Burnout At Work: Recognize The Three Components

This is an excerpt from a session on recognizing Burnout at Work. You'll learn how three components to burnout -- Exhaustion, Cynicism, and Low Efficacy -- accumulate over time. And you'll hear how looking at different levels helps give clarity when looking for a path to recovery: Personal level (things like overworking, lack of boundaries, inner pressure to be the hero) and Environmental level (the bigger situation and environment where you work).

Mindfulness skills in being observant, curious, and compassionate will help ground you, so you can identify when you're drifting into burnout -- and then course correct -- before it gets too intense.

Transcript

When we're talking about burnout,

There are three elements that we're really going to be looking at.

And the first one is exhaustion.

So that feeling of exhaustion can be on a physical level.

It can be on an emotional level.

It can be on a mental level.

It can be on any level of exhaustion that you feel.

And one way I like to think about it is if you were holding a pen,

You're just picking up a pen,

Putting it down again.

It's not a big deal.

Like,

It's really light.

It's not exhausting at all.

But if you were asked to hold the pen and extend your arm and just keep holding it,

Over time you would start to feel fatigue.

Over time,

You would start to feel the muscles in your arm begin to tire.

Now the pen is still a very light thing.

It's not heavier.

But what happens is we're now using all of this ability,

All of this capacity,

And we're not giving any rest.

So even though it's something that's very,

Very light,

The way that you feel over time changes.

And then when you finally set it down,

It feels better,

It gets some rest and recovery.

And this is something that we can experience not just on a physical level,

But also on an emotional level and also with our mind state.

So if we never get a rest from thinking about or trying to solve a certain problem,

We can experience a same kind of fatigue in the mind.

If we never get a feeling of connection or if we're always in a state of uncertainty and change or instability,

If we're not working in a way where we feel trust in the workplace or in our relationships,

That absence of trust can be very draining for us emotionally.

And if you're dealing with any kind of like frontline customer service,

So if you work in education,

If you work in health care,

If you work in any customer service setting where you're dealing with customers,

With other individuals who might be feeling a lot of feelings and then kind of taking it out on you,

That also can create this sense of feeling emotionally exhausted,

You know,

When we're not feeling respected or appreciated or we're just constantly in the,

Like in the line of fire working with the public or working with customers.

And so I think it's helpful to remember that number one,

When we're starting to feel exhausted,

It's not,

It's not about a personal failure and it's also not about,

You know,

Intelligence.

Like one of the things I see a lot with the folks that I work with is that when the subject of burnout comes out,

It can sometimes feel confusing because it's like,

But I'm very smart,

I should be able to outsmart burnout,

You know,

Or I'm a very hard worker,

I should just have to work harder to outwork the burnout.

And burnout is,

Again,

An accumulated experience that happens over time.

And so it really doesn't have anything to do with your level of intelligence and it's not really about how hard you work.

It's more about the relationship that you have with the work within your work environment.

And then sometimes too,

What's happening in your own personal life,

We can experience things outside of work where we're not feeling replenished.

And so when we're showing up to work,

We're not rested,

We're not feeling connection,

We're not feeling restored.

And so we're trying to accomplish all of our work things,

But from a place where we're already feeling depleted.

So ideally,

You want to create within your work experience,

Within your life experience,

Ways to recognize when you are becoming overextended and how to rest and restore and replenish yourself,

Both body,

Mind,

Spirit,

Heart,

To help protect you from becoming into that burnout zone.

So that's this first level,

Exhaustion.

If you're feeling chronically exhausted,

Like you go on a vacation and you don't feel any better,

Then the same way that burnout happens over time,

Restoring and recovery also is going to happen over time.

So it's usually not something that's going to be fixed with a nice weekend or a free evening or even a week of holiday.

Typically,

It takes us a little bit longer to restore ourselves and to recover.

So that's thing number one is exhaustion.

Item two on our burnout list,

Cynicism.

A negative outlook towards work or life in general.

This is one that sometimes the people around us will start to notice,

You know,

They can be the reflection and they start to say,

You know,

You,

You,

You didn't always used to seem so negative in your outlook about work or about life.

Or if you know someone and when they are talking about work,

The only thing they talk about is all of the problems,

How everything is terrible.

If they seem really stuck in a place of negativity and cynicism,

Then that can also be a sign of burnout.

