Let's get ready for some serious shift. This is a podcast shifting inside out hosted by your quantum shifter Angela McCourt, we're diving into ways to empower and enable a quantum shift. Inspiring topics hacks and guest speakers take us on a journey around authenticity, challenging status quo, personal power and living a purpose filled life. In this episode, I am going to tackle burnout. The reason I want to really hit on this, as you know, you're starting to hear it thrown around a lot. But honestly, I think burnout can be taken in many different ways. And being able to get to the root cause of it is really how we're going to be able to come up with solutions. And this goes for life, but enough really focused today, on the workplace and on our jobs. And I really wanted to emphasize how burnout can be dangerous. Since we are energy and we use our energy, it is important to manage our energy use. But there are also other things that contribute. So protecting our energy from draining negativity is one way to manage it. awareness of the types of habits that drain our energy can allow us to make a shift to protect it as well. But the ultimate state of pushing through every day, expending more energy than we have is and what can lead to burnout. And this is one way that we are more familiar with. So this is kind of become the more common. And the cycles of burnout for each of us are spinning faster and faster without as much time to recoup and between cycles. I've actually been saying this for the past few years. But this is something that I would say now because of lack of delineations. And work and personal boundaries has also caused this cycle to feel much faster and faster. So what is burnout? It's interesting because when you ask the about the reasons of why we are burnt out, the first thing that comes to our mind might be too much work. However, it is only a small part of the whole story. And too much work may make you feel tired or exhausted. But that doesn't necessarily lead to burnout, blurred work on boundaries, increased workloads and frequent video conferences. More and more people are reporting symptoms of burnout. So today, when people describe themselves or others as experiencing burnout, they mostly refer to the symptoms of the extreme physical and mental fatigue, as well as feelings of emotional exhaustion and depletion. I've also seen and felt those everyday habits that can drain our energy, especially in the workplace. So taking things personally, making assumptions, setting unrealistic goals, having unclear job roles and goals overstressing and being surrounded by drama, negative thinking, overthinking, gossiping, multitasking, always checking email, always checking your phone, and then trying to please others. These are all things that I've seen and felt habit wise, that can drain our energy. So now that I have disassociated myself from the crazy, I call it, I realize how much of my drive came from thinking I needed to prove myself. And that can be fine. But I think it's important to balance the need to prove ourselves with achieving goals. So going back, I realized that when things were crazy busy, it was more because my expectations were to overachieve not just achieve my goals and to build and create the best versus just getting something launched set up or kicked off. This was my mantra then, when I was disappointed by how little all of that work and results really meant to the greater organization or two leaders, it led me to burnout. There is a point when the physical and emotional exhaustion lead to deeper psychological burnout. That's what we're not talking about today. And that's when it can get dangerous. I went through cycles and always was able to find my way out. Looking forward to vacations I would say you know, basically plan time at least on a quarterly basis because we do our lives in the sky. of our companies typically, but also based on a completion of a project or a special assignment, it was almost like the light at the end of the tunnel gave me this motivation to just push through until I could get to that point of either either relief or having fun or completion. And the thing is that I don't even think my first case of burnout was until maybe my mid 30s. And nowadays, early in career colleagues are feeling burned out. Part of that is the workstyle, and increased workload and not having as much fun in off hours. So, you know, COVID has definitely impacted a lot of different things. But their own desire to get to the next level at a faster rate to achieve their goals is also another reason they're pushing themselves harder. And that old work hard play hard catchphrase I used to live by is something that it is it is all about the balance, but it's not about pushing yourself even harder. And the other piece to that I've seen is their job roles are not as fulfilling and clear as they had hoped, when they started in their careers. There is a fear of if the business is down, I'll be the first one cut because I haven't been here very long. And then the other part too, is that they haven't had a chance yet to build resilience. And for those of us decades into a career with resilience, yep, we're impacted as well. And by some of the same issues, especially with consolidation, acquisition and mergers going on, especially with businesses being down, or even going out of business, happening all over many industries. So, you know, I kind of wanted to take a step back and look at this from a perspective of what's no longer working. What is that, you know, light at the end of the tunnel that's burnt out as well. And I would say that, you know, taking a break, can no longer solve the problems taking a vacation, but on its own can no longer solve the problems. And it's because the deeper structure of our work