Hello and welcome to another episode of the Working Conversations podcast where we talk all things leadership, business, communication and trends in organizational life. I'm your host, Dr Janel Anderson.

Have you ever found yourself working past quitting time fueled by a mix of ambition, passion, and maybe even a little bit of fear that taking a break might slow your progress? Or perhaps you've noticed a creeping sense of exhaustion that no amount of sleep seems to fix, leaving you feeling disconnected and disheartened?

Well, you're not alone. In today's episode of the Working Conversations podcast, we are delving into the complex world of overwork and burnout, why we push ourselves to the limit and how we can recognize when it's time to step back and recover.

I know firsthand because I've been there myself recently. If you've ever felt like you're teetering on the edge, this episode is for you.

Yes, today, we are tackling a topic that resonates for many of us overwork, and burnout, whether you're working in an office, from home or somewhere in between the pressures and the demands of modern work can sometimes push us to the absolute brink. But why do we overwork in the first place? And how can we recognize and recover from burnout when it starts to happen?

Now I'll be sprinkling in my own experience with overwork and burnout as we dig into this pervasive topic. And let me start by saying that the first half of 2024 was absolutely gangbusters for me in my business. And of course, that's a good thing as an entrepreneur and a small business owner, to have a very busy season is wonderful. It's what we all dream of. But at what expense?

I definitely found myself at the end of the first half of the year, completely burned out from overwork. So let's dig into why do we overwork and then we'll get to how do we prevent burnout? And how do we prevent overworking? And then if we end up being burned out anyway, what do we do about it? And again, I'll be sprinkling in my own experiences.

So why do we overwork? Well, overwork can happen for a whole host of reasons. And it's not just about putting in the extra hours for the sake of it. Now, if you were in any of my trainings, or virtual keynotes are anything any of the programming that I did during the early part of the pandemic, you probably heard me say that the next thing that we were going to be facing as a workplace, significant issue was burnout after of course, switching to work remotely.

For many of us during the early stages of the pandemic, burnout was next, because people had their laptops at home, and they had their computers on all the time. And they were working, pretty much 24/7.

Now, in the early stages of the pandemic, there was really not much else to do. So I don't blame them for doing that. But at the same time, I heard myself say over and over, unless you are an epidemiologist or unless you are administering unemployment insurance benefits to the people who are out of work, put your work on hold, put your work back into its nine to five or eight to four, whatever your regular schedule is get it back into its regular boundaries, because we don't want you burning out.

So again, you maybe heard me say that you a couple of years ago. And that was certainly true then. But still, with so many people work in a hybrid schedule and working remotely. It's just easy to leave your laptop on. And that is one of the things of putting in the extra hours just for the sake of it. And I want to encourage you not to do that. Okay, so that's one reason we'll get to that one.

But here are some other reasons. In fact, these are the key reasons why people find themselves overworking. First, passion and enjoyment. Sometimes the simplest reason is that we just absolutely love what we do. When we're passionate about our work. It doesn't really feel like work. It's just the thing that we're called to do. And this is definitely true for me. And I love to work in fact, when I am in classes keynotes in the like with my audiences, I often will joke about housework and how it doesn't get done people who at my house, people who work from home will sometimes you know, step away from their laptop to throw in a load of laundry or do the dishes are vacuum your floors. Not me. I would way rather do my work, the work that brings you the ideas that I'm sharing today on this podcast. I would way rather do that then thank you my floor I put in a load of laundry, I am passionate about my work, and it doesn't feel like work at all.

Again, it just feels like what I am called to do. Now you might find yourself in a similar situation where you lose track of time, because you're just so engrossed in what you're doing. You find yourself in that state of flow, and you look up and you're like, oh, wow, I missed lunch, my afternoon snack cup of coffee, and I forgot to let the dog out. So when we get that engrossed in what we're doing, and we're in that state of flow is a wonderful feeling. But as the caution here, it can also lead to overwork if you're not careful.

And this is definitely true for me, I can get so wrapped up in my work, especially when I'm working on a big creative project or even putting together the recording notes for a podcast episode. So number one, first reason why some people overwork is passion and enjoyment.