In the workplace,

If you're a manager or a leader,

You might see that show up as disengagement.

People don't feel motivated.

They don't feel a connection to the work or to the purpose or the mission of what your organization is doing.

If you sense that tone when people are speaking of low morale in the workplace,

That can sometimes point to this quality of cynicism and of having an overall negative,

Cloudy outlook.

This doesn't mean that being able to observe and name the problems or the things that need to change,

That's not burnout,

But it's this accumulative effect where everything becomes colored by this cynicism and this negative view of oneself,

Of one's work and of the world.

So that's thing two.

The third part of burnout that we're looking at today is this feeling of reduced efficacy,

And efficacy is this quality,

This belief or feeling like I have the power to do things that it will have an effect.

I can be effective.

I have the skill and the capability within the context to effect the change or to reach the goal that I would like to.

When we have a reduced sense of efficacy,

That will sound like I'm not good at anything.

Nothing I do matters.

What's the point?

Is often the voice in the head like,

What's the point?

It won't have any effect.

Or what's the point?

I'm just not good at this.

And it's this inaccuracy.

It's the inaccuracy of you're not getting an accurate reading of how good you are at something,

But instead it's just this feeling like nothing matters.

If we're feeling swamped with work,

Like if your workload is bigger than your ability and capacity to handle it,

It can activate that feeling of what's the point of doing this?

We'll never actually get everything done.

It won't actually make a difference.

So these are three areas to pay attention to,

To be mindful of in your own experience.

And the sooner you can identify these at the lowest level,

The better.

This is where mindfulness and that awareness of how am I doing in this moment?

How am I doing?

Becomes really helpful because if we just get tunnel visioned,

And so we're not really aware,

We're not tracking how we're feeling,

We're not paying attention to our sleep,

We're not tuning in to the internal narrative voice in our mind,

Then what happens is we can actually go quite far down the road of burnout before we actually realize that that's what's happening.

It's kind of like the sooner you can recognize the check engine light on your car and then pull over to investigate and say,

What's going on here?

What needs attention here?

The sooner you can perceive and address that,

The more likely it is that you will not go into,

You know,

Like into the extreme side of it.

So that's this sort of initial first piece.

Understand and look for these three different signals,

Exhaustion,

Mental,

Emotional,

Physical,

Cynicism,

That persistent negative outlook on life,

On work,

That kind of drains the color out of it all,

And a feeling of very reduced efficacy or this feeling of what's the point?

Nothing matters.

It won't make a difference anyway.

That sense of not feeling any connection or any sense of power to effect change or to successfully achieve or reach your goals.

Now,

Shifting a little bit,

I want to speak to the fact that when we are experiencing these,

And of course,

Like the sooner you can recognize them when they start,

The easier it will be to begin to address them.

Bring your lens both initially to that personal level.

The personal level is how am I doing?

What am I feeling?

What thoughts am I having?

Where does my attention go?

Am I sleeping?

Am I drinking enough water?

Like,

Am I getting enough movement?

Do I have time with my loved ones and friends and people who care about me?

Like that level of self-awareness is going to happen at your personal level.

Others will not have the same access of information that you do.

So we start on that personal level.

But then we start to expand the view outward and start to look at how are the relationships in your world?

How are your relationships at work?

Do you trust your manager?

Do you feel like they have your back?

Do you enjoy your colleagues?

Do you feel like you're all in it together?

Do you have a good feeling about leadership and how they are leading your organization?

Do you feel a connection to the mission or purpose of your organization?

Like we start going from the personal to the relational.

Because how you describe those relationships will also give you some clues about where things might need help.

Or even just acknowledging for yourself,

Yeah,

I have a really contentious relationship with my manager.

I don't really trust them.

And so that's going to put me a little bit more at risk of burnout.

So I'm going to need to just be very mindful of that for myself.

Whereas if you have a really great relationship with your manager,

That's like a point in your favor of protective qualities.

That is a good thing to know that you have that resource.

Beyond your relationships,

Expand your lens outward and think about the environment in which you work.

So how is the culture of your organization or the culture of your team?

What is the,

You know,

Even the physical environment of your organization?

Is it one that supports your well-being?

Or is it one where things are really chaotic or maybe sensory overstimulating for you?

