The Podgress Report

02 | Five Science-backed Steps for Burnout Recovery

• Jen Phillips • Season 1 • Episode 2

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In this episode of The Podgress Report, host Jen Phillips gives a recap on Workplace Burnout: its definition, dimensions, and accelerators. We're also talking about the many profiles of burnout - which can be discovered by assessing your symptoms using proven, research-backed tools (check the episode resources for links). 

But we're most excited to get into the 5 low-ish lift but POWERFUL steps burnout sufferers can take - even today - to jumpstart recovery. Join us here as we focus on making progress toward our healthy career "What's Next".

Episode Resources
Burnout Definition - World Health Organization
Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) [Assessment Tool] 
Book: The Burnout Challenge [Christina Maslach (Author), Michael P. Leiter (Author)]
A prescription for better health: go alfresco [Harvard Health Publishing]
Reach the Suicide and Crisis lifeline by dialing 988 [U.S.]

Feedback is a GIFT (share yours HERE) and Stay in Touch with The Podgress Report on IG & X

The Very Important Bottom Line
The Podgress Report does not provide medical or mental health advice. The information including but not limited to: recorded and live episodes, text, graphics, images, and any other material contained on the the podcast are for your informational purposes only.

Nothing on The Podgress Report is intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified provider. Never disregard professional medical or mental wellness advice or delay in seeking it because of something you've heard or content you've read or reviewed on this podcast.

And please, if you're under duress or considering suicide, reach out right this very minute to the Suicide and Crisis lifeline by dialing 988 in the United States.

Outside of the U.S., please reach out to helplines available to you in your country note: this link isn't owned by The Podgress Report and should not be considered exhaustive or wholly accurate.

 What's the Definition of Burnout, Again? [recap version]

[Jen Phillips, Host] If you've heard that the best way to handle burnout is through self care, maybe a couple of candles being lit or taking a little bit of time off for you  and you thought maybe it was more complex than that. Well, you were right.

You were right. It is more complex than that. Everyone's burnout is personal and Everyone's recovery is too. And today we're talking about it.

I'm Jen Phillips, and this is the Podgress report. It's a podcast that's here to engage, educate, inspire, and support people who are not sure of their healthy "What's Next"  career plan, whether they're burned out or they just know they're ready for "What's Next" , but aren't quite sure what that iS.

in our last edition of the Podgress report, we defined burnout. If you haven't listened to episode one though, we're going to do a little bit of a review Before we dive into the five steps. So not to worry, stay right here. I've got you covered. You can go into more depth if you  missed that episode by listening to it after this one.

And I want to stress that each of the five steps we'll cover today are appropriate and healthy no matter which of the burnout profiles you match to.

So let's dive into it.

Let's do a little bit of a backup and talk about the definition of burnout at a high level and then jump into five steps you can take to get on the path to burnout recovery.  Burnout is defined as an occupational phenomenon that takes place, when workplace stress is something that can't successfully be managed by the worker, by us.   Burnout has three dimensions

low energy or exhaustion

a poor mindset that might turn up as negativism or cynicism within the workplace and
low professional efficacy. Either you feel  ineffective at your job or you feel that your work, doesn't actually have value.

 Here's A Burnout Assessment Tool You Can Use (Today!)

If you are interested in understanding whether you're burned out and how you're burned out, I recommend assessing yourself.

There are a number of different burnout assessment tools that are available on the interwebs,

but the one that I recommend and the one that I've linked in the episode notes is the Maslach Burnout Inventory or the MBI. The reason that I recommend this inventory is threefold.

One, it's backed by science. It's a research tool that's 35 years in the making.

Two, other researchers use it. It's used in about 88 percent of the time of research done on the topic of workplace burnout 

 And three, It has a standard framework. It's using that same definition of burnout as it's defined by the WHO  in the international classification of diseases. So we're all talking the same language on burnout  I took it myself. It took about, I want to say 30 minutes or less to actually go through the assessment. It is not hard to do. It is fairly inexpensive. It's 20 to take the inventory.

And it gives you an output that categorizes you into one of six different profiles. I'm going to quickly go through those profiles, but I highly encourage you to understand more by taking the assessment yourself.


