Workplace Burnout

May 30, 2019

Recently, a colleague shared an article with me that made them consider the importance of self-care and work-life balance. I’ll share it here in case you haven’t seen it:

From abc news: “Work-place burnout is now officially a recognized mental health concern: what you should know”

The article contains a few questions for visitors to ponder and assess their proximity to burnout.

Reading the article gave me some space to answer some very important questions for myself. The World Health Organization defines burnout as “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”

To me, thinking about burnout gets more pointed and complicated when considering our relationships to power, privilege, and oppression, and it also makes me think more critically about the “successfully managed” part of their definition of burnout and to what degree the burden of “management” of chronic workplace stress is equitably or inequitably shared.

On my best days when I am experiencing, or approaching experiencing feelings of burnout I am able to stop myself from internalizing those feelings as being solely because of some deficit I have personally, and am instead able to also name and implicate the systems that are designed to produce those chronically stressful conditions, because getting clear and staying clear on that helps me to direct my energy in ways that are restorative to my well-being as opposed to those that are destructive.

“When a flower doesn’t bloom, you fix the environment in which it grows, not the flower.”

On the days when I’m not able to do that as easily or at all, (because I’m not able to do that every day) I have really valued (and still do value) being able to reach out to people who care about me for support.

This is your daily reminder that you are not your productivity.

How do you manage feelings of burnout?

Ubuntu,

From Aspiring Humanitarian, Relando Thompkins-Jones

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Relando Thompkins-Jones

I'm a macro social worker, social justice educator, and consultant who uses media and education to advance equity and social justice within people, organizations, and communities. I am also the Founder, Host, Editor and Producer of Social Justice Origin Stories, a storytelling project that highlights the personal stories and defining moments that have inspired individuals and organizations to labor for equity and social justice. I started Social Justice Origin Stories because I believe in the power of storytelling and making our experiences accessible to others, because I believe in the liberatory effects of social justice education, to support justice-seekers in finding community and feeling less alone given the relentlessness of oppressive systems, and hopefully to be a resource of support and reflection for those who are thinking through how they could best contribute to the work. We need all who can, to do what they can.