Now a second reason people overwork is because work can be an escape from reality. For some people, work becomes this way to disconnect and disengage from personal issues, or their personal life or maybe a stressful home life. And sometimes it's a positive, stressful home life. And sometimes it's a negative stressful on life. Like maybe if you have a child who's graduating from high school, and you need to be throwing a party and doing all of that, well, maybe it's just easier to check out and do your work than it is to plan for that exciting thing.

It could also be a negative situation in your personal life that you are escaping from and work becomes a perfect place to immerse yourself in the tasks and the deadlines and all of those things. Rather than weather confront the challenges outside of work, or even think about a tough situation outside of work that might be happening in your personal life.

I have a family friend whose family suffered a very, very tragic situation. And in the immediate years following one of the parents of some people in my extended professional world had a very tragic situation happen to their family a long time ago. And in the very first few years right after that very tragic situation happened, one of the members of the couple just dove deep into their work and got so lost in their work, they almost lost their spouse and the rest of the family relationship because they were overworking so much just to escape that reality. So this can be a very, very dangerous cycle where work becomes the default coping mechanism.

So when you have those inevitable situations that come up, whether they're in your personal life, or your work life, that really, really tax you and push you to your own personal limit, remember not to use work as the escape hatch, do all the things to get the appropriate professional mental health care that you need, so that you're not using work as an escape for reality.

Number three, a third reason that some people will overwork is because of financial incentives. So money is a very, very powerful motivator. So if you are in a situation where you have a bonus hanging in the balance based on the amount of work that your team gets done, or a successful project completion, or if you're in sales, perhaps there are incentives related to quotas, and meeting certain sales targets over the year. And sometimes those things can be like really, really exciting big financial incentives or bonus trips, you know, who wants to put that trip on to Maui in danger. Instead, I'll just double down all my efforts on my sales calls and hit all my quota so that I get to take that that bonus trip.

So again, money is a very, very powerful motivator. So whether it is the promise of overtime pay, or bonuses or a raise, these financial incentives can drive us to put in tons and tons of extra hours. In today's gig economy, also, many people that are working multiple jobs are freelancing, putting in time on the side, whether that's to make ends meet or to pay for more expensive luxury items, expensive vacations or new cars or that sort of thing that can lead to longer and longer hours put in.

So really be aware of those financial incentives. And I mean, sometimes yes, it's worth it. And sometimes you know that there are some bumpers around it, it's going to be for the next six months or for the next quarter. And really acknowledge that timeframe when there is a financial incentive that you are intentionally going after, and then make sure that again, you've got those bumpers or guardrails up so that when you hit that mark, that you go back to a relatively normal work schedule where you're not burning yourself out. And then number four ambition and career growth. So raw ambition and the desire to climb the corporate ladder or to get your own business or side hustle off the ground can really lead to overwork.

And I know this one firsthand. Now I've been at it for my gosh, almost 15 years here at working conversations are not 15 years in the podcast, about three and a half years in the podcast, but 15 years overall, running my own business.

And in the early days, getting the business off the ground, I was working a lot of hours. And it wasn't necessarily the drive to achieve more, but in a sense it? Well, I guess, in a sense, it kind of was, it was the drive to get the business up off the ground and to stop being in startup mode. And when I was in startup mode for those first couple of years, I worked a lot. And I remember one specific instance, when my spouse said to me, “Like you are working a lot of hours is this really what you had in mind when you were starting your own business, leaving the corporate rat race to do this.”

And that was a real turning point for me. And at that point, and going forward, from that point, I had realized, okay, I have put in the long hours, or in the early years to get the thing off the ground. Now I can throttle back and just let kind of the flywheel of my business happen, because I had put in those hours. But for some people that drive to achieve more to earn promotions, to get recognition in their company, oh my gosh, it can make it really difficult to set those boundaries.

So ambitious people I'm talking to you, you might fear that taking time off or taking your foot off the gas is going to hinder your career progression. But when you are that ambitious, in the first place, you are probably already head and shoulders above the other people that you think you might be competing with for the promotion or the recognition. So just really be real with yourself about that because your ambition and career growth. While that's a good thing, and it can really fuel your career progress and you have help you hit your accomplishments, it can also really that overwork can lead to burnout.

Now, okay, so there's four reasons passion and enjoyment, escaping reality, financial incentives, and your ambition and career growth, those things can really lead to overwork.

