Four top tips to prevent burnout

When Kelly Swingler first experienced burnout in 2013 she had no idea she was even feeling stressed. “I had this chronic back pain, headaches I was passing out from. I was being admitted to A&E and they were doing all of these tests – that went on for seven months… I didn't take a day off.” 

Swingler was a busy HR leader at the time, juggling countless conflicting demands on her time. When she developed severe endometriosis and Crohn’s disease, and ended up having two operations in the space of 48 hours, she decided enough was enough and quit her job. But it wasn’t until she got a devastating call that her replacement had died in her sleep while on a leadership residential, that she recognised the huge impact burnout was having on so many – and decided to do something about it.

Burnout on the rise

Today, Swingler is a self-proclaimed ‘Burnotologist’, a TedX speaker and author (her latest titled F*ck Burnout), and works with leaders and organisations to prevent others from burning out. And her advice is in strong demand. Exact figures are hard to come by, given burnout is not a medically diagnosed condition, but cases have undoubtedly risen steeply since the 1990s – with the World Health Organisation (WHO) officially recognising it as an occupational phenomenon in 2019 and describing it as a “syndrome conceptualised as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”. 

It's not just long hours

This definition might suggest workloads and excessive hours are the primary cause. But this is something of a “myth”, says Criag Jackson, professor of occupational health psychology at Birmingham City University, with factors such as unfair treatment and poor recognition often also at play. This was definitely the case for Swingler: her department constantly being treated as the poor relation was the overriding driver in her eventual breakdown, she reports. “The ingredients for burnout can be varied and depend upon individual worker circumstances,” agrees Jackson, adding that it “is related to jobs but can also happen in other areas of life”.

Competing project pressures

Nonetheless, it is the pressurised, multitasking nature of the world of project management that arguably presents a particular risk to its professionals. “You may be working on multiple projects… as such you may be ‘giving your all’ multiple times a day,” points out Audrey Tang, chartered psychologist and author of The Leader’s Guide to Wellbeing. “Sometimes you may want to focus on something detailed, but there isn’t the time; sometimes your attention has been split so greatly it becomes difficult to regain focus… add to that multiple deadlines that can cross time zones, and you do unfortunately have extra issues which can contribute to burnout.”

So how can project professionals and managers prevent this occurring in the first place?

1) First address the work itself

The most important prevention steps will involve making work ‘good’ in the first place. As above, this won’t just be a case of keeping an eye on workloads, says Jackson: “Effective steps involve organising work to make it productive, stimulating, challenging but not too hard or impossible to do – and making the workplace less adversarial or impossible to succeed in.”

2) Put well-being at the heart of how work is organised

Good sleep hygiene is integral to preventing burnout, says Jackson. Employers should provide quality breaks during the working day, and avoid long shifts and the use of too much overtime. It’s all too common on projects for professionals to overwork as deadlines loom but this has to be prevented as much as possible with realistic planning or extra resource being commandeered.

3) Take personal responsibility for well-being

Employees can’t keep themselves well without an environment in support of this. But once they have this, the individual themselves is ultimately the only one who can truly ensure they take steps to stay well. Tang advises: “Timetable yourself into every day, making that commitment to yourself as important as your commitments to others. Whether you use that time to meditate, take a class, read, or simply have a cup of tea (while it’s still hot), clearing some headspace will also help you be more effective when you release the pause button.” Swingler advises people to “forget boundaries, create non-negotiables” and schedule downtime into any given project from the start. She adds: “For every task that drains your energy and mood, do two things that energise you – managing your energy is twice as important as managing your time.”

4) Stay alert to the signs among team members

Having regular conversations with team members will help managers spot the warning signs early, advises Neil Greenberg, psychiatrist at King’s College London and MD of March on Stress. “It is important that managers feel confident (through experience or training) having a mental health focused conversation. There is lots of evidence which shows that staff working for psychologically savvy managers have much better mental health and are more productive.” Signs someone could be at risk of burnout include: irritability, tearfulness, zoning out, seeming tired, a change in eating habits, a lapse in personal grooming, susceptibility to illness, and even a slower or more slumped walk. But remember: the causes of burnout can be many and varied, and so too can the symptoms. So managers having close working relations with staff and knowing what ‘normal’ looks like for each individual, will be key.

 

You may also be interested in:

• Mental health toolkit for project managers
• The most crucial project you’ll ever manage: How to maintain your well-being
• The importance of prioritising Employee well-being