Job Factors That Contribute to Employee Burnout

Job Factors That Contribute to Employee Burnout Stress Management Job Stress Print Job Factors That Contribute to Employee Burnout By Elizabeth Scott, MS twitter Elizabeth Scott, MS, is a wellness coach specializing in stress management and quality of life, and the author of 8 Keys to Stress Management. Learn about our editorial policy Elizabeth Scott, MS Updated on January 23, 2020 RunPhoto / Taxi Japan / Getty Images More in Stress Management Job Stress Workplace Bullying Effects on Health Management Techniques Situational Stress Household Stress Relationship Stress Employment burnout, also known as job burnout or just burnout, is a state where you lose all motivation or incentive, leading to feelings of depression or stress. This can be a very uncomfortable state, usually because it has come after a long period of stress or a shorter period of high stress, feelings of powerlessness or overwhelm, and a sense of hopelessness as it may feel insurmountable to pull yourself out of the pit of burnout once you find yourself there. What Is Job Burnout? Burnout is more than just a feeling of stress at the job in that it tends to follow you from day to day, presenting itself as a feeling of dread on Sunday night (if you know you have to work again on Monday), a feeling of being unable to muster any enthusiasm or motivation for your work and a lack of pleasure in what you do. It can feel scary because you may not know how to get yourself out of this place once youre feeling burned out. Burnout can come from a sense of overwhelming stress, but it tends to come most from specific types of stress and factors in a job. There are several factors that can contribute to burnout, including job-related features, lifestyle factors, and personality characteristics. Some companies and industries have much higher rates of burnout than others. Common Job Features That Result in Burnout The following features tend to cause more stress, taking more of a toll on workers: Unclear Requirements: When it’s not clear to workers how to succeed, it’s harder for them to be confident, enjoy their work, and feel they’re doing a good job. If the job description isn’t explained clearly, if the requirements are constantly changing and hard to understand, or if expectations are otherwise unclear, workers are at higher risk of burnout.Impossible Requirements: Sometimes it’s just not possible to do a job as it’s explained. If a job’s responsibilities exceed the amount of time given to complete them properly, for example, it’s really not possible to do the job well. Workers will put in a lot of effort and never quite feel successful, which also leaves them at risk for burnout.High-Stress Times With No “Down” Times: Many jobs and industries have “crunch times” where workers must work longer hours and handle a more intense workload for a period. This can actually help people feel invigorated if the extra effort is recognized, appropriately comp ensated, and limited. It starts becoming problematic when “crunch time” occurs year-round and there’s no time for workers to recover.Big Consequences for Failure: People make mistakes; it’s part of being human. However, when there are dire consequences to the occasional mistake, like the risk of a lawsuit, for example, the overall work experience becomes much more stressful, and the risk of burnout goes up. Those in law or healthcare often have higher rates of burnout because of the potential consequences.Lack of Personal Control: People tend to feel excited about what they’re doing when they are able to creatively decide what needs to be done and come up with ways of handling problems that arise. Generally speaking, workers who feel restricted and unable to exercise personal control over their environment and daily decisions tend to be at greater risk for burnout.Lack of Recognition: It’s difficult to work hard and never be recognized for one’s accomplishments. Awards , public praise, bonuses and other tokens of appreciation and recognition of accomplishment go a long way in keeping morale high. Where accolades are scarce, burnout is a risk.Poor Communication: Poor communication in a company can cause or exacerbate some of these problems, like unclear job expectations or little recognition. When an employee has a problem and can’t properly discuss it with someone who is in a position to help, this can lead to feelings of low personal control.Insufficient Compensation: Some occupations are stressful by nature, and it’s one of those things that you just accept along with the paycheck â€" if the paycheck is sufficient. However, if demands are high and financial compensation is low, workers find themselves thinking, “They don’t pay me enough to deal with this!” And the burnout risk goes up.Poor Leadership: Company leadership can go a long way toward preventing or contributing to burnout. For example, depending on the leadership, employees c an feel recognized for their achievements, supported when they have difficulties, valued, safe, etc. Or they can feel unappreciated, unrecognized, unfairly treated, not in control of their activities, insecure in their position, unsure of the requirements of their jobs, etc. Poor company leadership is one factor that can influence many others â€" many of which can put an employee at risk for burnout. What to Do About Employee Burnout If you are experiencing job burnout, try to take a break in order to recover. You can also try simpler stress relievers like breathing exercises and positive reframing to help relieve stress you feel in the moment, and more long-term stress relievers like regular exercise, maintaining a hobby (for personal balance), or meditation. You can try to change aspects of your job to create a greater sense of knowing what to expect and perhaps having more choice in how you perform your job. If job burnout is persistent, it may be worth considering seeking professional help with the stress, and perhaps even another career path, as continued stress can impact your health.

