Recap of Beating Burnout: A Stress Prevention Workshop
The temperature gauge in my car dropped from 19° to 10°F as I made my way from downtown Minneapolis to Eat Street for Beating Burnout: A Stress Prevention Workshop led by Lindsey Mackereth, MA, LPCC, LADC at Zeus Jones.
The event warmed me up from the inside out, reminding me the importance of self-advocacy and self-care and leaving me with tangible tips for preventing burnout.
What Is Burnout?
What is burnout, why do so many of us have it, and why aren’t organizations doing more to prevent it? Burnout is defined as “a state of holistic exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress.” And what is stress? According to Lindsey (and lots of research), stress can actually be a good thing.
Stress is our body’s response to perceived demands or threats. We used to be threatened by bears and wolves, and our bodies reacted with the fight or flight response. “Nowadays, our threat isn’t physical,” says Lindsey. “It’s judgement. It’s ‘what if I’m not good enough?’”
These thoughts don’t require the fight-or-flight response, but that doesn’t keep it from kicking in. As a result, we feel stressed out! A “healthy” amount of stress keeps us alert, motivated, and creative. Too little results in boredom and loss of interest. But too much pressure can make us anxious, irritable, and eventually burn us out. Lindsey compares the effect to a teapot heating up.
Stress is a teapot of water boiling over fire; bubbling, full, and loud. Burnout is an empty teapot over fire. It’s heating up, but nothing’s happening.
“We need what you have to give & you can’t give anything if you’re empty.”
What Causes Burnout?
None of us were born perfect. We all have a smattering of personality and lifestyle factors that impact how we move throughout the world and how stress affects us. According to Lindsey, personality factors like perfectionism, pessimism, and a high need for control (or reluctancy to delegate) may cause additional stress in our lives.
Additionally, if we lack work/life balance, supportive relationships, or the ability to prioritize our mental and physical health, we’re at risk for being more stressed out. Prolonged stress leads to burnout, so we’ve got to stop it in its tracks.
How to Prevent Burnout at Work
The first step toward preventing burnout is gaining awareness of its symptoms. If you’re tired all the time, uninterested in your work, withdrawing from others (the list goes on), it’s time to start practicing a little more self-care and compassion. When it comes to preventing burnout in the workplace, here are five of Lindsey’s top tips:
Prioritize your tasks (thanks, project managers!)
Be more social with your coworkers outside of work
Take time off. All of it. And don’t feel bad about it.
Take regularly scheduled breaks throughout the day.
Find value in your work!
Practice Self-Compassion
To take your self-care practice up a notch, Lindsey also provided a couple useful practices to use throughout the day to help settle your stress:
Neutralize negative thinking. Instead of jumping to, “Today is going to be such a long/hard/stressful day,” try, “Today is going to be a day. Today is going to be a work day.” Talk like a four-year-old. They rarely have bad days.
Take a self-compassion break. When you find yourself stressed out, name it (“I arrived late to work. I feel rushed.”) Then, find common humanity (“Other people arrive late to work sometimes, too.”) Lastly, ask yourself for forgiveness (or confidence, or grace, or acceptance, or whatever the hell else you need) in the form of a ‘May’ question (e.g., '“May I forgive myself for this?”)
You’re Good Enough (Seriously)
This event was a welcome discussion about the realities of biting off more than we can chew. We all do it, so we have to learn to recognize it and then remedy it.
You can do anything, but you can’t do everything. “Yes” people are flammable people. They’re the most susceptible to burnout. If you’re a “yes” person—if you struggle saying “no,” advocating for yourself, or setting boundaries—try some of the practices above. Or, reach out to Lindsey or another licensed mental health professional to discuss your symptoms and create plan to beat burnout.