Your boss breathing down your neck for yesterday’s report and you are pulling long hours in the office and taking work home.

With another deadline tomorrow you can feel the pressure mounting!

Once again you are in familiar territory – you are stressed out!

You may feel that you are accustomed to workplace stress and the anxiety – work stress is something that “just goes with the territory.”

However, as you adjust to more and more stress, thinking that you are sailing along quite well, you may simply be living with an unhealthy amount of stress.

Living with unrelenting chronic workplace stress can put you at risk of job burnout.

Job burnout is when your mental and physical resources are depleted – in essence you are exhausted.

There are a number of warning signs of burnout.

You may feel various aches and pains come and go. You may have difficulty concentrating or focusing on a task.

Perhaps you have noticed that you are more irritable or having more conflicts in the workplace.

Along with a sense of fatigue, these are common symptoms of burnout.

Being aware of these symptoms is a first step to managing burnout. Knowing your signs and symptoms can allow you to put in place strategies to reduce the risk of job burnout and the associated health risks.

It is a difficult time for business, who may push these unrelenting schedules in a world of increasing globalization.

While managers and business play a major role in reducing burnout, there are a number of things that you can do.

Recognizing job burnout and adjusting expectations from idealistic to realistic can be one way to battle job burnout. I find that focussing on the positive areas of your life – such as family, friends or hobbies can also be beneficial as a support network in these tough times.

On this note, making time for things that you enjoy and are meaningful to you can reduce your risk of job burnout. Set some time aside each day for those things that you enjoy or are meaningful to you.

Exercise is a great stress reliever and bringing this into your schedule not only helps you to cope with stress but promotes good health and helps combat depression and anxiety. Make time in your busy schedule for some form of daily exercise – whether it involves parking your car further away from work and walking, or using the stairs instead of the lift.

Eating well can help you to fight job burnout. Good nutrition – such as taking a healthy lunch, and making time to eat it will reduce your risk of job burnout and give you more ability to cope with stress.

Relaxation strategies can be a very important component of reducing the risk of job burnout. Relaxation techniques such as progressive muscle relaxation, breathing techniques, meditation or yoga can help to short circuit the stress response by activating the relaxation response.