January 5, 1999 Web posted at: 10:50 AM EST by Margaret Steen, InfoWorld columnist

From...

(IDG) -- When Olimpia Borys found her health suffering because of the long hours she was working at a previous job, she started looking at ways she could change her job to make it more manageable.

"I tried talking to my management to enact some changes," says Borys. "They made a lot of empty promises. I decided to leave when nothing changed, even after several long conversations with my boss."

Borys didn't just leave her company -- she looked for a different sort of position, although it still involved technical work. She left her old job as an IT manager to take her current position as a systems consultant at Entex Information Services, in Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

"I wanted a job where I had more control of my time," Borys says. "The job change was the best career decision I ever made. It took a full year, but all my burnout symptoms completely subsided. Even in the heat of this high-visibility project I am working on, I do not feel anywhere near as stressed or tired as I used to. I feel great!"

Finding a new job is one solution to the burnout problem, and for Borys it was a good one.

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However, if you find that you have most of the symptoms we discussed last week, consider your options before stepping down.

"I would approach it from the question of, 'What's wrong with the picture of my life right now? Is it my boss? The tasks? The company? The industry? The location?' " says Libby Pannwitt, principal of Work Life Design Group, in San Mateo, Calif., and a senior career counselor at the Career Action Center, in Cupertino, Calif. "Sometimes when everything seems to be all screwed up it's hard to extract the pieces that you want to hold on to."

One key question to ask yourself: Do I not enjoy the kind of work I'm doing, or am I simply overworked?

If you're having trouble even figuring out what's wrong, find someone to talk to. For burnout symptoms that are similar to the symptoms of depression, you should see a physician. For non-medical problems, talk to a counselor, a friend, or a spouse. Pannwitt suggests going through your company's employee assistance program for confidential counseling, if you company provides this benefit.

Once you're able to pinpoint the problem, work on solving it.

If you conclude that you're in the wrong field, then you may want to start the process of changing careers. Use some of the same networking and analysis skills we discussed a couple of weeks ago (see Whether you're changing jobs or re-entering the workforce, job-hunting principles remain the same) to find out what you would like to do, what skills you'll need, and what jobs to apply for.

Perhaps, though, you'll conclude that you enjoy your job and just want to change it somewhat, or make it take up less of your life. That's where things can get tricky.

"Most of the competent people who fall prey to burnout are the ones who keep accepting the raising of the bar as their limit, and they run into their own limit," Pannwitt says. "If somebody says, 'Can you do more?' instead of saying, 'I can't do it' they go ahead and sign up for it and wind up drowning in the process."

As we discussed a few weeks ago (see Flexible work hours have a dark side), it's not always clear how many hours employers expect their employees to work. So telling your boss you need to reduce your workload can be a particularly touchy issue.

One reader who posted to a forum on the subject of flexible hours suggested the following way to approach a boss who isn't likely to want to hear that you can't get everything done:

"You have to somehow appear to cooperate but circumstances beyond your control prevent you from doing so," the reader suggests. "So when the boss approaches you with yet another task, you can say, 'Well, I'd really love to do that. However, this other task is also of high priority. Do you remember you told me earlier last week how important it was? I'd really love to do both, but please understand my current dilemma.' Since so many bosses are longing for recognition and a chance to be a 'leader,' you can ask, 'What would you do in my situation?' "

This kind of tactic has the advantage of giving the boss an out -- if there really is a more efficient way to work that will allow you to do both projects, he or she can suggest it. It's not in your boss' interest to have you burn out, either, after all.

Margaret Steen has edited InfoWorld's Enterprise Careers section since its inception and has worked as a high-tech journalist since 1994. In a career quandary? Send your Career Currents questions to margaret_steen@infoworld.com.