Reimagine: Burnout

Last week, I talked about the “human energy crisis” and how it intersects with the burnout so many of us are feeling.

Burnout is a concept that gets a lot of air time – you’d think with so much attention on it, and how much it resonates with people, we would also see a lot of proposed solutions. 

Ahem, I mean solutions that actually work.

Bubble baths and meditation apps can have a positive impact on our wellbeing, sure, but they do not solve burnout.

Read on to find out what word I think is missing from our burnout conversation, and how a small shift in how we think about burnout can make a huge difference in finding and implementing real solutions!

Burnout is a universal challenge for today’s workforce. Yes, burnout happens in the workplace as a direct result of the way we work. But burnout is complex, nuanced, and what I believe is the most critical component in understanding and addressing burnout: multi-dimensional.

What do I mean by “multi-dimensional”? I mean that burnout has layers that feed into each other, making burnout feel like a spiral that it’s nearly impossible to climb out of. 

Think about the impact of burnout in different parts of your life. Maybe layoffs at your organization led to you taking on additional responsibilities – without additional pay. You’re overextended at work, running from meeting to meeting, never finding a quiet moment to actually focus and get your work done. You end up overextended, exhausted, and not delivering on your growing list of tasks, leading to greater stress.

Your workday starts spilling into your evenings and weekends, not to mention the growing level of stress you feel not being able to keep up on your work. Your exhaustion means you can’t be the present parent/spouse/partner/family member/friend you desire to be. Your relationships, a primary source of joy and meaning in your life, suffer. You have no time or energy to move your body, so your physical health does, too.

This spiral of increased responsibility, decreased performance, increased stress, and decreased presence to the things that truly matter to you feed off each other in a “burnout spiral” without one single cause. Not to mention the stress we all carry over our political environment, climate change, inflation, and many other systemic stressors.

This is multi-dimensional burnout.

Sound familiar?

I wish I could present you with a “Five Steps to Combat Burnout” plan, wave a magic wand, and end the burnout cycle for you (and for myself!). Unfortunately, it isn’t that easy – but there is hope.

Every organizational leader, at any level, has the power to make small but impactful changes to interrupt this vicious cycle. Here are a few ideas you can implement right away:

1. Protect time for deep work (focus) and creative collaboration. 

2. Manage to outcomes, not time. (ChronoPace)

3. Watch out for “scope creep.” 

Those are just three small but powerful ways you can interrupt the burnout cycle in your workplace. 

I’d love to know if you have other ideas for interrupting the burnout cycle in your personal life, your community, or even systemically. We must address all layers of burnout and stop the vicious cycle that is hurting organizations and hurting us as humans.

Working Well and Living Well

I live in a beary nice neighborhood in Washington, DC.

Just before 7 yesterday morning, I opened the blind in the kitchen to see a young black bear climbing through the railing in our front yard.

A real, live black bear!

The kids and I watched it go through our yard, to our neighbor’s and then into the one square block of woods we happen to have behind us.

Yikes!

I called animal control, and alerted our neighbors on our group WhatsApp, and we had a lively morning of excitement.

Animal control swore the bear had moved on and had been seen outside the city.

So imagine our surprise last night when the [presumably same] bear came wandering right by our house again! (see pic below)

Thankfully my kids do know the saying “if it’s black, fight back; if it’s brown, lay down” so they have a smidge of bear safety knowledge.

But it made for a fun day and it was lovely to have something to bond with the neighbors over.

ps - and have you seen the social media trend lately about man vs. bear - it’s worth a watch.

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