role and job characteristics are the lingering problems that cannot be resolved by simply taking some time off from work, things are changing at a fast pace in the workplace. And the structure around that is not keeping up there still old ways of doing things are still old expectations from leadership. And none of that has evolved with how the job or the work or the offering or the services have evolved. And so this is what I really want to spend a little bit of time on. Because this is where we get to the causes of burnout, not that it's just too much work, or it's too many hours. But there are some other key things that I think if we can address and individually address them with our leadership teams, but also as a leader, like take ownership, and really start to look at this within your own teams within your own organizations to see how can you tackle them, because some of them honestly, are pretty damn easy to tackle. So the first one I want to chat on is our desire to achieve our goal. So this is this is one that I already you know, kind of get my own personal story on. But what's interesting is, it feels as though there is this Quantum Leap of wanting to achieve our goals at a faster rate. And you know, striving for achievement is a good thing. But a household phrase for us is too much of anything can't be good for you. And this is what my husband and kids and I say all the time, setting unrealistic expectations, goals and timelines is just something that we can change. If achievement is driving or motivating us with the underlying need to prove ourselves or please people, it's not healthy. So dig in deep, and switch that storyline you're telling yourself because there is an opportunity to make that shift happen. It's important to balance our need to prove ourselves with that of achieving goals with that of the timeline, or expectations that we put on ourselves for achieving those goals. So the next one I want to talk about is the myth about productivity. working more hours does not mean you are productive. working late at night early in the morning does not mean you will be successful or more successful. So somehow there was this expectation that more than likely came from the box that started pushing us to extend our workday and work twice as hard for the same pay reference on the box. So I I talk about this in my book. But it is basically kind of the set of conformity and expectations that a company uses to help keep its colleagues and employees predictable in line and in flow with the standards of the rest of the box, which is the rest of the people. You know, it's interesting, because this is something that we need to change on the note of productivity. It's become almost a fear based tool leveraged by the box people to push us for more. And to get more out of us. Is it the right thing to do? Heck, no. This is what causes burnout. They're totally missing the point as well, because you know, it's time to do a check on how work is being done. There's so much out there with automation, with increased skills and upskilling that many companies are actually doing. And then with software tools that are available, we can become actually more productive. So why are we doing double the tasks with the same old methods? Why are we double checking each other's work? And why do we need to repeat meetings, when a solution was already identified, we have taken productivity and changed it to being busy. That's the way I look at it. It's not efficient with more output and less time, it's more time spent to get work done. That's not productive. It's time to totally reframe expectations around productivity and challenge the status quo. That includes questioning industry standards, because they're holding us back as well. And honestly, it's everyone's opportunity to redefine how the work gets done. And even taking it as far to say what work actually gets done. Because there's some stuff that's still part of everybody's cultural process, and their operational processes that honestly probably aren't effective, or don't impact anything, and aren't necessary. Cutting out some of that can actually increase productivity as well. Alright, so the next thing I want to talk about is taking on way too much in our day to day activities. And I'm really looking at this from only the task kind of perspective, because I think this is really where there's a big opportunity there. It's not about just taking on additional projects and stuff like that, I want to really get into the tactical here, because this is where I think there's a big opportunity, each individual has to be able to make some changes for themselves. If you think about it, it's hard to not check email every 10 minutes. Or to want to clear out all emails by the end of the day, and not just the end of the workday, the end of the day by midnight, right? You know, if you think about it, and you double check on yourself right now is how often are you actually checking your email, and that includes your phone, not just your laptop or your desktop. So you know, when you think about finding ways to add a bit more discipline to your day, you can look at things like setting very clear expectations about deadlines. So where you might treat everything urgently that your manager asks you to do go back and say, you know, when does this actually have to be done and get clarity on deadlines? And then you know, the other thing that I've seen a lot of is a lot of companies are transitioning is SLA is of that the current team can support. So the current team, not when the SLA was established, and then the team was cut by two thirds. How many of you are dealing with that right now, because this is a big issue that's been happening over the past few years, especially with acquisition, merger, and consolidation, as