A Labor Day look at burnout and stress

Labor Day already? Thank goodness. You probably need that extra day for house repairs, furniture shopping, garden cleanup, trips to the recycling center, elaborate backyard picnics, lengthy visits with relatives you don’t like … Wait. What’s wrong with this picture? Hint: It’s not the part about the unlikeable relatives.

What’s wrong is that we can’t seem to let an empty day stay empty. According to any number of surveys, Americans are a burned-out lot. We’re drinking more than ever, not getting enough sleep, staying on our computers deep into the night, and not exercising. Our stress levels were already through the roof, and now they’re exacerbated by the pandemic, not to mention a panoply of distressing events dominating the news each day.

For some workers, the accumulation of stress has reached a tipping point, resulting in a wave of job resignations. Quitting may be the right solution for those employees, or it may turn out the job wasn’t the problem after all. It’s not the kind of thing you can easily judge when you’re stressed out, which is ironic.

Whether or not work is the problem, not everyone can afford to leave their job. And plenty of people with no jobs are also stressed, so quitting is obviously not a universal solution. It’s time to dig deeper to ease our stress loads. Rather than starting with a resignation as the solution, we can try other strategies first. If they help, having a clearer mind should make work decisions easier.

Here are 10 of my favorite stress-reduction tips; maybe something here will work for you.

1. Say no. Yup, that’s stressful all by itself. But if you can fend off even one request this week by saying “I’m sorry, I can’t,” you may find it’s easier the second time.

2. Consider your week to be full. Starting from the idea that your week is already fully committed means that your default answer to additional tasks is, “I’m not sure I can do that; I’ll get back to you,” rather than “I’ll try to squeeze it in.”

3. Take one thing off your list. If you add something to your week, take something else off. Or, take something off even without adding anything.

4. Slow down your response to others. Just because a request comes via text doesn’t mean you have to answer instantly. By waiting to respond, you give others a chance to solve the problem without you.

5. Accept “good enough.” Some tasks need to be done very well, but most just need to be done. Let yourself do things to a minimum standard when a higher level won’t matter.

6. Create patterns in your daily life. Anything you can set as a pattern – such as eating the same breakfast at the same time – is one more decision you don’t have to make. Decision fatigue is real and the stress from making multiple daily choices is well-documented.

7. Fix problems as they come up. If the faucet starts dripping and you can afford a plumber, then call one. The longer you wait, the more stress you’ll feel worrying about the drip.

8. Take your breaks. There’s a reason workplaces are mandated to give breaks throughout the day. Our minds and bodies need the pause in order to keep functioning.

9. Sing instead of thinking. Does your thinking tilt to negative self talk? Try singing it out loud and you’ll find it’s hard to keep up a negative thread. For extra punch, throw in a dance step or two.

10. Start each day anew. A nightly ritual to cap off the day’s tasks can help you put things away until the next day. Some people journal or make lists, others take a walk or end the day watching television or reading to switch gears from their stressors.

However you tackle your stress, spare a moment this Labor Day to think about the workers and activists who literally died in decades past to secure fair work conditions. The benefits they won aren’t yet distributed equally, but we wouldn’t have gotten this far without them. Honor their memory by taking the break they fought to give you.