Month: May 2018

Dealing with Burnout

Feeling fatigued? Want to stay in bed and recharge? See the bags under your eyes despite sleeping 8+ hours?

That could mean a lot of different things but what if it revolved around your work?

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I know that feel too via GIPHY

Tips to get yourself recharged and energized for work!

  • Do not bring work home. As a librarian, reading is part of the job, even if it means previewing a book in case patrons have questions. Sometimes you can feel overwhelmed when it’s the weekend and you’re waiting on confirmation for a program or anxious because you forgot to finish something before closing time. It’s okay. You’re not alone, I need to repeat it every day at closing. For reading, read something you want rather than reading something off your work list.
  • Log out of your email. It’s tempting but do not enable work email on your phone or your home computer. Nooooo. Nope. Nada. Keep that at work.
  • Stress-less hobby. Rather than saying “mindless”, do something that doesn’t cause you stress. For me it’s playing video games or doodling in my bullet journal. With video games, I need to monitor my stress levels and need to listen to myself when it’s time to quit a game.
  • Take a walk. Fresh air, greenery, just walking around outside is a nice change of pace after being cooped up in the office.
  • Treat. Your. Self. Finished a program you’ve been planning for 3 months? Treat yourself. Successfully completed a reference transaction? Pat yourself on the back and treat yourself. Got a negative reaction from a situation you could not control? Learn and treat yourself.
  • Vacation or Sick Day. Take a mental health day or plan a few months in advanced a couple days to refresh yourself. You need to recharge yourself but do not feel bad that your coworkers are picking up your slack. They’d want you at 100% rather than 25% and unable to provide teamwork. I feel bad calling in sick but you gotta do what you gotta do.

Self-Reflection: Stress Relief and Composure

So here and I doing my thing. It’s the last meeting for the Teen Library Council. Unfortunately all but one teen couldn’t make it. So here I am, one on one with our Teen Library Council, asking for feedback and reflect on the past year. This member is a huge anime and manga fan and is very good about suggestion which series are popular among friends and classmates in high school. We’re talking story, it’s a very chill atmosphere, and I drop my “official” demeanor and let slip some of my fangirl persona since we’re discussing a topic we mutually like.

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We must have been very relaxed because the member mentioned how I act like Retsuko of Aggretsuko fame. At the time I wasn’t familiar with the character, only knowing the anthropomorphic red raccoon was a new character amongst the cute Sanrio characters I knew of when I was a kid. Essentially the conversation turned to how, as a librarian, you present yourself professionally then you let loose with your favorite hobby. The Council Member is a huge fan of the Netflix series and encouraged me to watch it to understand how Retsuko acts. As I watched the series later that night, Retsuko is a salary woman working in accounting for a big firm. She deals with the day to day with a calm demeanor then unleashes her stress and rage at night in her own private sanctuary: a karaoke room.

aggretsuko

Self-reflecting on our conversation, I got this thought (and please feel free to comment). That we present ourselves as professionals to the public. My Teen Library Council had asked me questions about the job: Do you need a Master’s degree? What kind of experience would be good to work with the public? Now I look back a question I’m sure they had since it was the same when I was a kid which was How can you keep your composure? Just like Retsuko singing karaoke, my outlet is reading manga!

We all have our different ways of expressing and releasing stress from keeping a professional composure. How do you reflect your professional life? What are ways you do to release stress?