well as with remote working, where physically people can't see how stressed out team members might be and what how much workload they've increased. But also the fact that a lot of companies have had to cut costs. So if there are three people supporting something that used to be 10, it's time to change the SLA or increase the team again or find automation. There's there's an unrealistic expectation to keep that same SLA and that same commitment to the customer and then burn the team out. That doesn't make sense, that's not sustainable, and you're going to end up causing yourself to lose business. Because you're going to turn over the rest of that team. It's going to take your time to ramp up you're going to break relationships, and that breakage of that three person team and I'm being sarcastic and the three person team take the number on at, you know, take it to however many people you're working with. But honestly, what happens when you have a gap in that three person team is you're not meeting the SLA at all anyway, so there's no possible physical way for those other two people to do it. So why keep committing to it. The biggest thing there is to try not to be the everything is urgent, and I'm going to be the hero person anymore, because it's not worth it. Really look at your day to day activities, cut out the stuff that's not necessary, redefine expectations on deadlines, and SLA s and really look at you know, what are some of the things that you could actually stop doing, just stop doing, and present those to your to your leadership team, your management team. Alright, so the next one that really can impact burnout is the lack of role clarity in the job. And you know, back to, you know, two thirds of a team has been let go, or costs have been cut, and new people haven't been hired. And this team is absolutely strained. What can happen is other teams end up taking on some of their work, or they start taking on even other team work. And this gets really, really frustrating for the employee. And so role clarity, and we're going to define it here refers to basically whether or not your role at work is clear and without conflicts. While you may have started out with a very specific role, a very specific responsibility may have gotten very blurred over time. And those who have low role clarity, are also given ambiguous goals, their requirements at work, and then they receive no clear instructions on how to complete the tasks at hand, there are a lot of kind of follow through problems that happen with role clarity issues, sometimes the requirements from different people may even clash with each other. And this is where the conflict can happen. And I've seen this before. And honestly, like people just don't end up trusting each other working together. So it's really important, I think that everybody just takes a step back and says, What is my role, and or explain to me what the expectations of my role are, and tie it to an outcome tied to what you're supposed to actually be delivering. Because then that helps you from kind of the inner motivation perspective, be able to find your value and see your value every single day. And what you're doing is if you're very clear on what you're contributing, and what the outcomes are, that you're contributing to your customers and to the business, the next one is lack of support, and or resources. So I kind of put both of these in here. And then the other big one here, I would say is, is any kind of barriers that constrain you from being able to do your job. But I know a lot of people are feeling this, especially right now, back to cost cutting back to lack of clarity of roles, is there a lot of Blurred Lines out there. And this makes it hard for employees to actually perform their jobs. And then the lack of other supports can make the job feel dreadful and hopeless. So if you feel like you're just not getting support from your management or from the company, right, so you can group this, this overall company as an entity, you're going to really feel hopeless, it's actually exhausting. And these work environments will only produce unengaged, unhappy and unsatisfied employees. And the employees are more prone to burnout when heavy workloads are thrown at them at the same time. So if there is this, you know, already scarcity of resources, barriers that the employees are not enabled or empowered to solve for, and they're not getting the supportive leadership or the entity, the company to solve for them, then they're definitely going to have a higher prone to going into burnout. Alright, so the lack of intrinsic motivation. So this is your motivation from within, happens when any and all of these are missing from a job or a work environment. That includes, you know, I would say, around competence, like actually letting individuals have confidence in their capabilities, and not constantly trying to upskill and increase and say, Okay, that was great, but, like, actually let them savor the fact that they're very competent at what they're doing. The other thing that helps from an intrinsic motivation perspective is to make people feel that their jobs are purposeful and meaningful. And this is where I would mentioned before about tying to the outcome tying that value that you do every single day, or that your team members do every single day, to what they're actually delivering in that contribution. Even if it's early on in the process, it still leads to the ultimate outcome, the ultimate outcome could be servicing an inside customer or an outside customer, it could be creating internal marketing or external marketing, you know, whoever the customer is, or whoever the outcome is servicing, that is ultimately what that person needs to kind of see the line of sight all the way through. And the next thing is really, you know, giving them control over how they complete tasks. