Dealing with Burnout

On Friday 21 October, I hosted my first 'Ask Michelle Anything' and was humbled by the number of questions I received as well as the registrations to attend. It is a free session designed to be responsive to the questions we have about the challenges of our working lives.

One of the key themes that was asked in various ways was how to deal with burnout in this post covid time.

The key principle we discussed is that self care should always be a priority.

It needs to be a proactive focus at a team and individual level, not just when an individual is getting burnt out. Self-care should also not just be a priority because of covid.

For about 20 years now, I've been very focused on what creates personal and professional sustainability in our workforce.

It is critical that we focus on supporting and protecting our wellbeing from the mental and emotional wear and tear.

If we worked on a construction site we'd be given a lot of education about how to protect our bodies, how to keep ourselves physically safe from the work that we do.

In a similar way, I think that we're really lagging behind in how to make sure that we have rigorous protocols and procedures, structures and supports about how we develop the skills that help us protect our emotional and mental wellbeing from the wear and care of the work that we do.

One way to begin doing this is to set up some education sessions, which could be 15 minutes in a team meeting.

I would love it if you have a whole day on resilience and well being or have a 1 hour talk. But it's not just about doing those big things.

It's about doing small things on a regular basis. It's vital that we educate everyone about the importance of self care. We need to build a culture that gives permission to care for ourselves, where we can set boundaries and we encourage people to do the basic things like taking lunch breaks, stepping outside for some fresh air a few times during the day and leaving on time as much as possible.

Further insight

Click the buttons below to read my blog: The power of self-leadership and learn more about my book Leading Above the Line.