今日导读

你的生活中是否也会出现以下几种情况呢？三分钟热度，突然情绪高涨，但坚持不了几天又萎靡不振；时常在抱怨，却又时常无可奈何；失眠，抑郁，嗜睡，身体每况愈下等等，如果这些症状你出现了，职业倦怠症有可能已经围绕在你身边了。那什么是职业倦怠？有哪些表现？我们可以通过哪些方法来缓解？让我们和宇轩老师一起走进今天的新闻。

新闻原文

Burnout: a modern malaise

 The Washington Post

Burnout is a term easily tossed around, the way somebody might claim to be starving when they're simply hungry, or freezing when cold. That's harmless if a person is describing a tired day or week. But somebody who is actually burned out should be prepared to take serious action because it's a condition that needs attention.

The big three symptoms are emotional exhaustion, cynicism and feeling ineffective, according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a survey designed to measure employee burnout in the workforce. Other symptoms can include frequent colds or sicknesses, insomnia and a tendency to alleviate stress in unhealthy ways, such as with too much alcohol or online shopping.

Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term—at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn't list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.

For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind). The importance of balance and self-care to prevent burnout likely isn't surprising to most.

"There's nothing fancy about what it would take to turn things around, " says Ziegler, the "Mommy Burnout" author. "But it's a huge shift in the cultural mind-set. That's the challenge."

带着问题看讲解

如何理解 toss around 这个固定搭配？

文中职业倦怠的三大症状是什么？

作者提出了哪些实用的方法来应对职业倦怠？

新闻正文

Burnout: a modern malaise

职业倦怠：一种现代病

Burnout is a term easily tossed around, the way somebody might claim to be starving when they're simply hungry, or freezing when cold. That's harmless if a person is describing a tired day or week. But somebody who is actually burned out should be prepared to take serious action because it's a condition that needs attention.

职业倦怠是一个很容易被滥用的词，就像有些人仅仅在感到饥饿的时候会说自己要饿死了，或者在冷的时候会说自己冻僵了。如果一个人只是在描述劳累的一天或一周，那倒是无害的。但是一个真正对职业感到倦怠的人应该做好认真行动的准备，因为这种情况需要得到重视。

The big three symptoms are emotional exhaustion, cynicism and feeling ineffective, according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a survey designed to measure employee burnout in the workforce. Other symptoms can include frequent colds or sicknesses, insomnia and a tendency to alleviate stress in unhealthy ways, such as with too much alcohol or online shopping.

一项旨在衡量员工工作倦怠程度的问卷调查——马勒诗职业倦怠量表（MBI）显示，职业倦怠的三大症状是：情绪衰竭、玩世不恭和成就感低落。其他症状可能包括经常感冒或生病、失眠以及倾向于用不健康的方式来缓解压力，比如过量饮酒或网购。

Part of the difficulty of pinpointing true burnout may be because burnout is a nonmedical term—at least in the United States. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders doesn't list it as an illness. But other countries including France, Denmark and Sweden, do recognize burnout syndrome and consider it to be a legitimate reason to take a sick day from work.

真正的职业倦怠之所以很难判定，某种程度上是因为职业倦怠是一个非医学术语——至少在美国。《精神疾病诊断与统计手册》没有把它列为一种疾病。但包括法国、丹麦和瑞典在内的其他国家确实承认职业倦怠症，并认为这是休病假的合理原因。

For those who suspect they might be on the road to burnout, there are practical tools to mitigate it. Among others: physical exercise, sleep and positive social connection (the real kind, not the Facebook kind). The importance of balance and self-care to prevent burnout likely isn't surprising to most.

对于那些怀疑自己有职业倦怠倾向的人来说，有一些实用的方法可以缓解这种状况。其中包括：体育锻炼、睡眠和积极的社交联系（是真实的社交联系，而非像 Facebook 那样的线上虚拟社交）。平衡好生活并照顾好自己，对预防职业倦怠是非常重要的，这一点在大多数人看来可能并不意外。

"There's nothing fancy about what it would take to turn things around," says Ziegler, the "Mommy Burnout" author. "But it's a huge shift in the cultural mind-set. That's the challenge."

“扭转职业倦怠的办法并不复杂，”《母亲倦怠》一书的作者齐格勒说道，“但这是个文化观念的巨大转变，这才是挑战所在。”

重点词汇

burnout
/ˈbɜːrnaʊt/
n. 精疲力竭；倦怠
e.g.
相关词汇：burn out（（火）熄灭；东西烧坏）
英文释义：the state of being extremely tired or ill, either physically or mentally, because you have worked too hard

malaise
/məˈleɪz/
n. 身体不适；无法描述的问题
e.g.
近义词：discomfort
英文释义：a general feeling of being ill or having no energy
英文释义：a discomfort that is difficult to explain or identify
例句：This is an economic malaise.

toss around
抛出，提出（想法、建议或说法）
e.g.
相关词汇：toss（v.（轻轻或漫不经心地）扔，抛）
toss 英文释义：to throw something lightly or carelessly
toss 例句：He glanced at the letter and then tossed it into the bin.
英文释义：If you toss ideas, suggestions, or phrases around, you mention them and discuss them with other people.

exhaustion
/ɪɡˈzɔːstʃən/
n. 精疲力竭；疲惫不堪
e.g.
英文释义：the state of being extremely tired
例句：As they approached the end of the marathon, the runners looked near exhaustion.
相关词汇：exhausted（adj. 感到精疲力竭的）; exhausting（adj.（某事）让人感到精疲力竭）
例句：I've had an exhausting day./I'm exhausted after a busy day.