Now, we need to understand burnout. So let's talk about burnout. It's not just feeling tired or stressed from work. It is a state of physical, emotional and mental complete exhaustion that is caused by prolonged and excessive stress. And if you are the one behind that prolonged excessive stress because of overwork, then I am really talking to you and this episode is absolutely for you.

So let's talk about some symptoms to watch out for. And then we'll get into what can you do about it either to prevent it or to recover from it if you finding yourself in that state of burnout. Now, again, I want to use my own experience here at the end of June, I was completely and totally burned out. The first half of 2024 found me with certainly some ambition and career growth that were there was a project that I took on. Even though my calendar was full, it was a very favorite client of mine, whom I adore. And it was a big project. And they wanted it done by the end of their fiscal year, which was the end of June 2024. And because I adore this person, and I've worked with them before, and I knew the project was going to be fun. I said yes, it was a really big project. And it was part not all but part of what contributed to my burnout.

So let's take a look again, at burnout, what are the symptoms you can watch out for? Well, the first one is physical symptoms. So being tired every single morning, despite having gotten what for you might be a normal amount of sleep. So whether that's six hours, seven hours, eight hours, for some, it might even be nine hours. But when you wake up still feeling exhausted, or when you have insomnia during the night, that those are absolute signs of burnout. Now, if it's just once in a while or a one off, then I'm not going to call that burnout. But if this is happening over and over and over, that would be a good indicator that you might want to check for burnout. Now, also, if you have frequent illnesses, if you're getting sick a lot, and you're not the kind of person who gets sick a lot, or if you're getting headaches and you don't usually get headaches or muscle pain, joint stiffness, that sort of thing, and you don't have anything else to account for it. That is a good indicator that you might be experiencing burnout.

Now of course, if you have muscle stiffness and you just started back at the gym, well then your muscle stiffness has to do with the gym not necessarily to do with burnout. But if you have unexplained physical symptoms, your body is talking to you so your body starts to break out when it's under constant stress, and especially if you're not getting the rest and recovery or if your rest and recovery is compromised, again, because of the stress and burnout. Now I was having some of those symptoms, specifically, insomnia, I would wake up at two, three in the morning, maybe just a rollover, or just the covers or whatever. And then I would be hit with a host of work issues and ideas and, and it wasn't usually like the good exciting ideas.

It was like, what if this goes wrong? What if that goes wrong? How did why did I? Why do I have so much on my plate this week, and that was then contributing to not feeling well rested when I woke up, because I'm sometimes awake for two and three hours during the middle of the night. So that physic watch for those physical symptoms.

The second thing to watch for is emotional exhaustion or emotional symptoms. So emotionally, you might feel drained, overwhelmed, or really unable to cope, you might have a really short fuse, or something that you usually would be able to roll with the punches or take it in stride instead, sets you off, whether that is anger, frustration, irritation, whatever.

And I know I was far more irritable in my family life over the last the first six months of this year than I typically am. So watch for those emotional feelings to creep up on you. So this can manifest. Certainly, in my case, as irritation and being quick to anger, it can also manifest as a certain sense of helplessness, especially if the stress is caused by your work and you're not necessarily the the instigator, I was the instigator. I was the one who said yes to the extra projects and said yes to all the work. So I didn't necessarily feel helpless about it.

But sometimes, especially if the work is coming from above, from your senior management, that can lead to a certain sense of helplessness, a lack of motivation, a sense of detachment, or isolation. And, as we've talked about on the podcast, before, loneliness can set in. So all of those things are signs of emotionalism exhaustion.

A third thing that can happen, or a set of symptoms to watch out for is cognitive symptoms, or cognitive impairment. So when you're burned out, it can absolutely affect your ability to think clearly, logically, reason, listen well, and all the rest of your cognitive abilities. So you might find it hard to concentrate, you might find it hard to make decisions, or you're in a state of analysis paralysis, where decisions just seem like so far away, because there's so many factors to consider.

Now, a lot of times, there are a lot of factors to consider when you are making decisions. But when you're constantly in the state of decision fatigue, or you're having a hard time remembering things, those are also signs that your cognitive function is impaired as possibly as a result of burnout. So this mental fog can really further reduce your productivity and increase your stress, leading to even more burnout. So cognitive impairment is one you absolutely have to be watching for.

And then the final one, behavioral changes. So here's where you're going to look for changes in your behavior. And again, these changes might be like, let's say you usually work out but now you're not working out anymore. Or you usually go for a walk in the evening, and you're not taking your walk, or you're not connecting with your friends or your extended family members.

