The 12 signs you don't want to ignore in you or your teams.
Burnout is at risk of becoming an epidemic in the charity sector, with more and more pressure on charities to deliver results, mop up after underfunded public services, but with less and less resource, it can feel like burnout is inevitable. But despite this many people tell me that they didn’t realise they were on the path to burnout, the trouble is that many of the telltale signs have become normalised as just part of the job.
What is burnout?
Burnout is described by the World Health Organisation as “a syndrome resulting from chronic, unmanaged workplace stress, characterised by three main dimensions: a feeling of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance from one's job or feelings of negativism/cynicism related to the job, and reduced professional efficacy”.
But what causes it? If we look at the job demands-resources model, we can see that stress, and burnout result when the demands of our roles outweigh the resources available to us. When we’re thinking about the demands and resources, we’re not just thinking about practical or physical demands & resources (like time, money, number of staff), we’re thinking about the emotional and psychological resources and demands (our skills, knowledge, training, resilience, emotional capacity, energy) as well. This is particularly important when we consider burnout in the context of the charity sector (or helping professions) where there can be a lot of emotional labour resulting in the potential for us to experience, compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma too.
It’s also important to mention that we all have a different threshold for stress, which relates to a variety of factors, what I find stressful, may not be the same as what you find stressful. Whether we find something stressful or not is the result of our personal assessment of how challenging a task or situation is going to be, and whether we believe we have the ability to manage that stress. So as leaders it’s important we don’t assume that someone can handle something just because we or their colleagues can.
What it’s not.
Burnout is not a personal failing or not being ‘resilient enough’. There is a pervasive belief across the sector that you should just keep your head down, and keep on going, that if you really care, you’ll be able to handle it.
This is nonsense, there is only so much any one person can do, and to be able to successfully manage a stressful, demanding role, there must be time for rest & recovery. Resilience means that we can bounce back after a stressful event, not work through chronic stress.
What to look out for.
Here are the key signs to look out for in yourself and your teams
Feeling like you have nothing left to give
Feeling frustrated when someone asks for a ‘quick word’
Trouble sleeping (either getting to sleep, or disturbed sleep)
Using TV, food, alcohol etc to distract yourself from thoughts and feelings
Disengagement from the work and feeling like you're going through the motions
A loss of motivation
Not believing things can change or will get better
Feeling like you can’t care anymore
Feeling like you’re not getting anything done, or achieving anything
Feeling like if you were resilient enough, you could cope with anything
Feeling like the things which were easy are now difficult
Feeling guilty that you’re letting people down
If you’re noticing these signs in yourself or a team member, it might be time to act.
It’s important to remember that prevention is better than cure, once you’re close to burn out it’s going to take a lot more to stop it and turn it around. The most effective way to prevent burnout is to take a combined approach, by developing an organisational culture that actively works to promote wellbeing and supporting staff to develop their personal resources. By using evidenced-based psychological tools and techniques you can stop burnout becoming an inevitability for you and your charity. If you interested in finding out more, feel free to get in touch.