Be aware,

Be curious,

As you consider the burnout question,

To also look through the lens of environment.

What is the environment that you work in that might be affecting this?

Because burnout is this also like relational complex thing.

And so if you want to address it,

And if you want to address it early,

It is so helpful to look through the lens of these different aspects,

Personal,

Relational,

Environmental.

So when I was learning about burnout,

It really helped me to both learn about these different dimensions,

These different specific aspects,

And to think in terms of personal awareness,

Relationship or relational awareness.

What is the environment that I'm working in?

How is that affecting my experience and what I'm feeling?

And even thinking in terms of like,

What are the processes and systems and tools that are available within the organization?

Is this helping me feel a greater sense of accomplishment?

Or is this really hampering my ability to,

You know,

To do the work that I want to do?

Because if we don't do that,

It is so easy to either completely internalize it,

Like there must be something wrong with me that I'm not able to function at the level I'm used to functioning.

We'll either 100% internalize it and we'll say it's a total me problem.

There's something wrong with me.

I can't cut it.

Or we'll 100% externalize it.

And we'll go into this other place of kind of helpless collapse and just say,

Well,

You know,

I just I work in this organization and they never have enough resources and we need to hire people and management doesn't know what they're doing.

And we'll completely collapse into this other place where we feel totally disempowered,

Maybe trapped,

Maybe stuck.

Because it's actually quite challenging to initiate change when we're feeling disempowered and stuck.

Either when we're feeling disempowered and stuck because we're totally externalizing everything or because we're 100% internalizing everything.

But when I started looking at these different levels and relationships,

I could see like,

OK,

Maybe I don't actually suck at this job.

Maybe I'm not actually really secretly bad at this.

Maybe I'm working in an environment that is just very challenging because they're going through a lot of organizational change and reporting is not clear.

And so it's very difficult to get approvals for this,

You know,

For taking steps forward.

Acknowledging what's going on around me that is really interfering or that is really disrupting my ability to accomplish things.

Then we're starting to see the situation in more useful terms because now it's no longer just a me thing or just a work thing.

It's like,

Oh,

I'm in relationship with this environment.

And if I understand what about this is making it difficult,

I can better describe it to myself so I know not to take it personally.

And I can also communicate it in the way that I need to at work.

So I can say,

Yeah,

The reason why this timeline has slipped is because we've been running around trying to figure out who now has the authority to approve this next step,

Because when we planned it,

The organization looked like this,

And now the organization looks like this.

So it can provide that sense of context that can be grounding and kind of orienting.

My other experience with burnout is that it can be very disorienting.

And so when we have a sense of what is it that I'm experiencing and why,

It can create that feeling of grounding where we don't absorb so much.

So if you think about your work environment,

Whether you work alone,

You know,

Or whether you work in a small business or a global organization,

How would you describe the environment?

Do you feel that the environment is one where you can function at your best within that environment?

And if not,

What's missing or what's the challenge you're facing?

We can't always solve the thing,

But if we can name it,

It can help us to describe an understanding for ourself and for others.

Sometimes it's that part of acceptance of saying,

You know,

There's now a new senior leader,

And they have different priorities than the previous leader.

And so they are making changes to this organization that are exhausting and that create a lot of anxiety or a lot of chaos or a lot of instability.

So yeah,

There's a lot of fear and frustration and fatigue,

And we're seeing increases in all of these things.

And we can say,

Yeah,

We're going through that stage where new leadership is really changing things,

And it's not always comfortable.

But with that sense of clarity about what is driving that experience,

You can get a little bit better handle of how you want to address that situation.

In contrast,

There can be times when,

And I see this sometimes with new managers,

Because I work with a lot of folks who are transitioning from being an individual contributor into their first manager role.

And so the thing they know how to do is they know how to work really hard on execution.

They know how to do the task.

They're usually very good at it.

That's often why they got promoted to becoming a manager.

And then as a manager,

It starts to get overwhelming because there are more meetings,

There is less guidance,

There is more pressure,

There is more visibility,

And it's a different job.

So you come from this place where you feel highly competent because you know how to do whatever that core task,

Whatever that core function is,

And then you get promoted.

You're like,

Great,

I'm promoted.

I'm a manager.

This is amazing.

But all of a sudden,

The reality hits,

And it's like,

I've never actually done this job before.

