When Living For The Weekend Becomes A Sign Of Job Burnout

When people split their week up and start thinking of work as bad and the weekend as all good, that contributes to the problem.

Bring your weekend into your week, and find engagement elsewhere: if that's when you connect with friends and family, find a way to make it a part of your workdays as well. Also, choose to engage during your free days with activities such as volunteering, arts or even starting a side hustle.

Constantly complaining about your terrible colleagues and your boss on the weekend can feel like a stress release in the moment, but in the long-run, this rumination can make you feel even worse.

Gain self-awareness and reframe your thinking. “What can I do about this?” or "How can I learn from this going forward?" are good questions to use.

When you’re experiencing burnout, your tunnel vision of work, work, work can lead to trouble engaging in the world outside of it on the weekends.

Be intentional. This doesn’t mean you can’t relax on your couch and watch movies, but be thoughtful about this plan.

When your phone is nearby, you may find yourself checking email apps and work notifications mindlessly to check in.

First, recognize where this need to be available may be coming from. Then create boundaries about when you’re available, and share those expectations. Even if you need to be reachable, you can be intentional about how much work you allow to take up your weekend.

Burnout is not always your problem, but you should feel empowered to change what you can.

When you trace your burnout to a systemic toxic source, you need to decide whether staying at this job outweighs what it is doing to your mental health.