get burned out on family life. Work is still a place of wonder and promise for many women new to it."