What Are the Profiles of Burnout?

 1) The first one is the engaged profile. This is someone who is not burned out, who is against each of the three dimensions of burnout actually in an okay place. Their energy is good,  their mindset is strong, and they feel effective in their work.

2) The second profile is the ineffective profile.  Someone who feels low professional efficacy. They either feel they're not good at their job, not sufficient in their role, or that their job or their role does not make sense or does not add value.

3) The third profile is someone who's matching to the overextended profile. This is a person, that has good, strong, professional efficacy feelings, but is completely exhausted. Maybe they're taking their phone with them everywhere they go and they're constantly available on slack. There is no such animal as a weekend or a night or a time when they are not in a working mode. Maybe they're taking their laptop with them on each and every vacation. By the way, I think this was me before I got worse. So that is someone who is in the over extended, Profile. 

4) Then there's the disengaged profile. This is something that sometimes you may be hearing as, unengaged worker or someone who has quiet quit or someone who has loud quit. This is someone that has mental distancing their negativism is elevated, their cynicism is elevated, and although they know that they can do a good job, they have high or sufficient professional efficacy, and they have the energy to do a good job, they're not invested in the current job they have. 

5) And then there's the burnout profile. Now, while the other profiles, the last three profiles I took you through, each had only one dimension that was in a negative spot.  The burnout profile requires you have two negative dimensions. The first one being exhaustion. This is someone who is highly, highly exhausted. And the second is someone who has mental distancing they may be negative. They may be cynical. They are not able to have a positive outlook on their work. They also may have lowered professional efficacy, but to have the burnout profile, you've got to match to those two poor, mindset and low energy to the point of exhaustion.

So in taking the MBI, you will know which,  of those profiles you match to. Christina Maslach, who is the M in MBI. And Michael later published a book on the topic of burnout called the burnout challenge. The reason I'm bringing this book to your attention today, which is a fantastic reader listen, by the way, if you or someone you care about is experiencing burnout.

But there is a concept in the book that I want to bring to your attention before we get into the five steps you can take to begin your recovery. 

"Soul Erosion": A Burnout Accelerant

And that is the concept of "Soul Erosion"  . It's a concept that they describe as when the work and the worker across some key areas: control, workload, rewards, community, values, and fairness, when those areas are not matched, they are mismatched between the worker, the person, and the work, the company, or the project, or the team.

Why this is so important is because if you are experiencing "Soul Erosion", if you are already headed toward burnout, it is an accelerant  toward that destination. If you're already in burnout, it may worsen your burnout. So think of it like this. If you don't have aligned values with the company or the team, you may experience "Soul Erosion".

If you have more work than you can bear, and every day you come in and it's just a mountain of work, digital or physical, that you cannot ever feel caught up. That can erode your soul. I want you to keep that in mind as we start talking about the five steps that you can take to get started with your burnout recovery because depending on what profile you match to, those accelerants you'll find will be supported by some of the steps we're talking through right now.

So let's get into it. 

Five LOW-ISH LIFT Steps to Recovery

What are the five steps that I recommend you consider taking today? to begin your path to recovery or that you bring to that person who you might know, Hey, I think you're experiencing something here. Here are some things you can do. The first one you are already doing in just being here.

Step 1: Seek First to Understand (YOUR) Burnout

The first step is seeking to understand what burnout really is and what it isn't and what really you are experiencing and how you are where you are on the burnout spectrum.  I want you to give yourself credit to take the win for being here right now and taking this step seriously.

You are already on your way to recovering from burnout just in taking this action in seeking first to understand. But if you haven't already, what I recommend is  taking the MBI, the Maslach Burnout Inventory.  And if you are struggling in one or more of the dimensions, this is a. An assessment or an output that you can bring to your primary care physician or your mental health practitioner, if you're working with one or your coach  so they can understand in a, in a research backed way, how they can tailor and support your recovery.

So step one. Learn, assess, and use that information to start to assemble your burnout recovery plan and team. 

One note on this, and it's an important one, and it comes from my own lessons learned.  If you're still employed right now, as you're listening to this. Do this step before you put in your notice at your job.

