True or False: Emotions are inappropriate at work.

Yesterday, we posted a self-assessment to gauge your level of burnout. Today, we’re going to start unpacking the three components of burnout. The first, according to doctors Emily and Amelia Nagoski, authors of Burnout: The Secret to Unlocking the Stress Cycle, is “emotional exhaustion: the fatigue that comes from caring too much for too long.”

But what do emotions have to do with work, you may wonder. I’m a professional focused on getting my job done.

In short, everything. According to the authors, who were featured on Brene Brown’s podcast, Unlocking Us, we often think, “‘I must behave myself emotionally so that I do not interfere with anyone else’s well-being, and so I am now officially done with my feelings.’ And you smile and you shove it down into some organ system…and then it lives inside you.” The authors also said, “Exhaustion happens when we get stuck in an emotion.”

If you currently describe yourself as overwhelmed, ineffective, unproductive, and/or working around the clock, what emotion(s) come to mind? Do you feel stuck in any of those emotions?

Source: https://brenebrown.com/transcript/brene-with-emily-and-amelia-nagoski/

Image credit: Liz Fosslien