It could also be increased irritability, cynicism, it could be withdrawing from your friends, family, responsibilities at home, or other type of social interactions that you typically enjoy. Now, these types of changes can absolutely be a sign that burnout is taking a toll on your physical and mental health.

Now, for me, the behavioral change was multifaceted. I was not getting to the gym. And part of that was because I just did not have the time. So I usually swim laps about three mornings a week, and I was not making the time for it, I had a lot of early morning starts. And that's usually when I would find myself at the pool. So I was missing my workout.

And I also am usually eating a very low carb diet. So no sugar, no flour most of the time. And I found over the first half of this year, that the carbs were slipping back into my diet. And that leads me to cognitive fog and a whole bunch of things that just are not that good for me mentally in terms of my mental state, and it affects my sleeping as well. So my eating and exercise was just off because of all of the extra work, the overwork and the burnout that I was experiencing.

So let's talk about how do we prevent burnout in the first place? Or how do we recover from it when it does inevitably happen? Because I think no matter how good we try to beat ourselves, there are going to be times where whether it's work projects or new jobs or promotions or something just kind of takes over and we get swept away in it and we end up burned out. So how can we prevent it in the first place, or what can we do about it if we're already experiencing it, so I want to give you six different strategies.

So the first one is to set boundaries. So setting clear boundaries, whether it is between work and your personal life or work and work is crucial. So this means establishing specific work hours and sticking to them. Again, I'm talking to you folks who are either working hybrid or work from home or work from anywhere, it is so easy to stay online after the regular work day. So set those specific work hours and stick to them. Make sure you take regular breaks throughout the day and prioritize time for rest and relaxation as the day goes along.

And for those of you who have a lot of discretionary power over what happens in your work day and how much work you take on whether you are in a leadership position, or you're in more of an entrepreneurial role like I am, setting boundaries is key because I said yes to too many projects each month and I had too many days where I was delivering programs to clients and not enough days of rest, relaxation, and incubation of new ideas in between. I'll link up the episode on whitespace that I did a couple of months back, but I did not have enough white space on my calendar while the first during the first six months of 2024.

So I am setting much more specific boundaries for the amount of work I'm taking on for the remainder of 2024. And I will do my best to reinforce those boundaries going forward in 2025. Alright, so number one, set boundaries.

Number two, practice self care. Self care is not just a buzzword, it is essential for preventing burnout. Now, this includes getting enough sleep, eating balanced diet, exercising regularly engaging activities that bring you joy and relaxation. And it could also include things like mindfulness practices like meditation, visualization, yoga, any of the things that could help you reduce your stress level.

So in my daily practice, I have multiple pieces of self care. So one of my pieces of self care is getting some exercise. Another piece of my self care is journaling. I journal every single morning when my schedule allows. And I also do a 10 minute mindfulness practice, which is a meditation, a guided meditation, from Sam Harris of waking up, in fact, we'll link his app in the show notes. And I think I have maybe a 30 day free trial to it. It's a wonderful app. So I'll link that up in the show notes.

And then I also do a five minute visualization where I imagine me living my best life. And oh my gosh, that just puts me in this place of great joy when I do that visualization.

Okay, number three, seek support. So don't be afraid to ask for help. Now, asking for help can look like talking to your manager about your workload. Asking for Help could mean asking a colleague to help you out with a project, it could mean asking for help around the house from your children, your spouse, your partners, it could mean hiring help to do some of the household things that your family and your household would benefit from.

So really, it could also mean seeking professional help from a therapist or counselor if that's what's merited. And you've also heard me talk about employee assistance programs here on the program. So if you have access to an employee assistance program, through your organization, there are a host of different opportunities, including mental health professionals that you can. And but not limited to mental health professionals, there's lots of other kinds of help that you can get from your employee assistance program as well. So check that out. But seek support from your manager, from your family, from your co workers from professionals, all of the things seek help.

And number four, prioritize and delegate. So it is so important to prioritize your tasks and focus on the ones that matter the most the ones that have the most impact, and then learn to say no when necessary, and delegate other tasks when possible. So for those of you who are managers or supervisors and you have staff available to you look at everything that's on your plate and ask yourself the question, does this need to be done by me? Would this be a good learning opportunity for somebody else on the team and don't just make it like a good stretch opportunity? Sometimes a learning opportunity is doing some of the grunt work and getting the stuff that's not that been done. So delegate when you can remember you don't have to do everything yourself and when you try to do everything yourself, that is a good indicator that you are going to head towards burnout.

