There’s no denying that conveyancing is a stressful career to navigate and workplace burnout may never be far away. It’s easy to ignore feelings of stress when days are hectic, but also crucial to step back occasionally and assess its impact on mental and physical health.
Excessive workloads and constant work pressures make it ever more important to consider how to keep burnout at bay. Being aware of the consequences of working in a stressful environment, and implementing a plan to deal with the impact, therefore, is a good starting point in avoiding long-term damage to mental wellbeing.
What does burnout feel like?
Burnout typically manifests as emotional and/or physical withdrawal from work, and sometimes from life in general. It’s a feeling of exhaustion and overwhelm that overshadows everything else, and can lead to many different physical symptoms.
The prolonged stress that leads to burnout affects the immune system in particular, which can lead to more sickness and time off work. Insomnia, depression, and anxiety may also emerge as a result of stress and exhaustion.
So how can conveyancers protect themselves from burnout in the workplace, and continue to provide the expertise that’s so valuable to our society as a whole?
Avoiding the risk of burnout at work
Control the workload
Feeling overloaded with work over a long period can cause mental and emotional exhaustion and ultimately lead to burnout to the point that an extended period away from work is needed.
Constantly multi-tasking or ‘firefighting’ issues rather than progressing caseloads is demoralising and can instil feelings of hopelessness in people who are conscientious and simply striving to do their best.
Effectively managing the workload that conveyancers have to deal with, however, may contribute to job satisfaction and enable people to carry out their best work. If employers monitor workloads and make sure their conveyancers aren’t overloaded it also improves retention rates and reduces the need for expensive recruitment campaigns.
Gain more autonomy
Being in control of the workload and able to make decisions independently contributes to a positive attitude and encourages feelings of autonomy. Being micromanaged is stifling and disheartening and can significantly add to the stress of a busy workplace.
Where appropriate, requesting more autonomy can increase productivity and employee engagement at work as they take control and prioritise their workload according to their own working style and methods.
With more autonomy may come the ability to delegate some aspects of their work, which releases time to focus on higher-level tasks and helps conveyancers avoid feelings of being ‘stuck’ and unable to progress.
Take breaks
It’s common to experience stress and not fully realise the toll it’s taking physically. Long-term stress can result in frequent headaches or muscle pains – a situation often worsened by lack of sleep.
Taking regular breaks from work is crucial, therefore, for physical but also mental well-being. It’s easy these days to be always connected to work during non-working hours – responding to emails at home, for example, and not letting the brain rest when it’s needed.
Looking after physical and mental health prevents the risk of burnout in the workplace and ultimately improves productivity and the likelihood of career success. Without physically and mentally switching off from work the stress on the body and mind becomes too much and exhaustion naturally follows.
Burnout – a significant risk for conveyancers
A reasonable work-life balance provides the foundation for avoiding burnout as a conveyancer and releases time for exercise and leisure to counteract the inherent stresses of this career.
The pressures of being a conveyancer also make planning work breaks, daily and longer term, an invaluable way to ward off exhaustion and prevent the widespread negative repercussions of full burnout.
Article written by Karl Hodson, UK Business Finance