I myself left a six figure executive dream job  that I really, really loved because I didn't know what was happening to me or how to get out of it.  That ship has sailed and I'm happy with the path I'm on now, but I might have really been in a different place if I would have taken this step before I  put in my notice.

So, take a lesson here. If you can do this while you're still employed, please take the time to do it now.  Okay. So enough harping on that.

Let's talk now about what step two is. And you're going to maybe think this step is too easy. I assure you, the science says it doesn't matter if it's easy, it's important.

Step 2: Get Outside. In The Sun. In the Morning (if you can).

And that step, step two, is get outside. Go outside. Go outside. Most importantly, get outside in the sun, and if you can, make it happen within an hour of waking. Why? Why is that important? Because it's within the first hour of waking that we, as human beings, are most sensitive to light.

Morning sunlight specifically helps people balance their sleep wake cycle, their circadian rhythm.  It also can then give you benefits in other ways. It can help you with sleep. Okay. Well, it would help you with having trouble sleeping because your sleep wake cycle becomes more regulated. You can have a better night's sleep.

What might that also help you with? Your cognition, your ability to think clearly, which is incredibly important. So if you're matching that exhausted profile, or that's one of the dimensions where you're struggling, this can really help you. But another thing that morning sunlight does is is it helps elevate your mood.

It helps also on the dimension of your mindset. So get outside. This is Harvard research. This is proven and I've got it linked in this, in the show notes, please take five minutes if that's all you've got. If that's the only energy you have, get outside 30 minutes is the sweet spot and within an hour of waking is best, but at any time if you can get outside into the sun and an overcast day counts as sun.

That will help you. sleep better, think more clearly, and have an elevated mooD.   I want to share with you that as soon as I, learned about this and the importance of getting outside, getting your body moving in the first part of the day, I started adopting it into my daily life.

Of course, was this after I had already left my job? Yes. Yes, indeed it was. Unfortunately, did anything stop me before I left my job? this step. No, it didn't. I had supportive bosses who encouraged me to take time out for myself. I just didn't do it.  So what's happened since I started doing that? Well, my step count is up by literally thousands of steps a day.

I have lost a number of pounds without even trying. And I think that really could also be about the cortisol reduction more than anything. And my resting heart rate is down 10%. This is just from taking a pill. making a practice of a small walk every day in the morning sun.  I know it's a good day when I take a walk and I encourage you to build this into your recovery plan. The benefits are compounding, so don't let yourself sleep on this one, literally. Okay.  Did you hear my terrible joke just then? Fantastic. Let's move along.

Step 3: Take Control

Step three, let's step into step three and step three is all about you taking control.   Taking control is building some of your energy back by doing a small project or process that you can take full accountability for, have full autonomy of, and you'll feel the boost in your efficacy by doing.

What does this mean? Remember, we talked about the concept of "Soul Erosion", a work mismatch. Well, one of the places where you can find that is where you have a lack of autonomy or control at your job, or where you feel like you have so much work, you can never complete anything  by choosing a project either inside of work or outside of work that you can start, manage, and complete.

In your own way, on your own time, even a small one. You can feel a sense of control  of autonomy, and that is really, really important, especially if you are suffering from lowered efficacy, professional efficacy. So do something that you enjoy. It can be small. And if that sounds too simple, I encourage you again, please take the win.

You deserve it. You are feeling, you are here. because you're either worried about somebody who is feeling poorly about themselves in a way that is worrisome to you or you yourself are feeling poorly. So if you can take a small step toward feeling better by getting a small thing done, either at home or at work, I encourage you to take it.

What that looks like for me, it might be,  Hey, I have a garden bed that I really need to get mulched. I know what kind of mulch I want. I know how much mulch I need and I can do it And about an hour by myself the way I want it, which is specific. I like my mulch a certain way. So that's something that I might say, Hey, this is a great way for me to  have box ticked on my task list.

And I feel like, yeah, I got that done today. High five to me. I feel good about it.  Step three is all about control.

Step 4: reConnect with People (texting doesn't count)

Step four is all about connection. And it's a specific kind of connection. It's a connection with somebody who lifts you up.

