工作倦怠之祸

    阿尔珀特说，有些患者甚至在接受治疗期间都会受到打扰，不时查看黑莓信息，表明他们承受的压力多么巨大。他说，有些患者“蜡烛两头同时烧，他们晚上工作到10点，早上7点又去了公司。”

    “因为担心丢掉工作，所以没人敢提意见，”阿尔珀特说，因此大多员工日复一日、周复一周地继续干下去，但他指出，在这样残酷的环境下长期工作可能产生灾难性的后果。他说：“压力可能对人们的身体造成很大伤害，诱发高血压及心脏病。”

    有些人一心扑在工作上，基本上放不下。一位纽约社交媒体咨询公司的老板自豪地说，周五晚上到周六晚上是他会关掉手机、专门休息，但却没有提及一周里的其他148个小时，他随时准备接客户的电话并投入工作。仅仅是休息24个小时不够。

    情感疏离、理想破灭且效率不彰

    堪萨斯州立大学（Kansas State University）心理学教授罗纳德•唐尼指出，工作倦怠的一个重要症状是，“情感疏离，即员工与工作场所、工作本身、员工乃至本人的认同感消失。”另一个迹象是：员工们请的病假开始变多。员工感情上越疏远，与工作之间的不断联系就越发沉重，甚至令人窒息。

    总部位于佛罗里达州克利尔沃特的GFI软件公司正是前述对IT管理员的调查的资助者，该公司人力资源副总裁史蒂夫•锡克特表示，压力级别的上升使他认识到，他的公司应当着力使员工们了解公司对他们的期望，经理们必须清楚地说明他们希望、期望员工做到什么。他还说，如果工作上的要求不断提高、引发压力，员工应当直言不讳，如此经理人才能将部分负担转移给他人。如果到离职调查时才发现某位员工早已心生倦怠，那肯定有什么地方出了问题。

    伊佐建议，有意解决工作倦怠问题的公司应当讯问员工，什么样的改变能缓解倦怠，这往往会带来大量解决问题的技巧。公司方面应考虑扫除那些不必要的任务，比如发布一份报告，回顾去年的工作，而这些工作现在或许已经没有意义；或者把冗长的会议限制到不超过15分钟。它们还可以强调福利计划，使员工产生有奋斗目标的感觉，这也有助于缓解压力。唐尼还称，主管们需接受训练，了解如何发现工作倦怠现象，以及如何降低、平衡工作负担，从而解决问题。

    或许所有这些建议听起来都是老生常谈，但大多数公司都不愿开口谈论工作倦怠问题。唐尼指出，这是因为一旦谈及此事，它们就得“改变期望值，增加人手，降低要求，而多数公司都不愿这么做”，而这样只会给公司自身埋下隐患。

    “到头来，一家公司因工作倦怠问题而付出的最大代价乃是优秀员工的流失。只要经济形势改善，他们就会离开该公司。”伊佐说，如果一位经理人听到员工说：“因为这份工作，我已经没有私生活可言”，这就意味着工作倦怠情绪很快就会出现。

    译者：小宇

    Alpert says that a couple of clients have even interrupted their therapy sessions to read Blackberry messages, indicating how much pressure they are under. Some clients "burn the candle on both ends. They work until 10 p.m. and are back at work at 7 a.m.," he says.

    "No one wants to complain for fear of losing their job," Alpert says, so most employees just keep going, day after day, week after week. But he notes that the long-term effects of working in such a relentless environment can be devastating. "Stress can wreak havoc on your body, contribute to high blood pressure and cardiac disease," he says.

    Some people are so tied to work that they can barely let go. An owner of a New York social media consulting firm proudly says that he unplugs Friday night to Saturday night, neglecting to mention that the other 148 hours of a week he's plugged in and ready to answer client calls. Taking 24 hours off doesn't yield much down time.

    Disconnected, disillusioned, and not very productive

    A major symptom of burnout, says Ronald Downey, a psychology professor at Kansas State University, is "feeling disconnected. Staff feels disconnected from the workplace, their job, colleagues, and ultimately themselves." Another sign of burnout: when staffers begin to take additional sick days. The more alienated an employee feels, the more constant connection to the job becomes onerous and suffocating.

    Steve Heckert, vice president of human resources at GFI Software, based in Clearwater, Fla., which financed the survey of IT administrators, says the escalated stress levels suggested to him that his firm should focus on making sure staff understands what's expected of them. Managers must make clear exactly what they want and expect from employees. He also says if the demands of the job are intensifying and causing stress, employees need to speak up so managers can shift some of the burden. If the manager is learning about an employee's burnout at the exit interview, something's gone wrong.

    Izzo recommends that companies interested in addressing burnout ask staffers what changes they'd like to see to reduce burnout, which often lead to a host of problem-solving techniques. Companies ought to consider eliminating unnecessary tasks, such as issuing a report that was done last year but perhaps is no longer needed, or limiting lengthy meetings to no more than 15 minutes. And they can also emphasize wellness programs that give staff a sense of purpose and help reduce stress. Downey says that supervisors need to be trained on how to detect employee burnout and how to decrease or balance workloads to address it.

    All of this advice might sound like common sense, but most companies don't want to broach the subject of burnout. If they did, they'd have to "change their expectations, hire more employees, reduce demands, and most won't do that," Downey says. But they do this at their own peril.

    "Ultimately the biggest price companies' pay for burnout is a loss of talented people. As the economy improves, they will leave the enterprise," Izzo says. If a manager hears an employee saying, "I don't have a life on this job," burnout is around the corner, he says.