1. Don't Burn Out
or Fade Away
Dousing The Fires of Occupational Burnout
Avleen Vig (@avleen)

2. Dr Christina Maslach
Dr Michael P. Leiter
Etsy Ops Team
Family and Friends
Acknowledgements
2

3. Agenda
ACT 1
# What is Occupational
Burnout?
ACT 2
# A story of
burning out
ACT 3
# Staying sober

4. What is
occupational
burnout?
4

5. • Feeling tired a lot
• General unhappiness with your job
• Taking a break from your job to tend to other priorities
• Feeling bored because your current project sucks
What is NOT Burn Out?
5

6. • Three concurrent symptoms:
• Exhaustion
• Cynicism
• Inefficacy
OK, So What Is Burnout?
6

7. • Antecedents of Burnout:
• Manageable workload
• Job control
• Reward
• Fairness
• Values
• Community
OK, So What Is Burnout?
7

8. Work less, smile more!
Burnout solved, right?

9. WRONG
HTTPS://TWITTER.COM/NBCSNL/STATUS/782429425539219456

10. The path to
burning out

11. Burning Out: A Twelve Step Program
1. Compulsion to prove yourself
2. Working harder and harder
3. Ignoring other priorities: work/life balance, family, friends, resting
4. Starting to blame others and your job
(i) Cynicism comes on strong
(ii) You struggle to isolate the true causes of your stress and problems
11

12. Burning Out: A Twelve Step Program
5. Only your work matters now, YOU MUST SUCCEED!
6. You start blaming your workload, denying anything is wrong with you
7. You withdraw from non-work life
Thoughts of work consume your waking and sleeping times
You might start dreaming of work
8. Others start to notice changes in behaviour
You don't believe them
Or you feel they're not helping
What do they know? They can't possibly understand!
12

13. Burning Out: A Twelve Step Program
9. Inefficacy is in full force
You don't see yourself or others as valuable
10. Emotional withdraw and emptiness
11. Depression kicks in
Exhaustion and feelings of hopelessness
12. Full burn out syndrome
Emotional and physical collapse
Deep depression
Suicidal tendencies
Medical attention sometimes required
13 FREUDENBERGER/NORTH, "BURNED OUT", SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN MIND, JUNE 2006

14. OK, That was intense.
Take a deep breath…

16. A story of
burning out
16

17. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• Started in June 2013
• A "simple" project: Migrate from a proprietary to an open-source system
• Steep learning curve for new system
• Lots to learn, lots of fun!
• Really wanted to prove I could pull this off
• … prove it to whom? Hmm …
17

18. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• Started working a few late nights
• No-one minds much, it's important work!
• Only person on the project
• Everyone else is busy
• If I pull this off myself, it'll be amazing!
• … I can work a little harder, right? Hmm …
18

19. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• September 2013, summer is over
• Can't sleep in every day, family needs me
• Starting to feel more tired
• Family starts picking up the slack at home… Hmm…
19

20. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• December 2013, exhaustion is in full effect
• Learning has been difficult, but I made it!
• Colleagues are proud of my work
20

21. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• March 2014, reality is starting to kick in
• Work is taking much longer than expected
• Refusing to accept I can't complete this
• Feelings of inefficacy are quite strong
• Why won't others help me?
• Are they plotting against me?
21

22. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• June 2014, things are dark
• Stopped turning up to work on time
• Work is depressing
• Life is depressing
• Feeling hopeless
22

23. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
23
CONSPIRACY!

24. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
24

25. 3 hours later…
How I Burnt Out and Recovered
25

26. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• First vacation in 5 years!
• Disengagement time is long (~>1 week)
• Family and friends are really important
• You need a life outside work
26

27. How I Burnt Out and Recovered
• When I returned to work
• Starting over, re-learning my job
• Small steps
• Helping others first
• This takes time - sometimes months
27

28. Recovering and
staying sober
28

29. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Identify which areas are disconnected:
• Workload, Job Control, Reward, Fairness, Values, Community
• How can you re-establish that connection?
• First define the problem, then find a solution
• Rebuild self-confidence:
• Start with small wins in your work
• Doesn't have to be significant, just successful
• Slowly build up to bigger work
29

30. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Workload
• Are you too available?
• Is there too much work?
• Is the pressure to complete work too high?
30

31. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Job control
• Are you micromanaged?
• Do you have weak leadership?
• Are teams ineffective?
31

32. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Reward
• Do you need more money?
• Could more perks, rather than money, help?
• Is your work being recognised?
32

33. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Fairness
• Disrespect
• Discrimination
33

34. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Community
• Do people act in divisive ways?
• Do you have communication problems?
• Do you have trouble handling conflicts in the team?
34

35. Pulling Yourself Out of Burnout
• Values
• Do your views align with your company's?
• Do you and your team mates care about the same things?
• Are you working towards common and shared goals?
35

36. Your greatest
responsibility
36

37. Help your team stay
sober

38. Signs of Burning Out
• Mood changes
• Are they frequently cynical, unhappy or complaining about their work?
• Reduced efficacy
• Are they producing less work?
• Making mistakes they normally wouldn't?
• Tiredness
• Are they regularly staying up late, or missing deadlines?
• Do they complain of exhaustion?
38

39. Helping Others Out of Burnout
If you see signs of burnout:
• Encourage a longer vacation (2+ weeks)
• Help find tightly scoped tasks
• Each task should be quick (< 1 hour)
• Ask them for answers they know
• Make them feel wanted and valued
• Start looking for bigger tasks over time - it may take months
39

40. Q&A
40
@avleen
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