Building Better Borders: Preventing Burnout
Posted on October 18, 2020 by Claire Vivyan Roberts, One of Thousands of Executive Coaches on Noomii.
With the average age of burnout at 32, contending with new ways of working and blurred boundaries, discover how you can build better borders.
As the UK entered Tier 2 restrictions this week, it felt like we all took a deep breath and prepared to board the corona-coaster once again after a relatively normal summer. Grey skies reflected our mood and our dampened spirits.
As we’ve paused our plans, hopes and ambitions again, we’re facing into a mental health crisis as loneliness, isolation and anxiety creep back in (if they ever left). In a professional environment, burnout is becoming an even bigger problem, with the average age of a sufferer now at 32. This feels far too young.
I was invited to speak on a panel with experts from the communications and engagement agency Scarlett Abbott, to discuss these challenges.
The pandemic has forced an acceleration of digital-first behaviour, including our move from an office environment to working from home. We all acknowledge that these new ways of working have given us some wonderful experiences; more time with family, a realisation that presentism was the nonsense that we knew it was anyway, and we got to know more about our colleagues’ lives. Coronavirus has been a great leveller, and ushered in a new, more authentic style of communicating and of leadership.
But we’ve also experienced high and sustained pressure, exhaustion, uncertainty, screen fatigue, isolation, disengagement and sometimes physical discomfort in our new virtual work worlds. Not to mention those on the frontline, who don’t even have the luxury to choose home vs. an office environment.
So what’s the answer? Well, creating new boundaries might be a start, as our existing ones have become blurred after the mix of home and work has become less clear.
So how do you establish these?
Communication – now more than ever, communication with your team and with your manager is vitally important. Checking in on your colleagues as much as you can and seeing how they are managing is fundamental to managing or collaborating well.
Negotiation – We all have our non-negotiables. These might be the school run, dropping shopping to an elderly relative, a lunchtime walk. Define these before you talk to your manager or your team about how you’d ideally like to work.
Flexibility – your manager, your organisation and your team will have their non-negotiables, too. We all have to shift and flex, and evolve as the situation does. We have to co-create new boundaries together.
Our new world needs new borders, and we need to be brave enough to ask for what we need.
