Collective Action Magazine Edition 1. August 2022

On Wednesday the 23rd of June 2022, masks were officially dropped. Chatting to friends and colleagues I was interested to hear how vulnerable and ‘weird’ people felt without them and how much of an adjustment it was going to be. Others commented that adjusting to ‘normal’ again would be challenging and that they were feeling burnt out and exhausted. What does normal look like? I don’t even like going out anymore,” one colleague said. I immediately wondered if they were struggling with burnout or if this was in fact burn-in, a concept described by Professor Grobbler at the University of Pretoria during Lockdown (1). Burnout vs Burn-in. What is the difference and how is it impacting the people we work with? by Kim Ballantine COO of Camber Coaching and Industrial Psychologist Burnout is a term many who work in helping professions are aware of. It almost comes with the territory as some wear it as a ‘badge’ indicating how committed they are to bringing about change, while others feel ashamed and refuse to acknowledge it’s impact. As a psychologist and coach, living with a specialist physician working with Covid- 19 patients, I know how easily burnout happens and how intentional you must be to change its trajectory, or risk ending up in a cycle of perpetual burnout. WHAT IS BURN OUT?

HOW DO YOU DEAL WITH BURN OUT?

INDENTIFYING THE ROOT CAUSE Dealing with burnout, we recommend a few steps, but also acknowledge that seeing a doctor, a coach or psychologist may be essential in overcoming severe burnout. Firstly, take a step back and try to identify the root cause of the problem.

Using the 5 Why’s technique helped me identify the root cause of my own burnout. It looked something like this.

Why have I ended up burnt out?

Why don’t you say no?

I put other people’s needs before my own.

I’ve overworked myself

Why do you put others’ needs before your own?

Why have I overworked myself?

The need is so great, people are hurting, and I struggle to say no.

Lack of boundaries, especially working online and from home.

HOW DO WE DEAL WITH BURNOUT?

Burnout occurs when there is prolonged or chronic stress and where stress has not been effectively managed. It is characterised by; feelings of energy depletion and exhaustion, a sense of disengagement from work and those around you, cynicism and negativity. A drop in efficacy and productivity and a sense of helplessness and possible depression (2)

FINALLY...

Having identified that I struggled with a lack of boundaries, I could then action this, set specific work hours, hold myself accountable to someone else, and give myself permission to apply my own self-care. Root cause analyses helped me identify that I was fuelling my own burnout in my desire to help others and I had to learn to refer more often, say no and not feel I had to take on every client or project.

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