Number five, take time off, make sure to take regular vacations and time off to recharge. Now I took the whole first week of July off I knew throughout the whole month of or I knew throughout the whole first half of the year that it was going to be intense. In fact, I took the first week of April off because the first three months were pretty intense. And then on the first week of April, my family went on a spring break cruise. So that was a great time to unplug, literally unplug, because we didn't have internet access almost the whole week to unplug and recharge.

And then again, I did that the first week of July took the whole week off. So disconnecting from work and taking time to relax and enjoy yourself, really can reduce the risk of burnout in the first place. And if you are burnout burned out, then it is absolutely imperative that you do this. Now I'll give you a quick a quick observation of mine from five years ago.

So in 2019, I took a trip to Southeast Asia. And I was so burned out on my web, like in the months preceding that trip, that I kind of ruined the trip for myself, I was in horrible physical condition, I because of just all the stress, I had back pain, I had headaches, I was just miserable. And it was, I won't say a trip of a lifetime, because I've been to Southeast Asia a few times, but it was, you know, a trip of a that I was really looking forward to. And because I was so burned out, it really was not nearly as enjoyable. So don't let yourself get to that state of burnout. And then take the vacation periodically as an opportunity to mitigate burnout.

And when you are burned out and you knew do need to take that time off, don't have it be a trip to Southeast Asia, just have it be like a trip to, you know, a cabin or a beach or someplace where you don't really have to do anything. That's how my trip in the first week of July was my vacation time was just at the lake with my family. And the most the biggest responsibility I had was like, you know, grilling a good steak. So it was a great opportunity to take the time off and recover from really three months, but also six months of really intense work.

And then number six, reflect and adjust. Especially if you're coming out of a period of burnout as I am. This is a great time to reflect on my work habits as well as you doing the same reflect on your own work habits and make some adjustments as needed. This could mean buttons and guardrails on your schedule. This could mean putting in specific office hours that you are not working late into the night or after hours. So check in with yourself and see how you're feeling. And then make changes to your routine. And really ensure that you are maintaining those challenges. So like write them down.

So if you're making changes to your routine, write them down and put them in places or block your calendar or whatever it is, make sure that you're actually going to follow through on them because just to take a few minutes to reflect and then come up with some ideas is one thing but actually putting some guardrails in your calendar so that you are absolutely doing the things that lead to the change behaviour to mitigate burnout are going to be so important.

All right, my friends, those six things are going to help you prevent burnout or deal with it when you're there, setting boundaries, practicing self care, seeking support, prioritizing and delegating, taking the time off, and reflecting and then making those adjustments and following through on them.

So my friends, overwork and burnout are significant issues in today's fast paced environment, we just can't get away from them. They are lurking in the shadows. You've heard me talk about my experiences today. And I'm guessing you have your own stories to share as well. But by understanding why we overwork and recognizing the symptoms of burnout, we can take proactive steps to prevent it or to recover from it when we recognize that we're in the throes of it.

Remember, your well being is just as important as your work and you can't do your best work when your well being is suffering. So take care of yourself set boundaries and don't hesitate to seek out support when needed.

I want you to bookmark this issue, either bookmark the show notes page on the website at janelanderson.com/173 for Episode 173, or bookmark or save the episode in your podcast player so that you can come back to it when you need it next, because Unfortunately, there will be a next time, there always is. You will find yourself stretched to the limits and you will say what was that advice? What is it I need to do to prevent burnout because I'm in the throes of something.

Okay, my friends remember that the future of work is not only about the technology it is about the values we uphold, including if we're overworking or feeling stressed or burned out. It's about the communities we build and the sustainable growth that we all strive for.

We need to keep exploring, keep innovating and keep envisioning the remarkable possibilities that lie ahead. As always, stay curious, stay informed and stay ahead of the curve. Tune in next week for another insightful exploration of the trends and issues shaping our professional world. If you enjoy this content and you're watching on YouTube, make sure you hit the subscribe button and knock that little bell so that you get notified every time there's a new episode out. I also make other videos there too.

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