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people get trained by a previous person who had that job for a long time, and they did it a certain way. And then they've now continued to do it that way. And then when you know, they take a step back, and they say, wait a minute, I can do this better, why am I doing it this way, that they actually can really either improve the output, the outcome, the productivity, or just the amount of work they're able to push through, because they're doing it in a more effective way. But you have to give them control over how they complete their tasks, you have to allow them to be autonomous, and just give them the support that they need and the trust that they will basically accomplish the outcome, which is the only direction that we really need to focus on giving nowadays, let people see their impacts on the strategy administration, the results of their work, because this is a really big part of what keeps people motivated, when they feel that they're connected to that strategy, when they feel that they're connected back to what the company stands for. That is what helps to give people intrinsic motivation. But when they don't have intrinsic motivation, so that motivation from within what drives them, which I think my entire career was around intrinsic motivation. And in whatever various ways that I was able to, to leverage this. But when I felt connected to something, I felt that motivation when I felt disconnected is when I went to burnout. So there's there's definitely a bunch of different focus areas and kind of these core root causes that I think we can focus on these fix are just the beginning. But it's to get you thinking around what is really causing burnout. When you think about the impacts burnout can have, it leads to stress to get more done, which can impact our mental health and lead to burnout. Our burnout also impacts our personality, our authenticity, and our relationships. So when we're running on fumes, we have less patience and ability to make decisions. And we basically plan our time more poorly. Like we just aren't able to stay as focused and organized. When we're micromanaged. This can cause burnout. always see why a thing, checking things way too many times for errors, not trusting others and feeling like you're not trusted can definitely cause burnout. I think one thing that I've seen in my own self is when I am in that burnout mode, I distanced myself emotionally and cognitively from, you know, not only the work itself, but the people that I would work with, this was a pretty consistent pattern that I found. And what I used to call it was, oh, I was just going into robot mode. And really, that's what it is, right? It's lacking the emotional and the cognitive ability. But this is something that's a big impact. And I don't think others companies, leaders have realized how much burnout can actually cause this to happen. What that leads to then is really more interpersonal conflicts that work. And then also, you know, we can have a diminished self efficacy. So looking at personal competency and productivity, and then having a low self evaluation. There are a lot of other impacts back to that psychological burnout. That can happen as well. When I talk about and make the very strong statement that burnout can be dangerous. Obviously, I've already kind of mentioned a few things. But I want to talk about the health impacts of burnout. People who experience chronic burnout, and this is where that cycle has sped up and it's over and over and over again, that there's a burnout happening. And nothing in the environment is changing nothing in the habits are changing, it is just the same kind of thing over and over, they have a 26 to 35% higher risk of early mortality, that is mortality under the age of 45 years old. The other health impact is like three times more likely to have increased the risk of experiencing future depression and coronary heart disease. The other is when you think about the physical health, and the monitoring and what your body's doing, and can't do when you're in burnout mode. So you have an increased risk of developing type two diabetes by 200%. So I wanted to state a just a few of the health impacts, because this is where burnout can get dangerous. And it's not just about I can recover, I will get out of this, there's light at the end of the tunnel anymore, there are actual changes that we need to make, and not just within ourselves, but in our work environment. So that we can reduce the health risks, and the increased risk of burnout. Alright, so you're saying I got it. And I see, I feel it. I know now, exactly. When I'm in burnout, I know what can cause it, or I'm identifying the need for awareness to identify when I'm heading into burnout, but what are some of the solutions. So I want you to think about the following. And then take action. When was the last time you did take off work, and not just one day, and not just a long weekend or holiday weekend. But when did you actually take at least a week off from work. So there's one thing that you can do plan something longer, plan a week or longer. Even if you can't travel, you can come up with some fun projects or hobbies that you've been wanting to do around the house or in the community or in your neighborhood. The other pieces, there are a lot of opportunities to do staycations. And this means not getting on a plane but driving locally to somewhere that you've wanted to stay do an Airbnb, and just get away, just break free from the office home space, or from the routine around the house, or around work. That is one area that I think is really, really critical. I actually used to almost have to force my team to take time off. And