The Pathway to Burnout: Loss of Support

When I first began to work, I had all sorts of people I worked with who were extremely caring and supportive. When I was upset or emotional, someone there was willing to give me a hug or offer encouraging words. At that most upsetting time when I witnessed my coworker's medical emergency, my coworkers expressed concern not only for her, but for me also, because I was alone when I witnessed it, and it put me into a sort of shock. After I was sent home, my manager called me at home later that day to check on me. I got a birthday card from the clinic every year, and when my grandma passed away, even though it was expected, they all gave me a sympathy card and some sort of gift -- I don't remember if it was flowers or something else. There were coworkers I could joke with, and they welcomed my poems whenever I had a new one to share. I think one of the reasons I stuck around as long as I did was because of my associations with these people.

But as time progressed, some of these people moved, some retired, and my group of friends was dwindling, and few who replaced them offered the same type of friendliness. At one point I caught hold of a rumor that the company was starting to clean out the staffing and getting rid of all the people who had worked there for a long time. That rumor was confirmed to me when I overheard a discussion between two of the owners about it. I watched as in the next few years, the older employees left the office, whether by their own choice, or forced into it. I think some of the retirements that happened within those years were forced ones, but that's only my suspicion. 

As I watched my friends leave me alone there, I began to feel it. There were some new replacements that were friendly enough, but the turnover due to many of them being students using the job as experience before moving on to higher education or young women deciding to begin a family made it difficult to establish any long-term friendships, and I take time making friends. A result from this was that there no longer were people there who really cared that much about me and how I was doing. When I knew I needed to talk to someone, I had no one to turn to. The people who were in the position that I should have reached out to weren't concerned enough to listen. When I cried, I cried alone, and I did a lot of it during the last few months of my work. People saw it a couple of times, but it was dismissed. I was so miserable and felt so discouraged, believing that I had no one to turn to.

Photo from HackSpirit.com