Before I dive into this one, can we just marvel for a moment at how long I have resisted the listed blog format and yet how fully I’m leaning into it right now?
For years I held off for fear of sounding like some kind of shite n trite women’s magazine, and maybe the blogs still sound a little bit like that, but right now when I’m all kinds of busy and am aware of just how many people have the attention span of a flea thanks to overwork and overwhelm… well the list format seems to work. Makes it bite size. Makes it accessible. And really, that’s what we all need when we are tired, right?
I’m on a big mission right now to open up the conversation about burnout, to destigmatise the effects of what is essentially caring and working too much, and to help create the language that we all need to talk about this. No language = no conversation = no change. Hell, I might write a book on the glossary of burnout!
By increasing our understanding we can identify, manage and reverse burnout. Really, isn’t that we all want?
(Before we dive into this blog, you have less than 24 hours to grab the replay of the Burnout Prevention Session for Individuals together with the workbook - the corporate training I’m delivering all around the country to help companies and individuals develop the knowledge and understanding needed to change the burnout problem. Click here for all the details and access the replay (for life!) for less than you’ll spend on a round of drinks.)
In order to have a meaningful conversation about anything, but particularly around burnout, we need to understand parameters. We need to understand the laws of physics in the world we are stepping in to.
So here are some of the things I wish everyone knew about burnout.
1. It is a spectrum
Just like everything else in life, burnout exists along a spectrum, but the determining factor isn’t just about stress. It would be incredibly easy to resolve burnout if all it meant was limiting stress (much as I think people who give that advice blithely deserve a slap to the face with a three day old kipper), but even what most people ‘know’ about stress isn’t actually right. That’s a rant for another day.
Burnout exists along a spectrum that we are all dancing up and down on a daily basis. Some days are better than others. Some years are better than others. Some of us have a greater recognition of what triggers burnout within us, or when we are consistently sliding along that spectrum, but we all exist along it. And like our weight, happiness, mental capacity, ability to learn and so many other things, it fluctuates regularly.
2. Burnout can happen to anyone
Literally, anyone. The risk factors are: give a shit and want to make a difference. So, unless you’re a narcissist or a sociopath, you’re in the group. Sorry.
You will often see me talk about risk factors and the types of personality who most commonly experience burnout but really, that’s just me calling out to my particular people, and to those who recognise themselves. Most of us identify, to some extent or another, as being people pleasers, empathetic, working with difficult people or in difficult situations or under high volumes of work with low control situations. Because what’s the alternative? To not care about other people, to ignore their emotions, to work with no-one and have nothing to do? Anyone know a job or a life like that? If so, I’m sorry, it sounds awful.
3. Burnout isn’t the end of the line.
The advice I received back in 2014 was simple: reduce your stress. You can’t handle it. You never will again.
And like most things I encounter and dislike, I called bullshit and set out to prove the opposite. I’m a delight to live with by the way, buy my partner a beer if you ever meet him.
If burnout = working too hard, for too long with too little care or reward, then it’s a pretty simple equation to rewrite. Please note I said simple, not necessarily easy! It is entirely and completely possible to be successful, to work even harder than before, if all the other pieces of the puzzle are in place.
Right now I’m going through one of my biggest periods of growth and expansion and it’s taking a proper shaking down of my toolkit but so far, touch wood, I’m experiencing some minor symptoms but nothing even remotely like I was 5 years ago. Give me another month and I think I’m going to be more resilient and gritty than ever before, with even more stuff to share!
4. It’s not just about work.
Ahh, this is a little controversial, but bear with me. Corporate Burnout Prevention Sessions start with my sharing the WHO definition of burnout, which puts it firmly in an occupational context. This is where I disagree from the establishment; I’ve worked with too many non-professional carers, parents and so on to say in good faith that burnout only happens at work. In my life as a Court of Protection solicitor, I experienced plenty of the family members of my brain injured clients experiencing forms of burnout, whether they were paid or unpaid carers or just part of the collateral damage of the accident.
In any event, even if we look at burnout as being created by a work context, you have to take your victim as you find them (you can take the woman out of law…).
We are whole people, with whole needs.
It’s been right there in my own story since the beginning; I had burned out after working 60+ hour weeks consistently for nearly a decade. However, the tipping point was the sudden death of my mum. Why was that? In my opinion, it was because burnout had eroded me sufficiently that I couldn’t cope with an extreme like grief and loss. There was no extra bandwidth, no energetic buffer, no extra kick of adrenaline to get me through. It was all used up.
I have clients come to me who have experienced incredible difficulty, between overworking, overperforming, undersupporting in a work context, coupled with; their own physical injury, their own mental health, caring for someone else (or multiple other people) experiencing physical or mental ill health, grief, loss, divorce, family changes, physical relocations, career transitions, abuse, assault and more.
All of these play a part in our pre-morbid conditions ie who we are and how we are functioning when we start tipping the scales into burnout.
Some of them work with me, some of them need to go seek alternative forms of help first. But please, for the love of god, don’t message me saying that you’ve experienced loss, pain, grief or more but you just don’t understand why you are now struggling at work. You deserve better support from and for yourself.
5. Burnout isn’t just about burnout.
I have plenty of clients who stick around long after their burnout crisis has passed because it’s never just about burnout. Burnout is the word that pulls together so many different parts of the thriving-at-work (and in life) equation. Trainings with me can vary from talking about time and to do list management skills to advocating for one’s self, to identifying and maintaining strong boundaries, to goals and values that keep you living a life you want, instead of the one other people shape for you. It can be about confidence, self-care, creativity, flexibility, resilience, grit, energy, inspiration and more.
Burnout is itself a symptom. On the surface, it’s about working too hard for too long with not enough support.
The deeper issue is why.
Why did that happen.
Why did we get here.
Why would it change in the future.
Why do we want it to.
And that right there, is the deeper work. The stuff I absolutely love and adore.
Why do we want to be happy at work.
Why do we want to perform well.
Why don’t we ask for what we need and want.
Why we deserve more.
PS Did you see that I adapted and delivered my key corporate training, the Burnout Prevention Session, for individuals on Thursday evening? This 67 minute training is the same one that I have been delivering up and down the country, and is a perfect introduction and reset for anyone who has been struggling with burnout, wants to prevent burnout in themselves or others, or wants to know more about this conversation.
In the training I go in to:
What burnout is
What it looks like in practice
How to recognise burnout
Why stress isn’t what you think it is
The role of resilience
and so much more.
I know that it can be a lot to take in in just an hour, which is why everyone who attended the training or purchases a copy of the Burnout Prevention Session gets a copy of the video to watch again and keep for life, together with a PDF workbook of my notes.
The replay is now available for you to watch right now, but I’m not leaving it up as an evergreen purchase, at least not at this point. I foresee this being part of a larger bundle of a support a little further down the line.
So, if you would like to access this training, that has received an average approval score of 4.4 out of 5 across my corporate trainings, you have until 5pm on Monday 2nd March to purchase, after that the link will be coming down!
Want to find out more and reserve your copy? Click here for all the details