especially during COVID, it was really, really bad because people thought, Well, I'm not taking time off if I can't go somewhere if I can't go on vacation. But the time off is about giving your mind a break. resetting your energy, resetting your emotions, resetting your physical, maybe stagnation, or lack of movement and lack of getting outdoors and fresh air and all of those things that's in having fun. And having fun is going to be one of the big balances when we talk about work hard play hard. Really, that play is about having fun. And it doesn't mean you have to go to concerts and jump out of airplanes and stuff like that. It means putting a puzzle together with your child or a friend. It means you know, chilling out and having a bonfire outside, if you have that opportunity. It means going fishing, it means just you know really looking for fun in your day. Alright, so another solution you can think about is how much work are you actually taking on to try to get a promotion or a raise? And how is that working out for you do a reality check. The one thing that I could say to take action on is if you have not shared your expectations of kind of the outcome you have of taking on more you need to you need to talk to your manager and share that, hey, I'm doing this because I'm expecting this is going to get me to point B. If they come back and say well, that's not then you need to reevaluate why you're taking on so much work. And then you need to also level set, hey, I'm not gonna do this unless there's some kind of an extra benefit for me. The other thing is you can you know, really do a double check on what is your role and responsibility. So get clarity. And if that means like really just writing it all down to finding here's everything I'm doing, and then working with your manager and saying, Okay, what are the things I'm actually supposed to be doing what what is the outcome? This is what you should actually start with. What is the outcome of my job? What am I supposed to output? What am I supposed to actually contribute? To that end state, and then work backwards from there, okay, well, here are all the things I'm actually doing. Let's get clear on what I'm really supposed to be doing. And also check in on that to say, what can I stop doing. So I may take on these other new things, which is great, because it's giving me more increased learning or more exposure, or it's challenging me because I was maybe getting bored, but I've got to take something else off the plate. And that's where speaking up and sharing that and getting those expectations clarified is really important. The other part that I would say is, is what we talked about before, which is how you get the task completed. If you have some ideas on maybe how to do the whole process differently. Share that as well. showcase that you have ideas around being more autonomous, and you don't need a micromanager. Okay, that's one that I think is a really big one that can help reduce burnout. The next one is, you know, I would say looking at is your work fulfilling? Or do you feel a lack of accomplishment, write down the value you bring to your job, your customers, your colleagues every day, or find something else that does if this job just doesn't. But there is a way I've done this double check in the past where I was getting really frustrated with not feeling like I was actually accomplishing anything. And I think because in our minds, we think everything has to be big, everything has to be this huge accomplishment, or everything has to be this big grandiose activity or outcome. And in reality, there are a lot of small things that we do in the day that actually build up to that big achievement that actually build up to that big outcome. What we have to do, and this is probably a regular cadence is you have to take a step back. And you have to really recognize each of those small things as accomplishment. And not just say, I didn't get the big thing done, or I didn't get this big, massive thing done. Like really recognize what you're contributing and the value you're adding in all of the small things as well. The next one is what is your prioritization process. This is where more and more stuff comes on, more and more stuff comes on, that you don't really like to do. But you're given that kind of responsibility, because you're good at it. And just because you're really good at something doesn't mean you're happy about doing it. Really look at that prioritization process and include what stuff you do and don't like to do and see if there's a way to swap with your colleagues who may like actually doing something you don't like to do and vice versa, swap some of that job responsibility in that role. And then also, you know, really look at Can you delegate more? delegation is a tough one for many, many people. Can you make the decision or the play not to complete a task or project at this time? Like maybe parking lot? it? It's not, it's not the urgent thing? Why are we doing this right now, let's parking lot it so that we can really put our focus into these other bigger things. And I'll be honest, like, prioritization was a daily thing. And it still is, for me, prioritization is something that, especially if you're in a very fast paced environment that's not super structured, where you have the opportunity to kind of take on or to do things that you kind of make that decision to have to add this to my list or your manager gets a lot of ideas. And they're always, you know, kind of sharing them with you, and you take them all on. This is something where prioritization is really important. There's only so many hours in a day, and there's only so many hours you should actually be working, and then have that work day, there's only so many really constructive hours, and creative