cynicism
/ˈsɪnɪsɪzəm/
n. 愤世嫉俗；玩世不恭
e.g.
相关词汇：cynic
cynic 英文释义：a person who believes that people are only interested in themselves and are not sincere
词根词缀：-ism（…主义，学说）

alleviate
/əˈliːvieɪt/
v. 减轻；缓和，缓解
e.g.
英文释义：to make something less severe
例句：A number of measures were taken to alleviate the problem.

pinpoint
/ˈpɪnpɔɪnt/
v. 准确指出，确定
e.g.
相关词汇：pin（n. 大头针）；point（v. 指向；瞄准）
搭配短语：pinpoint a location
例句：It is difficult to pinpoint the source of its inspiration.

legitimate
/lɪˈdʒɪtɪmət/
adj. 合理的；正当的
e.g.
近义词：valid; reasonable; fair
例句：Her resentment is quite legitimate.

mitigate
/ˈmɪtɪɡeɪt/
v. 使缓和；减轻（危害等）
e.g.
近义词：alleviate
搭配短语：mitigate the storm's impact
词义辨析
mitigate, alleviate

mitigate 和 alleviate 意思相近，均可表示“减轻；缓和”。mitigate 更侧重减轻某事的强度或者力度，比如，减轻风暴造成的影响 mitigate the storm's impact。alleviate 指缓解某事，让它更容易承受，经常搭配的名词有 stress 压力，还有 pain 疼痛，例如，这些药物对减轻她的病痛没有丝毫作用：The drugs did nothing to alleviate her pain。

mind-set
/maɪnd set/
n. 观念；思维模式
e.g.
英文释义：a person's way of thinking
搭配短语：a conservative mindset

补充词汇知识

harmless
adj. 无害的
相关词汇：harm (v./n. 危害)
词根词缀：-less （无，没有）

condition
n. 情况，状况

workforce
n. 劳动力，全体的员工

insomnia
n. 失眠

a tendency to do sth
有倾向做某事

suspect
v. 认为；怀疑

be on the road to sth
即将取得某事；在某事的过程中
英文释义：to be likely to achieve something

fancy
adj. 复杂的；高级的

turn sth around
使某事有好转，有起色

词义辨析

mitigate, alleviate

mitigate 和 alleviate 意思相近，均可表示“减轻；缓和”。mitigate 更侧重减轻某事的强度或者力度，比如，减轻风暴造成的影响 mitigate the storm's impact。alleviate 指缓解某事，让它更容易承受，经常搭配的名词有 stress 压力，还有 pain 疼痛，例如，这些药物对减轻她的病痛没有丝毫作用：The drugs did nothing to alleviate her pain。

长难句解析

The big three symptoms are emotional exhaustion, cynicism and feeling ineffective, according to the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI), a survey designed to measure employee burnout in the workforce.

一项旨在衡量员工工作倦怠程度的问卷调查——马勒诗职业倦怠量表（MBI）显示，职业倦怠的三大症状是：情绪衰竭、玩世不恭和成就感低落。

Maslach Burnout Inventory，就是马勒诗职业倦怠量表，简称为 MBI, 这个量表概括了职业倦怠的三大症状。第一大症状是 emotional exhaustion 情绪衰竭，这是一种情绪和精力都被消耗殆尽的状态。例如有“不想干活或不想担事”的想法，尤其是对周而复始的上班感到恐惧。第二大症状是 cynicism，愤世嫉俗或玩世不恭的想法。比如对组织和同事不满意，在工作和人际交往中我行我素。最后一类症状是 feeling ineffective，成就感低落。典型的现象是低估自己在工作中的价值。这三大维度就是马勒诗量表评估职业倦怠的标准，作者后面又用同位语对这个量表作了补充，a survey designed to measure employee burnout in the workforce，workforce 劳动力，全体的员工，说明马勒诗量表是一种专门用来测量员工倦怠的调查问卷。

拓展阅读

畅销书《自我驱动心理学》对于职业倦怠症的建议

心理咨询专家史蒂文·贝格拉斯在《自我驱动心理学》中，将众多案例和理论融合，对精疲力竭症（编者按：即今天文章中的“职业倦怠”）追根溯源，并且提供了有针对性的治疗经验，节选如下：

1. 正确认识自我

《自我驱动心理学》中，贝格拉斯告诉我们：想要理解、治疗和预防精疲力竭症，第一步就是客观地自我评价。了解自我的需求、性格、优缺点、理想等，才能有的放矢，随时调整自己的事业目标和工作节奏。现代人的压力越来越大，但是每个人害怕的事物不同，焦虑的来源也不同。只有客观认清自己的情况，找到引发我们精疲力竭的根源，才有治愈的可能性。

2. 接纳自我

贝格拉斯在书中揭示出，在众多导致精疲力竭症的因素中，最糟糕的就是人们对追求成功的态度。人们往往给成功人士贴了标签：成功者必须坚强且独立。于是，当人们在获取成就后，往往忽略内心真实的声音，努力维护自己无所不能、不需要别人、不会被情绪左右的成功者形象。想要治疗精疲力竭症，首先需要认识到这种成功观是不健康的；其次需要承认和接纳自己的软弱，和他人建立良好的人际沟通，同时学会正确地表达自己的情绪。

3. 循序渐进地治疗

当身体或心理患上了疾病，产生了痛苦，人们常常急于解脱，试图用一个方法治愈所有症状，让自己从痛苦中解脱。与之相比，更加现实的做法是控制并且减少病症。贝格拉斯在书中提出循序渐进的治疗方法有：站在客观的角度重新审视自己，包括自己的行为和意图，学会接受自己的缺陷；尝试新的环境、新的职能，让自己对工作保持有新鲜感，比如通过在企业内部轮岗；掌握多种技能，或者在职业生涯中尝试在多个方面发展技能，以此紧跟时代发展的需求；等等。