Miriam Meckel & her luck of being inaccessible: What can be done against burnout?

Burnout-Situations can be prevented - but require a change in our behavior. concrete Measures doing so can be surprisingly easy.

Why work can make you sick

Today's working and living environment demands a lot from us. Technology not only has a supportive effect, but also makes many of us driven.

Become Curriculum vitae Miriam Meckle reads, which is not surprising that she suffered from burnout: first a journalist, 1999 in recent chair holder of Germany, 2001 State Secretary and government spokeswoman of North Rhine-Westphalia, later Professorin and Director at the Institute for Media and Communication Management University St. Gallen and editor-in-chief of Wirtschaftswoche.

Burnout - not just for celebrities

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But burnout does not only attack particularly successful celebrities: According to studies by German company health insurance companies, every second employee in our country is at risk of burnout. Burnout is a process that extends over weeks and months, sometimes years, and is triggered by constant stress. single parent Mothers with multiple workloads, the self-employed without the ability to delegate or housewives who Family, household, children and possibly the care of the parents are threatened at least to the same extent as successful managers or celebrities like Miriam Meckel. Burnout hits the industrious. The ones who are passionate about what they do. Because only those who have burned can burn out.

One factor, however, that has become increasingly topical in recent years is the overstrain caused by modernity Technology and the feeling of having to be on call XNUMX/XNUMX. Here's another one eMail, there's another tweet, there's an SMS. You always have the feeling of having to answer and communicate. And the boundaries between Job and privacy blur more and more.

Overburdened by the modern technology?

For example, shortly before she fell ill with burnout and had to seek treatment, Meckel had admitted in her book “The Happiness of Unreachability” that she was overwhelmed by modern technology. In it, Meckel shows herself to be the slave of her Blackberry, which she is constantly serving Communication forces, not to give her time to necessary rest breaks and also to penetrate into every private situation. On page 139 of her book, she aptly describes where the journey is going:

Step by step, neo-nomads are becoming the norm in our working and living environment. Work is becoming more and more 'virtualized', keyword conference call. We can take everything we need to work with us wherever we go. On the one hand, this makes mobility easier and, for example, allows you to go home on Thursdays or to the office on Tuesdays Office to drive. On the other hand, it meant that private life does not begin at home, but that work continues under different circumstances and in a different environment.

Burnout - just the logical consequence of social development?

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But is burnout actually the logical consequence of a social development in which only those who are constantly available and can react as quickly as possible stay on the ball? That sounds frighteningly logical – and yet it is the wrong conclusion. Because it is not technical development or others that contribute to our excessive demands People to blame, but only ourselves. And only we ourselves can do something about it.

But when reading Meckel's book, it shines through again and again that the actual Problem not the technology, but above all how we deal with it: Because to put it simply, the basic dilemma is our desire for love, more social recognition and Success.

From Narcissus to Goldmund?

Sarina Pfauth has Meckels problem in the Süddeutschen Newspaper aptly analyzed:

How can someone even retire after burnout when they've lived in such a high-speed frenzy?... Does that mean they want to disappear into the apparent meaninglessness of petit-bourgeois life? No. Goldmund doesn't want to be Narcissus anymore? No.

Burnout for fear of being unpopular?

And Meckel gives it all in one Spiegel-Interview, which she later gave after her burnout - and after the publication of another book on the subject - herself admitted:

A burnout is also the result of the fact that you constantly swallow everything and do not want to hurt anyone, that you constantly allow others to intervene in one.

How can you avoid burnout? 8 tips

Conversely, this means that we can do something ourselves so that burnout does not even occur. These 8 tips are amazingly simple:

1. To do sports: Movement stimulates the blood circulation of the brain, so that more synapses form, as a study by the Sport University Cologne shows. Design your workplace so that you have to get up again and again to achieve certain things, because every movement reduces stress!
2. No chance for Aufschiberitis: Also get rid of unpleasant tasks or conversations quickly and reward yourself for it. Otherwise, the displeasure with one's own behavior grows every hour.
3. Say no and delegate: Give one or the other task to employees, even if you think you can do even better. Even if you may have to explain more at the beginning.
4. Make the working mountains smaller: You feel stressed when your thoughts always revolve around what still has to be done. Keep your thoughts on the task you are currently working on. Work through all tasks as if they were pearls on a chain and focus your attention exclusively on the current “pearl”.
5. Have a break: Small breaks in between, in which one breathes deeply at the window, work wonders for relaxation.
6. Set priorities: Prioritize and divide your tasks into essential, important and trivial. And learn to say no to both others and yourself - throw trivial tasks in the filing “P”.
7. Move the lever: Try to make it a habit to switch: For example, when you leave the job, cross a virtual line. Once you've passed this, work and all thoughts on it are ticked off - until you pass the line the next time. So you leave the “old” field behind when you switch to a different environment.
8. Sex instead of work: An investigation by the University of Göttingen has shown that about one in three men with an unsatisfying love life in work falls into work. This leaves the sex frustration forgotten, but creates for itself a lot of stress, which in turn has a negative impact on the partnership. Break through this devil circle, dedicate yourself to your relationship!

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