哈嘍大家五一勞動節快樂！今天是開心地出去玩了一天，還是待在房間享受自己的小天地呢？既然是勞動節，我們今天就來看一篇關於勞（工）動（作）的文章，看大家能不能和筆者感情共鳴。

How to avoid burnout and thrive at work

如何避免工作倦怠並在工作中成長？

當我們面對慢性壓力時，僅僅依靠瑜伽和專注力時無法解決的。

At some point in our careers many of us will experience work-related stress that leaves us struggling to cope. But how do we know when we’re experiencing burnout and what can we do about it?

不可數名詞，表示“（因拼命工作導致的）精疲力竭”，英文解釋爲“the feeling of always being tired because you have been working too hard”舉個🌰：

Many of the teachers are suffering from burnout.

許多老師勞累過度。

Burnout is more than a general feeling of malaise that a bit of yoga, a meditation app or a week in the sun will fix. Its three key symptoms are: overwhelming exhaustion; feelings of cynicism and detachment leading to a sense of ineffectiveness; and a sense of lack of accomplishment at work. This is not just a feeling of dissatisfaction. It is a prolonged response to chronic stress that can lead to being signed off sick, as well as high blood pressure and even depression.

不可數名詞，表示“不安; 不適”，英文解釋爲“Malaise is a state in which people feel dissatisfied or unhappy but feel unable to change, usually because they do not know what is wrong.”舉個🌰：

He complained of depression, headaches, and malaise. 

他說他有情緒低落、頭痛和不安的症狀。

不可數名詞，表示“人皆自私論; 憤世嫉俗論”，英文解釋爲“Cynicism is the belief that people always act selfishly.”舉個🌰：

I found Ben's cynicism wearing at times. 

我覺得本的憤世嫉俗論有時讓人煩。

不可數名詞，表示“冷靜，超然，客觀”，英文解釋爲“the state of not reacting to or being involved in something in an emotional way”舉個🌰：

He felt a sense of detachment from what was happening around him.

他對周圍發生的一切有一種超然的感覺。

該短語有多重意思，此處表示“（醫生）給某人開病假條”，英文解釋爲“if a doctor signs someone off, he or she gives them a note saying that they are ill and not able to work”舉個🌰：

For the last month, she has been signed off sick from work.

上個月她請了一個月病假，沒有上班。

In an essay that went viral early in 2019, BuzzFeed writer Anne Helen Petersen explains how she and fellow millennials became “generation burnout”. She describes it as an unavoidable condition: since childhood we have been taught to “optimise” every part of our lives in order to be successful.

She writes, “We’re deeply in debt, working more hours and more jobs for less pay and less security, struggling to achieve the same standards of living as our parents, operating in psychological and physical precariousness, all while being told that if we just work harder, meritocracy will prevail, and we’ll begin thriving.”

表示“精英管理制度；賢能社會“——A meritocracy is a society or social system in which people get status or rewards because of what they achieve, rather than because of their wealth or social status.

Millennials are under acute pressure. They face a challenging economic climate and difficult job market, which is forcing many to become “generation rent” or “generation live at home”. Not only are you meant to have an amazing job and personal brand, you’re meant to actively promote it at every opportunity via social media, thus fuelling the constant comparison and competition online. We have an insatiable thirst to succeed; we want it all and when we do get it, we’re still looking for more — we’re always working.

表示“無法滿足的; 貪得無厭的”，英文解釋爲“If someone has an insatiable desire for something, they want as much of it as they can possibly get.”舉個🌰：

A section of the reading public has an insatiable appetite for dirty stories about the famous. 

閱讀大衆中有一部分人對名人的風流韻事的慾望總是無法滿足。

Add to this a relentlessly online and always-available workplace, and you have the perfect conditions for burnout.

Dani Nicholls, 24, a freelance digital creative consultant, made the decision to leave her role at a tech start-up after experiencing severe burnout that left her “completely exhausted and ill”.

She says, “I reached the point of complete burnout last Christmas, I was depressed; I couldn’t stop crying”. Office perks that seemed attractive — such as free coffee and yoga sessions — were part of an office culture that glorified 14-hour work days. Ms Nicholls would answer emails and WhatsApp messages at weekends and across different time zones.

表示“（工資以外的）額外收入（待遇）、津貼”，英文解釋爲“something that you get legally from your work in addition to your wages, such as goods, meals, or a car”舉個🌰：

I only eat here because it’s free – one of the perks of the job.

我在這裏喫飯只是因爲不用花錢——這份工作的額外好處之一。

表示“美化”，英文解釋爲“To glorify something means to praise it or make it seem good or special, usually when it is not.”舉個🌰：

This magazine in no way glorifies gangs. 

