The World Health Organization generated headlines in 2019 announcing that it was officially designating burnout a “workplace hazard”. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you already knew that burnout has become a toxic occupational risk.
Top athletes know and cherish the benefits of recovery.
So why don't we allow ourselves the time needed to recover in the workplace? To sleep, to eat properly, to exercise etc?
How can we even expect to be on the top of our game without making time and space for renewal? Do we really believe that our energy and cognitive resources are just going to replenish themselves on a continuous basis?
What could/would happen if we prioritised brain maintenance as something that is as essential and as much part of our daily routine as showering and brushing our teeth?
This Forbes article demonstrates burnout is the ultimate consequence of relentlessly rising demand, complexity, change, and uncertainty. Even so, it’s easy to overlook the warning signs, or to find ways to rationalise and minimise them.
Do you notice that people in your organization frequently feel:
· Drained, depleted, exhausted, or empty?
· Frustrated, reactive, anxious, or overwhelmed?
· Distracted, scattered, spacey, or bored?
· Apathetic, uninspired, disengaged, or aimless?
By the time these symptoms are visible, employees and employers alike have already incurred costs that are far too high. What’s been lost in the downward spiral towards burnout is the most fundamental fuel for performance: energy. You can’t put a Band-Aid on something that isn’t there, and the road back from burnout to high performance is a long one.
The time for employers to actively intervene isn’t when their people have run out of energy, but rather when their energy begins to turn visibly negative and volatile. This is known physiologically as “fight or flight,” and you could also refer to it as “Survival Mode.” It’s the state all of us fall into reactively when we begin to feel overloaded, overwhelmed, threatened, or devalued.
In Survival Mode, our prefrontal cortex increasingly shuts down and the more primitive amygdala takes over. Our dominant emotions include frustration, impatience, irritability, anger, anxiety, defensiveness, and the impulse to assign blame. Internal signals include increased self-absorption, self-criticism, and impulsivity, trouble sleeping and relaxing, difficulty thinking clearly and creatively, and feeling like a victim.
As survival emotions become more pervasive on teams, or across companies, performance progressively suffers. So does the capacity for innovation and agility, both of which are critical in a time of disruption and continuous transformation.
Burnout is the ultimate consequence of too much time spent in Survival Mode. It’s when the system literally shuts down – physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually. At precisely the moment that organisations need more energy from their people, they get less.
The greater the performance demand, the greater the need for renewal
The solution is both surprisingly simple and remarkably elusive. Organisations and individuals alike must pay more deliberate and systematic attention to rest and renewal. The problem is that these behaviours get precious little respect in most companies.
“More, bigger, faster” has been the mantra of free market capitalism ever since the Industrial Revolution. Rest and renewal are the province of slackers. The need for time off and even for sufficient sleep are often viewed as signs of weakness. Instead, in the face of relentlessly increasing demand, our shared impulse is to double down on what’s worked for us in the past – to push harder, for longer, with less time off.
When you consider the power of intermittent renewal, it typically makes instant sense. It’s obvious, for example, that if you keep withdrawing money from a bank account, eventually you’ll go bankrupt. It’s the same reason that Formula 1 drivers pull into pit stops at regular intervals to have their vehicles refuelled and their tires changed. The greater the performance demand, the greater the need for renewal – even though we’re inclined to do just the opposite.
This knowing-doing gap can lead to a range of bewildering contradictions.
When it comes to making changes, the most vexing invisible barrier is the power of mindset. Most of us are deeply disinclined to challenge what we believe has made us successful, even when these behaviours begin to feel dysfunctional. This is even more true when the collective mindset – the organisational culture – supports and reinforces our current assumptions.
Burnout will only get worse so long as organisations fail to challenge the “more, bigger, faster is better” mindset. This must begin with senior leaders who have the courage to become “Chief Energy Officers,” and to serve as role models of and advocates for a more balanced relationship between spending and renewing energy. The reward, seen consistently, is not just better health and well-being, but also more sustainable high performance.
Want to manage personal burnout? Or allow for renewal in your organisation? Send me an email at michelle@bakjacconsulting.com to enquire about coaching and training and holistic opportunities to develop strategies.
Michelle Bakjac is an experienced Psychologist, Organisational Consultant, Coach, Speaker and Facilitator. As Director of Bakjac Consulting, she is a credentialed Coach with the International Coach Federation (ICF) and a member of Mental Toughness Partners and an MTQ48 accredited Mental Toughness practitioner. Michelle assists individuals and organisations to develop their Mental Toughness to improve performance, leadership, behaviour and wellbeing. You can find her at www.bakjacconsulting.com or michelle@bakjacconsulting.com
