Burnout and poor mental health in project professionals

Trigger warning – this blog discusses issues related to poor mental health and discusses a specific experience. 

In an APM Research Fund Series paper entitled The Wellbeing of Project Professionals, the authors stated “project-based work has long been characterised as frenetic, fast-paced and dynamic. Project professionals typically encounter high expectations and severe pressure to deliver projects on time and within budget, and to reconcile changing expectations of scope due to dynamic factors, such as new initiatives from the project sponsor. Therefore, it is not surprising that project professionals work in a stressful environment.”  

The issue of burnout and poor mental health is particularly prevalent in project professionals for the reasons described above. Burnout can be described as “an ongoing state of feeling overwhelmed, fatigued and emotionally drained due to consistent stress in your work, family, or social life”. Individuals may experience poor mental health in a variety of ways and each person’s story will be different, however all are equally valid. I want to share my own experience briefly in this blog. If you’re experiencing poor mental health, one of the best things you can do is to speak to someone you trust. Most organisations have some form of employee assistance programme with mental health support as a key component. There are some links at the bottom of this piece should you need them. 

In 2008, I was a confident, outgoing and fulfilled middle manager in a large UK Defence company. I had a wonderful wife and two ace children. I guess I had always been someone with a degree of anxiety which manifested itself in a lot of nervous energy. I had experienced, what I now realise, was a bout of very poor mental health when I was 18, around the time of applying for university, that led me to feeling quite depressed and reserved and went through this again in the second year at university where it also led to me experiencing Agoraphobia for the first time.  

In 2008, I was promoted to a role with a significant increase in responsibility with a large team. This role had been previously occupied by someone with more experience than me with immense attention to detail; my strengths, as they are now, were in being very people-oriented, bringing the best out in people and motivational to work with (I have been told anyway!). It seemed though that in this new role, there was far more focus on detail and politics, and I began to struggle.  

I noticed the signs of a churning stomach, lack of sleep and starting to feel the signs of agoraphobia returning. I didn’t really feel able to reach out to anyone at this point and, to cut a long story short, I ended up becoming quite ill with severe anxiety and agoraphobia. I spent around 8 weeks off work during which time the organisation was brilliant. I arranged to have NHS counselling sessions but, ironically, it was difficult for me to go to them owing to my agoraphobia. I was then prescribed with anti-depressants which, I think, helped to take the edge off the anxiety and supported my recovery - though you must be prepared for patience when you choose to come off them. I began to feel better and was slowly re-introduced back into work and to a role that far better suited my strengths.  

While working with someone who really understood, she suggested that I share my experience within the business, and I was filmed talking about my mental health for the monthly internal communications brief seen by more than 14,000 people. Many people said that I was brave, but I was simply telling my story hoping that it might help just one person to talk to someone. I’ve spoken about the issue openly ever since.  I came out of the experience stronger than before as I was far more aware of my threshold for stress, but this is not to say I haven’t had difficult periods since then; I think that is just part of life’s rich tapestry.  

The key thing I have learned through all of this is that you can and will get better. It takes time but you will. Be patient, be kind to yourself and talk to someone. 

Home - Mind 

Rethink Mental Illness 

Mental health services - NHS 

 

You may also be interested in:

• Join the APM People Interest Network lunchtime webinar delivered on Tuesday 12th November
• Mental health toolkit for project managers
  
• Looking after your mental health in high pressured environments