Topic Tuesday: Burnout

[Mary Ramirez]

I came across this article by the Harvard Business Journal about helping your team with burnout when in fact you're burned out. I found it interesting because it can be tough to be a leader and be present for others when you yourself want to give up and crawl back into bed. 

So I ask the group, how can you be present for others when the entire team (including yourself) are going through a rough patch? 

In my opinion, chatting (not about work) over lunch always feels like a refresher and a stress reliever. 

[Erica Moss]

I love this question because you always want to bring your best self to work, but it can be difficult because we are all humans dealing with myriad issues. Our team has enacted a pulse check at the beginning of each week, where we each share a gif that represents how we're feeling (easy breezy, overwhelmed, motivated, tired, etc.) It creates a safe space to share that you may need some additional backup, or that you may just be having an off week.

If I had to pick one today, it would probably be this one:

[Mary Ramirez]

I like the idea of sharing a gif! I will definitely be sharing this with my team. :) 

[Kat Warner _TechTime_]

That gif idea is super cute and clever.

[Kat Warner _TechTime_]

It is hard to do - but tell your team you are feeling less than 100% but you are still there for them.

Encourage your team to find a way to express the stress of the situation AND get on with their day-to-day job. One place I worked was going through a restructure and we got "permission" to have extra meetings to talk about the impacts of the proposal within our teams separate form the meetings with managers. This was a significant step for the organisation that was usually very strict about the amount of time spent on billable tasks.