Managing Burnout in Tech with Mindfulness
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The document discusses burnout in the tech community. It defines burnout as a syndrome resulting from chronic workplace stress characterized by feelings of energy depletion, increased mental distance from one's job, and reduced professional efficacy. Gallup surveys found high rates of burnout among millennials and negative impacts of burnout like increased sick days and job turnover. Common cultural issues that contribute to burnout are unfair treatment, high workload, lack of role clarity, unreasonable expectations, poor management, and lack of digital boundaries. The document recommends ways managers, organizations, and individuals can help address burnout through listening, encouraging teamwork, making work purposeful, mindfulness practices, and designing jobs for autonomy.
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Managing Burnout in Tech with Mindfulness
- 1. Managing Burnout in the Tech Community July 26, 2019
- 2. World Health Organization May 29, 2019 Burnout included in the International Classification of Diseases as an occupational phenomenon Burnout is a syndrome conceptualized as resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by three dimensions: feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion increased mental distance from one’s job, or feelings of negativism or cynicism related to one's job reduced professional efficacy
- 3. About me Managing Partner at Sleight-of-Hand Studios Principal at Insightful Culture Decades spent in tech sector Mindfulness and yoga teacher
- 4. Session objectives Understand the causes of burnout in the workplace Identify how management can adjust the organizational culture Understand the concept of mindfulness and the current supporting research Learn how we can become less reactive and reduce stress for a lifetime
- 6. Gallup 2018 Survey of Millennials 28% millennials claimed frequent or constant burnout at work, compared to 21% of older workers Additional 45% say they sometimes feel burned out at work 7 in 10 millennials experience some level of burnout on the job
- 7. 63% of burned out workers are more likely to take a sick day 23% more likely to visit the emergency room Twice as likely to agree that the job interferes with family life Three times as likely to look for another job Half as likely to discuss performance goals with their manager 13% less confident in their performance
- 8. Are you currently suffering from job burnout? OVERALL 57.16% Credit Karma 70.73% Twitch 68.75% Nvidia 65.38% Expedia 65.00% Oath (Yahoo) 63.93% Oracle 63.25% Intuit 62.75% Snapchat 60.40% Lyft 60.16% Cisco 59.70% Amazon 59.53%
- 9. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work
- 10. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work Workload
- 11. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work Workload Lack of role clarity
- 12. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work Workload Lack of role clarity Unreasonable expectations
- 13. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work Workload Lack of role clarity Unreasonable expectations Poor management
- 14. Cultural issues related to burnout Unfair treatment at work Workload Lack of role clarity Unreasonable expectations Poor management Digital boundaries
- 15. What is the effect on our businesses? Sabotaging workforce retention Absenteeism Low productivity Missed deadlines Lack of creativity No long-term vision
- 16. 3 C’s of stress hardiness Suzanne Kobasa, PhD Bring perspective to stressful situations Interpret situations in a less threatening manner Decreases the ability of stressful events to produce reaction in the nervous system
- 17. 3 C’s of stress hardiness Suzanne Kobasa, PhD Challenge
- 18. 3 C’s of stress hardiness Suzanne Kobasa, PhD Challenge Control
- 19. 3 C’s of stress hardiness Suzanne Kobasa, PhD Challenge Control Commitment
- 20. 3 C’s of stress hardiness Suzanne Kobasa, PhD Challenge Control Commitment Connection
- 21. How managers can help
- 26. Give people work that focuses on strengths challenge control commitment connection
- 27. How organizations can help
- 29. Reduce noise and interruptions challenge control commitment connection
- 30. Design jobs for autonomy challenge control commitment connection
- 32. How you can help yourself
- 34. EXTERNAL STRESS EVENTS INTERNAL STRESS EVENTS PERCEPTION: fight, flight, freeze, tend, befriend reactivity STRESS REACTION: Adrenals - cortisol blood pressure, pulse DISREGULATION: chronic hyperarousal, high blood pressure, sleep disorders, headache, backache, anxiety MALADAPTIVE COPING: overwork, overeating, substance abuse BREAKDOWN: exhaustion, loss of drive, loss of enthusiasm, depression, genetic predispositions, heart attack, cancer STRESS RESPONSE: awareness of body & breath awareness of context emotion-focused strategies problem-focused strategies seeing new options quicker recovery of equilibrium, calmness, balance of mind PERCEPTION: mindfulness, appraisal of thoughts, feelings, perceived threats, awareness
- 36. “Mindfulness means paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally.” -Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D. University of Massachusetts Centre for Mindfulness in Medicine
- 37. How do we practice? Focused attention practice Mindful movement Informal practice What we take in
- 38. Study results 40 to 50-year-old meditators had the same amount of gray matter in their prefrontal cortex as the 20 to 30-year-old ones Long-term meditators have larger amounts of gyrification than people who do not meditate Direct correlation was found between the amount of gyrification and the number of meditation years Proof of the brain’s neuroplasticity; the ability adapt to environmental changes fMRIs showing less reactivity and ability to shift from aggressive side of the brain to the creative side
- 39. “Our brains are always being shaped, wittingly or unwittingly. [Mindfulness] is a way of taking responsibility for your own mind.” -Richard Davidson Waisman Center, University of Wisconsin-Madison
- 40. Mindfulness is: Participatory medicine Evidence based practice Non-judgmental focused attention Innate capacity to know what’s happening as it is happening A way of being fully present Awareness Heartfeltness Your relationship with yourself Being secular Mindfulness is not: A technique Creating a blank mind Getting rid of thoughts Deconstruction of the mind Group therapy Goal setting Striving A cure A quick fix Relaxation Cult/religion
- 41. Let’s try this!
