“Do what you love, and you’ll never work a day in your life,” or so the old saying goes.
Anyone who runs their own business, or whose art is also their work, will tell you that if you do what you love, you will work every hour that God gives and then try to squeeze in a few more.
It is easy to assume that if you enjoy your work, you will be safe from burnout. But in fact, paradoxically, burn-out is associated with purpose-driven work. Teachers, physicians, nurses, first-responders and leaders are all in higher risk groups. A Canadian study conducted by Mental Health Research Canada reported a whopping 66% of nurses experiencing feelings of burn-out.
Perhaps the most high-profile example of the irony inherent in this situation is that of Professor Laurie Santos, who runs Yale’s popular ‘happiness’ course “Psychology and the Good Life,” and The Happiness Lab podcast. Santos, the ‘happiness professor’, has recently taken a year-long leave of absence from her role to address her own feelings of burnout.
Other factors may be at play here - (first responders and nurses often work 12 hour+ shifts), but caring deeply about one’s work can lead us to underestimate our risk of burnout and also exacerbate other risk factors such as taking work home with us ‘always being on’ and being more inclined to work overtime.
According to research by Dr. Jarrod Haar, working more than 55+ hours per week is associated with a 580% higher risk of burnout. Read that again. A five hundred and eighty per cent higher risk ! .
Overdoing something you care deeply about can come with an enormous sting in the tail. If you are a sports fan or gym-goer consider the concept of over-training. Even world-class athletes incorporate rest days and de-load periods into their training in order to reach peak performance without injury.
When your heart says you are happy to work on but your brain and body need down-time.
How can you avoid burnout when you love what you do?
Keep in mind the symptoms of burnout. Among them are cycnicism, apathy, psychologically distancing yourself from work, emotional exhaustion and cognitive decline.
Remembering these symptoms will not only alert you when you reach the danger-zone but might also serve as encouragement to avoid burnout! If you believe that what you do really matters, then your motivation to avoid apathy and performance decline is probably high.
Starting to feel like this cow? You might be at risk of burnout.
Schedule in breaks including breaks in the day, breaks in intensive tasks, and vacation time. During these times, make sure that you ‘unplug’ so that you can truly rest.
Make your work more playful. The research here on adults is limited; but more and more we are seeing researchers and business influencers expound on the merits of play. In children, the benefits are clear – play improves cognitive performance and develops social skills and neural connections.
In adults, play seems to be associated with ‘flow,’ that wonderful state of being truly captivated by what you do. Play at work can help to develop team behaviour and create a sense of fun and empathy with our co-workers.
Note that play is self-chosen and linked with autonomy; and one of the barriers to burnout is autonomy at work. Therefore play can help make our work feel more autonomous.
Focus less on finding a career that gives you purpose and more on day-to-day tasks that you enjoy. Finding your ‘life’s purpose’ or ‘calling’ (if such a thing really exists) in a job is a big ask and one that will set you up to feel continually pressured. Switching your attention to task-based purpose opens up many more opportunities.
Marcus Buckingham, Head of Research and Performance at ADP Research Institute says that if you believe deeply in what you do, but your day to day activities break you down – then you are on track to eventually lose your passion and head towards burn-out.
A better solution is to find joy in the small tasks that give you energy and do more of those, intentionally.
How can leaders prevent burnout in their teams?
Recognise that while engaged, passionate employees are every leader’s dream; they are also at high risk of burnout and consequent performance decline. You cannot rely on a passionate, highly engaged employee to schedule in their own breaks. You might need to force them to take breaks; or to ensure that their job design is set up for burnout prevention.
Artist Credit: Hannah Hillam, possibly my favourite comic artist. Follow her work.
If anyone on your team is beginning to look like this, bring them a reduced work schedule, not another coffee.
Give your team autonomy. Let them identify their ‘red threads’ (Marcus Buckingham’s term for energy-creating tasks) and incorporate more red threads into their job role. Buckingham recommends that at least 20% of our job role should be made up of flow tasks (tasks that give us energy) per day.
Have fun at work. An excellent idea I saw recently in a Simon Sinek lecture is to hire an artist to interrupt a Zoom call. Google has Lego and ball pits. How can you make your workplace more playful? Check out our upcoming workshop on how to incorporate fun and flow into work.
Model burnout prevention behaviour. If you are a leader, people will follow your lead. Do you take lunch? Go for a walk to clear your head during the day? Know when to say ‘enough is enough’ and request a deadline extension, or push-back against unreasonable demands? Do you switch your phone off when you’re at home or on holiday, or are you always available? Remember, you are modelling behaviour for your team.
Artist credit: Speed Bump by Dave Coverly
Your people are not sheep - get to know them; what makes them tick, what motivates them, what are their risk factors?
Be aware of the at-risk groups and get to know your team so you know who is at risk and how you can prevent risk for these people. According to Jarrod Haar’s research, Māori workers had close to a 600% higher risk level. Caregivers, and those who work from home (and therefore are ‘tethered’ to their work) are also at higher risk.
Look after your people and don’t take advantage of them. Many industries are severely short-staffed as ‘the Great Resignation,’ reduced travel/immigration and vaccine mandates post-Covid hit hiring hard. Maybe yours is one of those industries and you are wondering how on earth you will meet your output targets with a reduced team-size. A temporary ‘solution’ might be to ask your remaining staff to work extra hours to cover the gap. This is a recipe for disaster. Eventually they will quit or burn-out. Find another solution.
Want to learn more?
Burnout prevention is our jam. We regularly offer public virtual workshops on this topic throughout the year. Contact us to arrange for these to be delivered in-house and tweaked for your organisation needs.
Mental Fitness – Strategies to keep your brain happy and healthy, including resilience and burnout prevention. Our next virtual workshop is coming up soon - 14th April at 09:00. Learn more and register here
The F Word: Fun, Play and Flow – Find out how to increase your Fun factor at work (and avoid burnout). Next virtual workshop 25 August 12:00 -13:30. Register here
Advanced Mental Health for Leaders – Are you a Leader concerned about your teams’ risk of burnout? Curious about how job design can aid burnout prevention? Want to improve your mental health first aid knowledge and avoid risk and comply with ISO45003? This is the course for you. Next session 1 June 0900 - 16:00. Register here
Blog by Ngaire Wallace - email ngaire@theeffect.co.nz to suggest a future topic.