Why is this important? Because we are, per the U. S. Surgeon General in a state of emergency on the front of loneliness. And that is also impacting people who are feeling burned out. I know when I, didn't know what was going on with me at work and how I was feeling so depleted at work. I felt like it was just me.

I didn't talk to people about it. I didn't reach out to people about it. It wasn't until I put it out there on the interwebs and a post on LinkedIn that I found that many thousands of people that I knew are also feeling that way. Isolation depletes you. Reconnection actually,  pushes your mood up and reduces your stress.

So what will that look like?  When I was depleted, I shut down from everything except work. I shut down from my family. I was nowhere to be found for my friends. I didn't enjoy anything outside of work and I didn't prioritize outside of work activities.  That was not healthy of me. When I started bringing back weekly, almost weekly connections with my son, with his family, with my friends, it started to replenish me.

It made me remember a tiny bit. It made me see a tiny glimmer of me, the me that I am. that I really liked and missed. And the science here is this isn't about texting. Texting won't get you there. You do not get the same physiological benefits if you're texting. It's about taking time out to call someone and say, Hey, how are you, buddy?

What's going on? What is exciting in your world? It's about visiting, having a plan with someone that you care about, or maybe it's a video chat. The key here is that you need to hear this person's voice.   It might be your mom.  It might be your brother. Just make an outreach today to someone who lifts you up  someone in your kitchen cabinet, someone who's a personal cheerleader of yours, reach out to them, call or visit them, and this will help you decrease your cortisol levels and increase your oxytocin or the love hormone. You'll get a better hormonal response to stress by doing this step.  And you can do it today.

 And step five is the lowish lift step. It is probably, I'll be honest, the hardest step that I'm going to talk to you about today, but it's incredibly important. And I want you to consider starting it as soon as you can.

Step 5: Set & RESPECT Boundaries

And it is setting boundaries, setting boundaries, and then actually respecting boundaries.

What does that look like? Well, It's the most involved, but it starts with you. It starts with your calendar. It starts with.  looking through every single thing that you do during the week during your work day and saying, am I doing the rightest work at the rightest respectful time? So what that might look like is you look at your calendar and you see, Hey, there's five recurring meetings that I go to.

That I actually don't contribute to and I don't really need to be in someone else can take notes and I can review those notes or they can know, Hey, you can tell me about this meeting if there's something I need to know. Or if there's a task that you do at work that you see is low value and takes a good portion of your time, talk to your manager about potentially letting that go and letting it maybe go to somewhere else.

Or if it's actually low value, just actually  not doing it anymore. There's some kind of an elegance in calling out low value work and releasing it and not continuing to prioritize it. It's better for the business. It's better for you. It also might look like reestablishing boundaries on your times, your working time, when you are actually available to work and when you are not available to work.

And when your team can reach out to you, when your project, when your colleagues, when your boss can reach out to you and expect help. A prompt reply and when you will be not replying promptly. So this might look like  before you leave on a vacation, you make it very, very clear that you will not be available for work calls during your vacation, but here are the people you can reach out to in my absence and that I will follow up with them when I return.

It may look like. Not working after hours, not even being available after hours, unless it's an emergency or a crisis. And we're going to talk about this on an upcoming episode, defining clearly what is an emergency, what is a crisis, and what are the expectations on availability for those things, if it's a component of your job.

You don't need to take your computer with you or your phone with you unless it's absolutely a requirement of your job. When you are on vacation, figure a way that you can have a proxy for your work while you are gone and then be gone. That will help you, especially if you're having a depletion of energy, you will get that time to rebuild your resilience.

Now I'm going to be very, very honest with you and say, I was the worst at this. I don't think I ever took a vacation or time off without having my phone and my computer with me. And that is something that when my energy was fine and when my resilience was high and my mindset was strong and my professional efficacy was positive, that was fine for me.

But as a leader and as a people leader, that was a terrible example to set.  Right now in the U. S., workers polled say they believe at a rate of 40%  That to be successful at work, you must.  that burnout is inevitable. And it's because of examples that leaders like I was are setting where you cannot take your time off.

You cannot take your weekend, you cannot take your vacations. We need to start putting these boundaries up for not only our own health, but to model healthy behavior in the broader workplace. So  I, I think it's time for you put up some boundaries. 

