The burnout trap
Just because we talk more about burnout it doesn’t mean that we are able to prevent it or remediate it in our organisations.
This is the frustration that we observe in many organisations investing in wellbeing programs but still facing rising negative health outcomes in their workforce.
Why? Perhaps, in the first place, the problem we are tackling is not well formulated. In many settings the solution for burnout is self-care, at least this is the primary core belief.
Of course self-care it positive and necessary but it is a individual solution to a work setting challenge. A bit like I have a problem with my parenting skills with my son but I am doing my part I go to the gym everyday.
At work we are part of a social context, we need to adapt to layers of demands, tensions, transformation, frustration and paradoxes. Individual adaptation is crucial but the context itself plays a major role in providing support in that adaptation.
Let’s get back to the definition of burnout: it is an occupational phenomenon and not a medical condition. Defined by the ICD-11 (International Classification of Diseases) “a syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”.
So the first belief to shatter is that it is not an individual disease or malfunction but the syndrome emerges in specific contexts that are humanly unsustainable and lack the needed support to nurture all individuals to adapt to it and create value through their work.
What shocks me the most about burnout solutions it how far are they from the work context itself.
The solution to foster our fit to perform the job can’t be solely found when we are not at work. So no matter how much self-care, meditation apps and exercise each of us is getting we still need to find better solutions at work, craft the work itself, the collaboration, the continuous negotiation of better work content and recognition.
So even the individual contribution for burnout prevention can’t be ignored, we need to engage in crafting better working conditions, but first of all we need to be in an organisation that enables this continuous negotiation, learning and adaptation to occur within.
So the big question remains, is the organisation learning and adapting or not? And if the organisation is flexible then the burnout problem becomes much more easy to solve, because we have not only individual solutions for it, but also team and organisational level solutions. And only then, we get our positive health outcomes.
So in this edition of our review we invite you to read some key actions organisations can do to tackle burnout at all levels in our blog post. We also suggest a great book by Paula Davis “ Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience” and finally invite you to listen to a TED Talk by Julia Rock “Why everyone loses when employees burn out”.
Lastly, self-care is very important but it just isn’t enough and as leaders we need to focus on the real and contextual solutions of burnout at work.
Do take part in this conversation by leaving a comment on our blog or replying to hello@bound.health
Managing Partner Bound.Health