hours that you can put towards different tasks or projects or whatnot. Maybe, you know, looking at not doing something at all, is also a really good suggestion. Prioritize, push out delegate, trade or swap with folks, especially if it's something you don't really like to do, or you don't feel like it's confident and doing or you're not as fast at doing as someone else might be. checking in with your expectations of yourself. This is a big one, a check in with others expectations of you. I think what I've found in my career is because I have pretty high expectations of myself, that I feel like everybody else has those expectations of me as well. And so in reality, where I'm pushing myself to get something done very quickly, their expectation is not that I need to do it, I just made the assumption assumptions are dangerous assumptions can be very dangerous and assumptions can really really impact from many different angles. burnout. And this is where clarity is really important communication is really important. And then just, you know, asking the question, when do you actually need this by? What are your expectations around this? How massive does this output need to be? And really getting that kind of double check, and not just on yourself, but on what others expectations are view, I think that that is one that you'll find a lot you'll find a lot of freedom in, especially from your own expectations. Okay, so do you feel your boundaries between work and home, are very blurred. A lot of people are raising their hands right now and need some clearing up with whom do they need to be clarified with. And this is an interesting thing, I think people are really starting to embrace setting healthy boundaries. And it's important to do that, but part of the issue is they're only doing kind of the front half of the process. So they're saying, okay, here's my boundary, I'm only working till 6pm, I'm not going to go check my email on my phone after that. The problem is, is that they didn't communicate that with their boss, and her boss is sending them emails, on their or texts, even on their phone at seven or eight o'clock at night. And this is where the back half of the process of communicating expectations of what those boundaries are super important. Without that, they don't matter. And what happens is we just get frustrated, and we think people are just invading us or that, you know, they're breaking our trust, or our boundaries are not respecting us. And so create a bunch of other issues. So this is one that I feel is really important, create some new ones, and clearly communicate them to those they who they were set for. Be aware of your habits. So go through kind of the habits in the day, because we all establish habits, especially when we're in a routine, what are what habits are draining you. How will you make changes to those habits, either saying, you know what, I'm not going to do that anymore, because I don't even think it's impacting anything, or I don't even think that anybody realizes I'm doing this. So it's not adding value. Or if it's something you know, from a personal habit like, you know, you're double checking your work. You're putting everything in spreadsheets all the time, because you feel that's how the only way you feel in control and organize. But yet, nobody else needs those. Nobody else uses those. And really, it ends up becoming your habit. And you're using a lot of time and energy to do it only for you to make yourself feel better. So there's definitely habits that can span across that personal habit, routine things that you're doing in your day. And then also the activities or the tasks that you're doing that are now habitual, that just question Do I really need to be doing this? Does anyone gain anything from this? am I spending a lot of energy and time and then there's no benefit really, other than just trying to make my myself feel like I have more control over what I'm doing or over the information that I have. Alright, so those were just, I would say, you know, a handful of solutions, ideas for how to basically reduce the risk of burnout. And this is really in kind of taking, doing a level set taking control of your environments, and of the expectations as well as just your day to day. And you know, really kind of going through, but you might come up with some other ones as you start going through this process. So my hope is, is that you'll be able to dig deeper. And you'll be able to, as you take a step back, have some aha moments about some things that you now realize could be draining you and causing you for to go into burnout. And here's the thing, if we don't deal with burnout properly, the price of our health will be paid not only by each of us, but by the organizations because they will absolutely experienced the financial and the people loss. They will absolutely have higher absenteeism and turnover, the replacement and retraining costs associated with that the lower performance because of disengagement as well as just you know, reduced energy and reduced motivation. And then that all ends up causing Guess what, larger medical bills for them. So everybody has a vested interest in tackling burnout and talking about it in the workplace, and being aware of it and addressing it with teams, taking ownership at the individual and at the leadership level, as well as the entity or the board. organization level to really take this as a opportunity to make a big change and a difference for people. I hope that you enjoyed this podcast. This is definitely one that I think timing wise is really good and I am very open to any feedback that you might have, or any other topics that you feel we should dive into. So thank you so much. Hope you enjoyed the podcast.

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