Is working overtime, sacrificing weekends and bringing endless files home really a good idea?
Burn-out is an increasingly recurring phenomenon in the professional environment. Sometimes difficult to identify, it can appear in the guise of overflowing ambition or a deep passion for work. Mainly caused by stress, it can sometimes represent a real danger to the person's life. What if expatriation and remote working were the solution to counter this phenomenon?
How do you know if you are suffering from burnout?
In order to seek professional help and find a fulfilling situation, it is important to be aware of the impact of your professional situation on your life and your balance. The expressions of burnout in a professional environment differ from one person to another. However, certain signs are not misleading. For example, you feel overwhelmed by a permanent feeling of fatigue. You may feel like you have no energy to accomplish your tasks and you are overwhelmed by a certain hopelessness. Burnout is also accompanied by a feeling of doubt about your abilities and your vision only encompasses the negative aspects of each situation.
If there is not immediate action to remedy this very common phenomenon in the professional environment, it can cause physical symptoms such as migraines, chest compression and even weaken the immune system. By wanting too much to excel in your work, your desire to stand out could be precisely the cause that prevents you from accomplishing it properly. This could even push you to leave your job or consider a career change.
The best solution to this problem would undoubtedly be to break with the causes which caused this state. From this perspective, expatriation and teleworking emerge as preferred options.
The benefits of expatriation and teleworking to avoid burn-out
Teleworkers have a large margin of flexibility to organize their days. You will have the luxury of not having to adhere to a fixed schedule or being forced to spend your working hours in a cloistered space. For example, being a digital nomad in an exotic setting will immediately make meetings much more pleasant. You will have the possibility to schedule your videoconferences at times which will not encroach on priority tasks. This will ensure that the workflow runs smoothly and allows you to focus on your well-being and take care of your health. Indeed, when an employee works according to a classic 9 to 5 schedule, he will unconsciously develop a feeling of guilt for missing important moments in his family or professional life.
Wanting to juggle both worlds without sacrificing professional ambition can sometimes lead to burnout or even to the idea of retraining in a less demanding environment. Thus, a remote regime will allow you to combine productivity and consistency, while being actively present in those around you.
Likewise, leaving the restrictive framework of the company and free yourself from monotony will give you the opportunity to approach your missions in a new light. It must be admitted that a traditional environment is not always the best space to bring new ideas. However, when you have the opportunity to determine your workplace, your performance can only be positively impacted. Whether in a tea room, a park or even on a beach, teleworking allows you to explore new places while breaking away from monotony. A daily sense of renewal reinvigorates your creativity. Consequently, even if the workload is significant, you will be less likely to be affected by burnout.
This is especially true when you become a digital nomad. Choosing to telework from another country is an exceptional opportunity. Discovering new cultures allows you to add beneficial enrichment to your day. Your daily life will be punctuated by the most interesting discoveries, which will represent a powerful motivation to excel in your job. You can work facing the most famous monuments on the planet or program immersive activities to introduce you to an authentic culture. Spending several months in another country will also be an opportunity to practice a new language which could open up new perspectives for you. This way, your motivation will certainly be renewed and you will never have the impression of being a victim of professional routine.
Also, combining business with pleasure will allow you toexpand your contact network by networking on an international scale. You will be a member of a global community based on sharing and complicity. You will certainly have the opportunity to meet people as motivated as you and this will give rise to fruitful exchanges. So when you join other remote workers who have chosen the same lifestyle, you benefit from a support system which will prevent burn-out from setting in.