Some Advice for Severe Burnout

And now I'm going to talk to those of you that if you're still here with me, you say, I am too tired, Jennifer, I am too depleted.

I am not able to take any of those steps. There are going to be people that are feeling that way. I know this because I was one of those people. And if you are one of those people, here is what I recommend. Before you quit,  reach out to your HR team at your company and talk about every option you have to help your recovery while you're still  at your job.

The reason this is so important is because You leaving a job because of burnout does not solve your burnout problem. Your burnout problem comes with you like a real, real heavy suitcase into your next role unless you go through some of these steps. So there are some things you can evaluate before you leave that might help you even if the job when you come back to it isn't the appropriate job for you, if it's not a good fit.

That's the right time to start your job search from a place of resilience. So here's some ways that maybe if all of those steps are still too heavy of a lift, you can evaluate getting on the road to recovery.

Here's one. Take your vacation. If you have vacation time available to you, it is not a terrible idea to use that vacation as a burnout recovery.  I know that's not as exciting as going to Ibiza or to the south of France or to,  you know, Florida. But if you take a burnout recovery vacation with the vacation time available to you, it is time away from work in a very expected,  you can really double down on getting a jump on your own recovery.

If that isn't going to do it, or you don't have vacation time available to you, potentially you can explore the opportunity of taking a leave of absence, a medical leave, And that leave might be termed in your company or your country as a stress leave.

Some countries in the world actually have a prescribed recovery path when you have a stress leave. But you may need to be working with a medical professional or a mental health professional, which is why I think it's really important to get those people on your team after taking your assessment. You work with your HR representative to See what's available to you in your company.

And if this type of leave is available, you may need to partner with your doctor, with your counselor to help make it so, 

and if all else fails, you may want to explore  taking a sabbatical, a sabbatical might be available to you and your company time away from the company. You're still holding your job for when you return.

You're still able to take a good amount of time to figure out what your "What's Next"  is and do some resiliency building. Do some of these steps to recovery and not have the burden of continuing in the job while you're doing that recovery step.

Wow.

Subscribe, Share & Next Episode

So we talked about it. We talked about five lowish lift, powerful science back steps that you can take.

And we also talked about the, you know, what if I'm a person that's past that and  some things that you can think about to take time away to begin your recovery while you're still employed. 

These steps are really meant to help you again, no matter what profile you match to when you assess yourself and they are a great starting place for you to begin with even now, right now, while you still have a job and if you're burned out and do not have a job, there is absolutely nothing stopping you from taking your assessment today and getting a start on your own path to recovery.

So you're bringing your best. Best you into your job search.

 If you liked what you heard today, please subscribe to the Podgress Report. It helps me understand who's listening, who's engaged, and what types of topics resonate with you. If you think this podcast can be helpful to someone that you know, please share it.

If you've got feedback for me on what I'm talking about, how I'm talking about it, or maybe you know somebody that I should know, maybe a potential guest or researcher I should be connected with. I'm going to give you in the show notes a way to connect with me so you can let me know all about it. Also on the next episode, I'd love you to join me.

We will be talking about how you can find your superpower at work, why it's important to know your superpower and some tactics you can take to make sure that the way you view your superpower is how others also view your superpower and what to do if it's not a match. Until then, thank you so much.

Thank you so much for being here with me today on the Podcrest Report. I wish you nothing but the best on your path to recovery and workplace wellness.   And until next time, here's to your progress.


The Very Important Fine Print

Hi, it's Jen with some very important, fine print. This podcast and its associated properties does not provide medical or mental health advice, the information including, but not limited to recorded in live episodes, text graphics, images, and any other material contained on the property or the podcast are for your informational purposes only. Nothing on the pod Gress report is intended to substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always  seek the advice of your physician or other qualified provider with  questions you may have. Regarding a medical condition or mental health or wellness concern,   never disregard professional medical or mental wellness advice or delay in seeking it because of something you've heard or content you've read or reviewed. Via this podcast. And please, if you're under duress or considering suicide, please reach out right this very minute to the suicide and cRisis lifeline by dialing 9, 8, 8 in the U S. 

Or searching for the helplines available to you in your country.