- 43. Thank you! Dori Kelner, MS Principal Insightful Culture 703.774.8066 dori.kelner@insightfulculture.com Twitter: @dorikelner LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dorikelner
Editor's Notes
- Anxiety, depression insomnia, emotion/physical exhaustion, loss of cognitive function - STRESS
- 7,500 fulltime US employees
- This is the question that Blind—a workplace app for tech employees—set out to answer through a user survey. The app is used by 40,000 Microsoft employees, 25,000 from Amazon, 10,000 from Google, 7,000 from Uber, 6,000 from Facebook, and thousands from other tech companies, so there is wide representation in their survey results.
- Bias favoritism, Unfair compensation, mistreatment, mistrust of manager, teammates, or executive leadership, bullying, disrespect 2-3 times more likely to experience burnout
- high performance becomes hopeless if drowning in unmanageable workload Too much overtime
- become exhausted trying to figure out what people want from you - 40% don't know what is expected of them
- Good scheduling results in 70% less likelihood of burnout - missing deadlines has snowball effect
- Disconnect from company strategy Expectations of multitasking Micromanagement
- Unloading at end of day and end of week (WSJ – Sunday night is the new Monday Morning and Workers are Miserable Expectations that you should come to work despite physical or mental illness Ever changing industry; Commodization of work
- 5 to 8 percent of national spending on health care as of 2015 Stress is seen as an individual problem, not an employer problem
- The Hardy Executive: Health Under Stress Clinical psychologist – studied executives at Bell Telephone in the 1970s Hardiness is a factor of psychological resilience Certain personality traits protected some from stress affecting their health – learn bring perspective
- Perceive difficulties as challenges, not threats Curious to find new angles and ideas Accept change as the one constant thing in life as an opportunity to grown and learn
- Feel empowered to make things happen – focus on purpose & intent Recognize what is beyond their control – don’t angst, flexible, adaptable Viktor Frankl, psychiatrist at Auschwitz - the one thing that you can not take away from a person is their choice of how they deal with the difficult situations in which they find themselves
- Part of a larger purpose Motivated to find meaning in their work, best effort
- Social support and ability to ask for others for help
- listen to work related problems - 62% less likely to burnout, listen address, care about them as people
- create environment where people help each other and listen
- actively solicit opinions and ideas - gives people a sense of control over their work
- actively solicit opinions and ideas - gives people a sense of control over their work
- 57% less likely to experience chronic burnout
- Provide a support environment - Employee well-being is the right thing to do. Reduces turnover and sick days, and boosts productivity and creativity Maximize productivity and minimize burnout
- Employees should be evaluated by metrics that are under their control. metrics should not be a source of frustration
- must be able to immerse in work, when and where they want
- give people flexibility and control over how work gets done. 43% less likely to burnout when they have a choice in what to do and how much time to spend on them. Reduce ambiguity
- natural office lighting - lifts moods and depression. provide choices for personal preferences create inviting collaboration spaces - 26% less likely to experience chronic burnout - space, whiteboard, teleconferencing
- How do we become fully present? Tree sways with the breeze but doesn’t fall down.
- Stress setpoint
- Coping with stress – automatic habitual stress reactivity
- Stress response – Check for concussion, Don’t let anyone move you
- Ph.D. in molecular biology from MIT biggest role in establishing the scientific credibility of mindfulness in the West founded the Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program in 1979
- “folding” of the cortex, which may allow the brain to process information faster possibly providing further proof of the brain’s neuroplasticity, or ability to adapt to environmental changes 2 Sara Lazar, a neuroscientist at Harvard Medical School - age-related thinning of the frontal cortex that otherwise contributes to the formation of memories https://observer.com/2017/06/neuroscience-mindfulness-brain-when-you-meditate-development/
- Reps in the gym
- Focused attention practice Mind wandering
- When we find the space, when we learn to respond and not react, we will find a life changing experience. One in which we feel less stress, more awareness, loving compassion. It’s not a promise of rainbows and unicorns. Have the strength to try; to fall and get back up. Take responsibility for retraining your brain. Be fully present. Return to your true self.
- There are apps. Not supportive like a teacher-led community. Space of shared presence. Use a timer app or search for MBSR meditations. Offer resources