本雜誌決不美化各種犯罪團夥。

“I realised it was time for me to leave when the chief executive was messaging me on Christmas Eve after I expressed I was ill and I had booked it off. I was not meant to be working and I was sick and they wouldn’t stop badgering me to jump on conference calls.”

表示“病休”——to take a period of absence from work due to illness.

表示“糾纏”，英文解釋爲“If you badger someone, you repeatedly tell them to do something or repeatedly ask them questions.”舉個🌰：

They kept phoning and writing, badgering me to go back. 

他們不斷打電話、寫信，纏着要我回去。

Millennials might identify burnout — and be willing to talk about it — but it is a phenomenon that affects millions of people of all ages. According to a UK-wide survey in 2018 by the Mental Health Foundation, almost three quarters of more than 4,500 adults surveyed (74 per cent) had at some point over the past year felt so stressed they were “overwhelmed or unable to cope”.

Michael Leiter, professor of organisational psychology at Deakin University in Australia, studies burnout. He says: “The prime cause of burnout is a mismatch of how people want to work and the actual conditions of work. This mismatch can concern workload, your autonomy, the reward and or recognition system, the way you interact with other people, or the quality of justice or fairness at work. A mismatch on core values — doing a job about which you’re indifferent or even hostile contributes to burnout.”

此處作動詞，表示“（活動、情況、規則等）對…有影響；與…相關”，英文解釋爲“if an activity, situation, rule etc concerns you, it affects you or involves you”舉個🌰：

The tax changes will concern large corporations rather than small businesses.

稅收變化影響到的將是大公司，而不是小企業。

People who regularly have to navigate hostile and alienating environments are at high risk of burnout. In my book Slay In Your Lane, I explored why so many young black women experience the impact of race-related stress in the workplace. Having to work twice as hard as their white counterparts, not being compensated fairly, and not being able to be themselves at work all contribute to chronic stress and could easily lead to burnout.

可作及物或不及物動詞，表示“理解，應付（困難複雜的情況）”，英文解釋爲“to understand or deal with something complicated”舉個🌰：

A solicitor will help you navigate the complex legal system.

會有一位律師來幫助你應對錯綜複雜的司法制度。

I am currently trying to navigate through a whole stack of information on the subject.

我目前正在設法整理有關這個問題的一大堆信息。

Professor Leiter advises taking steps to stay ahead of burnout. “Prevention beats cure hands down. Prevention takes a lot less effort and has much better chances of success than cure,” he says.

“There is a limit to what ‘self-care’ can do as some jobs and some combinations of job-with-life-situation can be nearly impossible to maintain. Certainly, living a healthy life with fitness, food, sleep and relationships will serve anyone well no matter what they aspire to. It may be that the extra edge of a healthy lifestyle is just what you need to make a job manageable. But I doubt you can count on that. I think improving the job situation and how it fits with your life needs to be part of the equation.”

表示“（須綜合考慮的）影響因素；（多種因素的）綜合體”，英文解釋爲“the set of different facts, ideas, or people that all affect a situation and must be considered together”舉個🌰：

The tourist industry forms a crucial part of the region’s economic equation.

旅遊業構成該地區經濟總量中至關重要的一部分。

Burnout isn’t just a reaction to a bad job — you can love your job and still experience it. It’s often how we have to do our work that triggers burnout.

Bruce Daisley, Twitter’s vice-president for Europe, is author of The Joy of Work and host of the workplace culture podcast Eat Sleep Work Repeat. I asked him for advice on avoiding burnout, and he cited the need for a greater separation between our work and personal lives: “The more that we can create a separation between what we’re trying to do in our work time and going home and reinvigorating ourselves, the better. Don’t email at weekends, it is one of the quickest ways that kills our creativity and reduces our energy levels”.

One small step in this separation, Mr Daisley says, is to “reclaim lunch breaks. The simple act of taking a break improves our judgment and energy as we tackle the afternoon.”

Research has shown the importance of carving out alone time and switching off from technology, which is usually not possible at work. Taking regular assigned breaks to do something away from our various (work and personal) notifications, even if it’s just 30 minutes a day, makes a huge difference. For me, swimming for an hour allows me to get back to work feeling recharged and inspired.

表示“憑自身努力獲得”，英文解釋爲“If you carve out a niche or a career, you succeed in getting the position or the career that you want by your own efforts.”舉個🌰：

Vick carved out his niche as the fastest quarterback in American football. 

維克憑藉自身努力成爲了足球隊中最快的四分衛。

Burnout is a warning that your current working patterns or environment are bad for you. It is often hard to ask for help, but change is vital: if you are feeling apathetic and ineffective, then your colleagues have probably already noticed.

The writer is co-author of ‘Slay in Your Lane: The Black Girl Bible’

來源：FT中文網

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「持續行動第五年，LR是怎麼做到的？」