Self-Care is Not the Solution for Burnout

Certainly when we experience burnout we need to find ways to address our compromised wellbeing. But the larger issue of burnout work culture needs to place a wider responsibility on the systems that produce them. No amount of essential oil baths or stretching exercises are going to fix your toxic work environment or provide compassion-centered lead... See more

As our economy and society have often been insensitive to the natural order — taken her for granted and assumed an infinite supply of materials to consume. Our work has followed this basic assumption as well — that people will continue to give endlessly of themselves for those productivity margins.

From this compassion-centred framework, we are creating resilient workplaces not just resilient workers. Wellbeing becomes a focus of work environments.

When we constrain our self-care practices to avoid something bad from happening, we deprive self-care of its fundamental value in our lives. It turns self-care into an obligation, a purely defensive maneuver, or a method of somehow recovering a lost sense of motivation, morale, and hope for the future.

Dr. Maslach outlined some of the factors that research has found leads to burnout: * Excessive workloads * Lack of flexibility in schedule * Lack of worker autonomy * Destructive competition among co-workers * Getting shut out of opportunities * Loss of shared common meaning and purpose at work * Workers feeling they are not meaningful change agent... See more

burnout has three critical dimensions, each containing various symptoms and negative experiences: 1. Exhaustion Dimension: wearing out, loss of energy, depletion, debilitation, and fatigue 2. Cynicism Dimension: negative attitudes toward clients, irritability, loss of idealism, and withdrawal from professional obligations 3. Inefficiency Dimension:... See more

Burnout is the shared responsibility of both the individual, the organisation, and our work culture. We have increasingly become a burnout culture and is is salt on the wounds of so many people who are struggling to suggest that the problem is that they are not doing enough yoga.

If workplaces are to be successful for the whole community, then workplace norms should emphasise wellbeing. Wellbeing, however, should be understood as a community-oriented goal, not just an individual worker’s outcome goal.

Rather than being merely reactive to workplace concerns, are there ways in which workplace leadership and community members can identify potential threats to burnout prior to it happening?