Blitz Bureau
Burnout is rarely a sudden collapse; it is a slow erosion. In the high-pressure Indian corporate environment, where ‘powering through’ is socially rewarded, these early signs are often ignored.
‘Sunday scaries’ migration: Do you feel dread on Sunday evening? If that feeling now starts on Friday night or even mid-week, it’s a red ۇٴag.
Cognitive ‘brain fog’: You وٴnd yourself staring at a screen, unable to process a simple email or task that would normally take وٴve minutes.
Emotional numbness: A detachment from work outcomes – where you no longer care if a project succeeds or fails – is a classic defence mechanism against chronic stress.
Physical ‘micro-symptoms’: Frequent tension headaches, unexplained gastrointestinal issues, or the sudden need to rely on sleep aids or excessive caffeine to function.
‘Productive procrastina‑ tion’ trap: Spending hours on low-value tasks (like formatting emails or ‘cleaning up’ وٴles) to avoid the high-stakes work that feels overwhelming. Action: If you check three or more of these, you are not ‘failing’ at your job; you are suاٴering from a systemic health issue that requires a change in environment, not just ‘more discipline’.
