Job Discussion Forums

double agent · Posted: Tue Sep 07, 2004 11:27 pm Post subject: burnout humour

lighten UP

Top 10 Signs of Job Burn Out

10. You�re so tired, you now answer the phone with just: "Hell."

9. Your friends call to ask how you�ve been, and you immediately scream, "Get off my back!!"

8. Your garbage can IS your "In" box.

7. You wake up to discover your bed is on fire, but go back to sleep because you just don�t care.

6. You have so much on your mind, you�ve forgotten how to LOGON.

5. Visions of the upcoming weekend help you make it through Monday.

4. You don�t set your alarm anymore because you know the pager will go off before the alarm does.

3. You leave for a party and instinctively bring your ID badge.

2. . Your friends call to ask how you've been, and you immediately scream, "Get off my back!!".

And the number one sign that you are burned out because of work?

1. You think about how relaxing it would be if you were in jail right now

double agent · Posted: Wed Sep 08, 2004 3:06 am Post subject: who said that

Crime does not pay......................as well as politics.
Alfred E. Newman

Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons.
Woody Allen

A child of five would understand this. Send someone to fetch a child of five.
Groucho Marx

Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Groucho Marx

foster · Joined: 07 Feb 2003 Posts: 485 Location: Honkers, SARS

I think I felt more burnout as a regular French teacher in Canada than I do in Hong Kong. While in Japan, after 18 months there, I was ready to snap. I think there is was working for Nova more than the job itself.

I love my job now. I do.I love where I am. I get my holidays, I get out and do something to take my mind off of it all. I never did that really in Canada.

Perhaps people do not recognize burnout. I know when I start to get more tired than usual. I hate that. When that happens, I find something to re-charge my batteries and I keep going. A nice weekend away with the girls, going for a full pampering day, a nice dinner out..something to make me appreciate HK and why I am here.

droidman · Joined: 27 Sep 2003 Posts: 7

There's a relatively short-term version of burnout that can subside with a change of scenery, or a few months on a tropical beach. But there's also a deeper version of burnout that involves a brain conditioned to produce an excessive amount of "flight-or-fight" chemicals. Symptoms include fatigue, heightened anxiety, depression, insominia, etc. This condition develops slowly over many years of stress in a challenging profession(often exacerbated by life-cycle tragedies such as the death of a parent, etc.), and is very difficult, if not impossible, to fully recover from. Often, retirement is the only solution. There's a tonne of public school teachers in their fifties on long term disability benefits who suffer from the deep version of burnout. If only our brain stems weren't such slugs!

double agent · Posted: Sun Sep 12, 2004 1:40 pm Post subject: good point

we need to see the signs of burnout early and do something to stop its progression

Cool

Norman Bethune · Joined: 19 Apr 2004 Posts: 731

Burnout! Burnout! Burnout!

Confused

Describe the Symptoms please. DO IT NOW!

Evil or Very Mad

WRITE THEM DOWN! WHAT"S WRONG WITH YOU? NO SPEAKA DA ENGLISH?

Twisted Evil

I'm in China. We don't burnout here.

Very Happy

We just put additional pressure on our students to get better grades then watch as they get crazier than us. It's a great way to release stress watching the brats go up like a hay barn after a lightning strike.

Cool

Sweetsee · Joined: 11 Jun 2004 Posts: 2302 Location: ) is everything

It's funny that your number one burn-out symptom, being in jail, was just what I needed to jump start my esl career.

After rotting in a Japanese jail for 2 months, getting deported and being down and out in LA, teaching English here is all I wanted to do.

Now, having gone through that experience and ending up in the best job so far, I don't see any burn-out in the future.

My advice to any newbies or potential burn-outs is to quit drinking and get a hobby.

merlin · Posted: Tue Sep 21, 2004 8:13 am Post subject:

You know, they used to try to put out every forest fire until they realized that forest fires are a natural part of the cycle of death, birth, rejuvination, growth, stagnation, then repeat.

True, burnout is to be avoided as it isn't very pleasant but if the heat isn't to bad to completley destroy the organism and the system it lives in then it can be a real housecleaning experience, so to speak.

I think burnout is the wrong word because it implies the end and nothing after.

Double agent has some good advice. If it's too long of a list, here's my simplified version:
If what you're doing isn't getting the results you want
DO SOMETHING DIFFERENT. DO ANYTHING DIFFERENT.

By this I don't mean stop teaching, just do it differently or in a different place, for example.