Burnout Coaching for your organisation, leaders and individuals

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!

The World Economic Forum also has some data on the subject and has estimated the cost to the economy at $322 billion annually. This is an alarming number - too big to really comprehend - but even then it doesn’t tell us the full picture of what we lose as individuals and communities when we burn out. 

So yes burnout is not something we can ignore or just call another new fad. It is real and it is having a huge impact not only on the individuals who have burned out but also on their families, organisations and our economy.

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.

 

We hear the word burnout being used more and more lately but what exactly is burnout?

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently updated their definition, describing burnout in more detailed and serious terms than they had previously, as a “syndrome” with a concrete set of symptoms resulting from “chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. 

Burnout is an “occupational phenomenon,” tied directly to the unique stressors we experience at work and our relationship with our workplace; or how our work makes us feel.

 

The WHO lists three dimensions that characterise burnout:

  • Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion

  • Increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one’s job; and

  • reduced professional efficacy

In other words, burnout starts with fatigue, and then a lack of engagement in our job role, followed by reduced capacity for work.

What on earth can we do about burnout?

There are three approaches here: the organisational, leadership and individual approach. It’s important that we don’t make burnout the individual’s problem, it is more complex than that, individuals burn out only in the work context so the workplace has a central role in burnout.

At Glia we offer support in all three areas:

A burnout psychologist (A psychologist that specialises in burnout)

  • Organisational - Doing a psychological risk assessment. We look at the various risks that are present in the workplace and identify what risks are posing the most threat to your employees. Once we have identified those risks we can then make a plan as to how to manage them to keep your people safe

  • Leadership – We need to equip our leaders with the tools to understand psychological risks and how to manage those risks in the workplace. We do this through mental health leadership education and coaching. We also support leaders in how to manage a burnout employee (learn how to be a burnout recovery coach).

  • Individuals – Through coaching, a burnout psychologist can support individuals to put in place the right boundaries and habits that will protect them from workplace stressors. We also provide recovery support for those who unfortunately have already burned that candle at both ends, this includes a safe return to work plan. We have psychologists who are trained burnout recovery coaches that have experience in working with people on the burnout journey to recovery.

 

Have you got goals that you want to achieve?

If you’d like to find out more about our burnout psychologists, or would like to have a chat to a burnout recovery coach then please feel free to reach out, we want to hear from you and would love to help.