All about burnout

BURNOUT - What is it? How can we recognise it? What can we do to help?

We asked Oasis Associate Jane Bytheway these questions and created a short film - the transcript of this film is below:

For me, burnout is when your tank is totally and utterly empty - it's not “I'm exhausted on a Friday night because I've had a busy week” - it accumulates over a period of time, so that if you imagine that the clock is going down and down in terms of how much energy you've got that you can call on. But instead of taking it back up again, it just keeps going down and down and down and down and down and down and down, until either physically, mentally, or emotionally, something inside just goes “I'm done.”

That's it I know how I feel when I'm in survival mode. So, I guess recognizing that I can have a sense of panic - a bit like rabbit in the headlights - I've got this to do, I've got that to do, I'll do this, I'll do that, so scattered mind would definitely be a sign for me.

Not sleeping as well. Not being present in conversations would be another thing - feeling quite dissipated. Lots of regular illnesses that look like minor things on their own, but frequent and build of more and more and more. If they are feeling a bit or a lot down in the mouth, a bit overwhelmed or hopeless thinking “I'm never going to get through all of this” - that kind of thing if they express it. Often people don't, so it would be more noticing their behaviours so they might also be more irritable, and snappy, or more withdrawn, and just not really very responsive because they've gone into their own worlds.

There are all sorts of things that might be signs and symptoms, so I would love to say let's be preventive rather than getting that far because actually I think that's the key. So, noticing how you are managing your own energy and in order to avoid even going into that survival zone that I was talking about.

Making sure that there is space in life for replenishing and renewing, and that really comes from a number of things. It comes from taking breaks. Proper breaks from the business of work. Micro breaks in the day also help. Most of us don't really allow ourselves - we keep pushing and doing more - and also then when stepping away from work, doing the things that help you to feel energized and topped up.

I think a good blend is to have some really quiet things, which could be meditation, going for a walk. It could be some kind of gentle craft activity. And then also the things that are active and help you to feel refreshed and renewed. So that could be a gym class. It could be dancing. It could be some kind of sport with other people, or running around the garden with your kids, or that kind of thing, where you are in what I would call “play mode” that is topping you up and you're doing something other than trying to force your brain to get more things done.

People in organisations need to understand the journey to burnout. So, you need managers and colleagues who are equipped with the ability to say, “how are you?” and then “how are you really?” and not take the first answer. Also having that personal relationship with an awareness of what somebody's personal life is like - not chapter on verse - but if somebody has something going on at home that is also taking up some of their energy, they won't have the same capacity to do what they're there to do at work.

Some organisations will have specific people that you can go to - Listening Champions, Well-being Champions, - so having a number of ways in which somebody can access help, and from the organisation's perspective, being willing to ask the question. 

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