How to Avoid Burnout in the Collection Industry

Collection industry professionals are some of the most misunderstood professionals working today, prompting many within the industry to burn out before they are able to achieve success.  For any job—whether within the collections industry or not—the state of career burnout results from a combination of exhaustion (both physical and emotional) and an overall displeasure and diminished interest in the work.  It can happen to anyone in any career field but is most common in those fields that are misunderstood by the general public or carry enormous pressure, two qualities that certainly apply to the collections industry. 

So how do I avoid it?

The first step to avoiding burnout in the collections industry is to set realistic expectations for yourself and avoid the tendency to be a perfectionist.  Perfectionists tend to set goals that are too high; when the goals are inevitably not met, they blame themselves for the failure when really, very few people (if any) could have met such unreasonable goals.  When you admit that there are facets of the collections industry that are out of your control, you allow yourself to set more reasonable expectations and goals. 

The next step to avoiding burnout is to become an active part of building the business for which you work.  Many of you reading this blog are collections attorneys or professionals who are building your own collections firm, so this advice is a given, but still others reading might have been hired on as an employee without a vested interest in the success or failure of the company.  In either case, taking on an active role in building the business will do two things to help you avoid burnout: 1) It will help you look beyond the momentary struggles and see the bigger picture and 2) it will provide the incentive to look for solutions to problems instead of becoming overwhelmed by them. 

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, immerse yourself in tasks that are at various stages of completion.  Not only will this make your work more varied (thereby preventing boredom), it will allow you to celebrate small victories across a timeline of several months.  These small victories will be the impetus for renewed energy in your job and renewed focus, preventing the dreaded burnout so many in the collections industry experience.