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What's Sparking the Problem?
Too much work? Too little control? No recognition or rewards? Difficult co-workers? Unfair treatment? A clash of values? After decades of research, Christina Maslach, PhD, a psychologist and co-author of Banishing Burnout, found that any of these factors can sabotage your job satisfaction. "Maybe you can handle the workload but are constantly battling with your colleagues. Or your boss may be micromanaging you to death. Or perhaps you feel you're not being treated fairly or not getting appropriate compensation." A bad fit between the person and any key aspect of a job increases your risk of burnout.For Bob Phibbs, 48, of Long Beach, California, a clash between personal and corporate values stoked his dissatisfaction. "I'd taken four Western-wear stores and grown them into a chain of 55," he recalls. When the owners slashed commissions and increased sales quotas, Phibbs pushed himself to do more for less. After 14 years, his boss asked him what he thought was the company's most important asset. "Our employees," Phibbs answered. "No," his boss countered. "It's our customers."
"It was like a lightning bolt," says Phibbs. "Suddenly, things I'd been feeling in my gut for years added up in my head. I realized I couldn't work for a company that didn't put its employees first." The day he left the job, he arranged for a local radio station to play a song that summed up his feelings: "Walking Away a Winner."
"You have to feel that a job, like a relationship, is worth doing," observes Kenneth W. Christian, PhD, a psychologist and the author of Your Own Worst Enemy. "If there's no recognition that you're working hard, if nobody's got your back, if only the bottom line matters, you feel expendable. It's like a marriage that's gone bad."
Yet breaking up, the final recourse, is still hard to do. "At first, I felt I had failed in some way, but I regained my balance in a few months," says Phibbs, who took seminars on entrepreneurial strategies and began writing a column and book about business. Now, as the Retail Doctor, he travels the country advising small, independent companies on how to compete and thrive.
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