I have to motivate people.

I have to figure out why people are not following the process.

I have to do feedback,

And I have to plan for performance reviews,

And I have to figure out how to respond to this person on my team who wants a promotion,

But I'm not sure that they're ready yet.

Like there are all of these different parts of the job when you're a manager that you've never done before.

So that level of change and uncertainty can evoke a feeling of exhaustion and stress and fatigue.

And what do we do when we're facing uncertainty?

We like to go to the things that we know.

And this is where you might see as a manager,

Or either you might have experienced this yourself,

Or you might have observed it in your workplace,

You'll sometimes see a manager who then takes on some of the IC work because that's where they feel most competent.

That's where they feel most certain.

And then what happens is they end up overworking because they haven't built the skills of how to delegate,

How to communicate in these new circumstances and situations.

They might just come from a place of really genuinely wanting to help their team,

And they see their team is being overloaded and overworked,

So they take on more.

And so you have this manager who's taken on all this extra work,

And they're used to working hard.

That's also how they got promoted because they were really good as an IC.

They're really good at working hard.

They had high competence and high performance in their core function.

And then they go to be a manager,

And it can just feel frustrating,

Overwhelming.

There's so much going on.

So they reach back here,

And all of a sudden,

They're set up for burnout,

And they're wondering,

Am I even cut out for this?

That spike in the efficacy where all of a sudden they're like,

I felt so competent.

I felt so ready.

And now as a manager,

My confidence has tanked,

Or it's at least very wobbly.

And I'm afraid people will find out.

I've never done this before.

I'm afraid of being bad at this,

And I'm supposed to be good at it.

So I've seen these become more vivid or more prominent when you're making that kind of transition.

And it is so helpful to just understand what these points are and to realize,

Like,

For myself as a manager,

I might need to start getting support or start realizing I need to build up some different skills in order to delegate,

Have difficult conversations so that I don't burn myself out.

I might need to develop more skills around boundaries and being really clear about what's mine and what's not.

I might need to develop more comfort in my ability to advocate,

To ask for what it is that I need or what it is that our team needs.

And no one gets promoted and then it's like,

Here's your manual on how to be a great manager.

So much of it is just sink or swim.

We trust you.

We'll just throw you in the deep end.

So it can be very exhausting.

It can be very disorienting.

That's one of the reasons,

Too,

I find mindfulness and meditation to be such great practices,

Because it can help us to create a little bit more of a resilient internal space where we can be present with people who are stressed out and we can be mindful of,

Yeah,

I'm really also feeling a little bit of stress,

But it's not mine.

I'm feeling stressed because everyone around me is also stressed and anxious.

And even that awareness of what is the environment I'm in can help us create like a protective mechanism or protective orientation so that you don't absorb that environmental,

Emotional tone around you.

So,

You know,

The sooner that you just are aware of this and then can start to adjust or inquire or get curious about what it is that you need that will help you,

The better.

It's harder to recover from burnout the longer that we're in it.

And for everyone,

It's a little bit different.

You know,

You can have the same people in the same environment and one person gets really burned out and the other person doesn't because,

You know,

Maybe it's a very fast,

Chaotic environment and one person is drained by that and another person is energized by that.

And they love that.

I'm thinking about my auntie who was an ICU nurse for her entire career.

She's really good in hospital environments where things are a little bit chaotic and the stakes are very high.

That's her zone of genius.

She's really good.

But me,

I am overwhelmed by all of the sounds and the sights and the fast-moving things and all of the uncertainty.

So that is not my easeful place.

So the more that you know about yourself,

The better able you will be to work within any environment in a way that is a little bit better for you.

What have you experienced in your own world?

Have you had burnout a little bit or a lot?

What has helped you to recover from it?

You know,

Sometimes changing our work environment will help us release the burnout and restore ourselves.

But sometimes that's not what helps because sometimes the thing that generated the burnout was the fact that we're overworking,

Don't have boundaries,

Don't know to self-advocate and ask for things.

We have the mentality of feeling like I have to be the hero and save the day.

Everyone's depending on me.

And that mindset can recreate burnout in any environment.

So we do want to get curious about what is the particular composition that is creating burnout?

You know,

Like look at the data,

Look at look at what there is to learn from the experience.