The Need For Tax Reforms In The United States Research - 1925 Words

Changes In The United States System That Would Make The Society Better Off (Research Paper Sample) Content: Changes in the United States system that would make the society better offInstitutionDateThe need for tax reforms in the United States is important and clear. For last several years, economic growth has been sluggish; wages have stagnated, and there have been a reduction in the participation of the workforce in the economy due to the outdated tax policy. One of the major undoing of the current tax system is that it taxes a dollar of income up to four times. A dollar earned is taxed once earned as income tax when it is invested in business so as to bring profit; it is taxed as business income tax. When a dollar is invested in places like the stock exchange, tax on capital gains and the dividend is paid, and when it is given away as a gift, it is taxed as gift taxes. This calls for major changes in the tax system to make the citizens better off by eliminating double taxation to increase the competitiveness of United States as a business destination and spurring economi c growth.Broadening the tax base and lowering tax rate is a change that would make the society better off. The United States tax system has a lot of deductions and exclusions that reduce the tax base (Guner, 2014).The most important base broadening policy is ending the preferential tax treatment of capital income. Most of the high-earning individuals can minimize the tax liability of ordinary income tax by shifting ordinary income to capital gain income so as to pay fewer taxes during the Bush administration, preferential tax rates on dividends which were previously classified as ordinary income was created. Preferential tax rates on capital gains favor the few rich people in America who tops the income distribution with more that 70% of preferential tax benefits going to less that 1% of households ranked by income (Saez, 2014). Most of the highly compensated people have the ability to reclassify their ordinary labor earnings as capital income by using the carried interest loophole in the partnership profits which allows fund managers to be taxed at preferential capital gains rate instead of the ordinary income rate.This gives people the loophole to shift their wealth into assets that are excluded from the taxable income bracket. Unlike dividends payments which are made annually, fillers have the authority of determining when to sell stock and realize a capital gain or loss which is accessed by the difference between sale price and purchase price. Therefore, families have a chance of avoiding capital gains taxation by never realizing capital gains until after the assets are bequeathed which minimizes the intergeneration tax liability of the family. The tax system also enables the households to escape paying taxes on capital gains accruals by transferring the assets to done as gifts (Wilson, 2009). Many recipients of such gifts are exempted from taxation, and so the accruals will never be subjected to any taxation.The preferential tax rate on capital gains give s households the opportunity to shelter tax arbitrage opportunities. The difference between tax rates on capital gains and another income tax rates is a prime reason behind tax sheltering in the United States, and tax arbitraging decisions redirect investments to less productive uses (Saez, 2014). Hence broadening the tax base by amending step up basis and carryover basis of capital gains on gifts will make it easier in raising the capital gains tax rate and would maximize the revenue collected from capital gain taxes. Base broadening will minimize the opportunity to take advantage of the different tax rates which apply to a different legal classification of sources of income and hence it would be seen as complementary and not as a substitutable tax policy (Zucman, 2014). Taxing dividend payouts as ordinary income and increasing the capital gain tax rate would reduce the arbitrage which corporate takes advantage of in their payout strategies so as to avoid paying higher taxes on div idend payouts.Another change in the United States tax system that makes society better off is the reduction in the income taxation and increasing consumption taxation. Thomas Hobbes once suggested that taxation should be done on consumption and not income (Guner, 2014). Income measures the contribution of a person in the production of goods and services through labor and capital while consumption measures the quantity of goods and services one consumes. Therefore, consumption is a measure of the benefits a person accrues as a member of the society hence a proper basis of taxation. Income tax discourages investment and saving which impacts on the economic growth and taxation of consumption allows the economy to realize the best allocation of resources over time. Income taxation, especially on savings, is undesirable, and its ripple effects on the economy are hazardous. It reduces accumulation of capital and labor productivity hence lowers real wages in the economy (Bargain, 2014). Th is reduces the standard of living of the citizens and even future generations.Savings tax also complicates the tax system by making it necessary to measure depreciation on assets and to differentiate between interest and principal on loans. The system has more complexity as it tries to determine the income earned by each instead of taxing the total capital income generated by business operations at a flat rate (Guner, 2014) A well developed progressive consumption tax would achieve temporal neutrality (Saez, 2014). Tax is said to have achieved temporal neutrality if it doesn't alter the spending habits and patterns of individuals and affect the original allocation of resources. Reducing the income and increasing the consumption tax would promote a huge capital inflow in the United States. A reduction in the income tax would increase the global competitiveness of the United States as the leading investment destination for investors as it already has an advantage in the superior infra structure compared to other countries in the world. The increased investments would decrease the unemployment in the country increasing the average income of the population.The increased income will increase the purchasing power of the people hence increasing their consumption. The increase in consumption will increase the revenue collected from consumption tax (Saez, 2014). The citizens will benefit from the increase in income from the additional employment opportunities created while the government will eventually collect more taxes hence more revenue for its expenditure. Abolishing the current progressive income tax system and replacing it with a progressive consumption tax system such a sales tax would make it easier and to collect taxes. Unlike in the income tax system individuals would need to keep filling income tax returns and keeping tax records. Retailers would be submitting sales tax records to the IRS and to the state hence reducing the cost of collecting taxes.Moving to the territorial international tax system and making rates competitive for business is another change in the current tax system that would improve the society welfare. The United States is one of the countries that taxes international corporations on a worldwide basis. This means that no matter where in the world a corporation from the United States makes income is liable to a tax rate of 35% when they repatriate the income back home (Zucman, 2014). This kind of treatment puts United States businesses at a competitive disadvantage compared to foreign companies when competing in foreign countries. For example, when a united states corporation competes with a German business in foreign countries, the United States faces additional taxation when the money is brought back home.The ripple effect of this kind of taxation is that many corporations from the United States are shifting their...