Avoid Workplace Burnout!
It’s been a looong pandemic for mental health workers! With the added stress of Covid-19, demand for our services has been higher than ever. I know my schedule has been overflowing, and I’m hearing the same from fellow therapists. In addition to having a full practice, I have also been using a lot of my “spare time” to write, edit, and publish a book!
While it’s good to be busy, carrying a full load over the course of months can also be taxing and stressful. If we aren’t careful, we can “burn out,” and burnout, if not treated, can become depression, anxiety and distraction.
So what is burnout? The World Health Organization defines workplace burnout as “a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.”
The WHO also describes three three symptoms:
Feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion
Feelings of distance or negativity feelings toward one’s career
Reduced professional activity.
So… if burnout is essentially chronic stress that has been mismanaged, then how can we prevent it?
One way is to better manage our stress by dealing with stress as it happens and not letting it build up. We know that stress is largely a physical response. When faced with a stressor, our bodies produce cortisol, epinephrine and norepinephrine. You’ve probably read articles that talk about techniques like meditation, deep breathing, exercise and gratitude journals. Each of these things can help because they help lower the amounts of these “stress chemicals” in your bloodstream, and elevate other “feel-good chemicals” like endorphins. In this way, you are helping your body recover from it’s “fight-or-flight” response, when you’re not in a situation where you can really fight or flee!
Though I’ll note that, personally, I’ve recently taken up kick-boxing -- which allows me to release some of these chemicals, and it’s been great for me! I like to do something chill in the morning, like yoga, to be in a calm, relaxed state before I see clients, and I save the kick-boxing for the evenings to release stress that has accumulated over the day!
Another way to prevent burnout, as noted in this very interesting article in The Atlantic a few weeks ago, is to decrease the amount of stress in the workplace to begin with!
In the article, Christina Maslach, a psychology professor and burnout researcher, cites six workplace stressors that can lead to burnout. These are:
Too great a workload: Having too much to do, and not enough time or resources to get it done.
Lack of autonomy or control: Feeling like your actions don’t affect results,
Lack of recognition or reward for work: Feeling like no matter how hard you try, it won’t really change anything, for you or others.
Bad workplace culture: Instead of feeling supported by your workplace community, you feel like Lindsay Lohan’s character in Mean Girls.
Unfair policies and practices: Having a boss who plays favorites or a company that illegally penalizes you for taking sick days.
Work that lacks meaning: When your work doesn’t have a purpose that aligns with your values. -- As the article eloquently states, “It’s one thing to spend 60 hours a week working to free an innocent person from prison; it’s quite another to spend them trying to collect someone’s medical debt.”
Something that the article brought up, is that maybe the onus shouldn’t rest solely on employees to “deal” with their stress -- that employers also have a responsibility to step up, perhaps by better managing workload and workplace culture, giving employees more control about how they handle demands, and providing support.
If you are a therapist in private practice, who is the employer? Oh, right, YOU ARE! To keep your best employee (also you!) healthy and in good working order, it’s your responsibility to be a good boss to yourself by keeping demands within reason. Talk to other therapists about their best practices for drawing boundaries, and seek out or hire support when it’s needed.
A short vacation, even a day trip to your local beach, can help stave off burnout.
All of this is easier said than done. The other day, some good friends – who are also therapists –brought it to my attention that I’ve been working extra client hours for months on end. I realized I’d let my billing stack up to the height of a small (digital) building!
If I were managing an employee, would I treat them the way I’ve been treating myself? I wouldn’t! I would tell my valued employee to take a vacation, and arrange to delegate their caseload while they were gone. So that’s what I did! I’m very excited that I now have some vacation weeks scheduled on my calendar, and new protocols in place for when I return.
I encourage you to do the same -- to avoid burnout, be a good boss as well as a good employee!
To learn more about recognizing and preventing burnout at every level of your career, check out my book, GetReal, GetGOING: The Definitive Roadmap to Starting the Private Practice of Your Dreams.
