Resilience isn’t enough
Christina Maslach’s “Burnout: The Cost of Caring” was one of the first books I read on burnout in social sector leadership. Her framework is helpful for coaching leaders because it emphasizes that burnout is as systemic as it is individual.
Burnout, Maslach writes, is a state of depletion resulting from chronic stress. People who care for people—health care workers, teachers, psychotherapists, social workers—are most susceptible.
Although every burnout story is different, Maslach argues that each follows a similar path.
The first stop is exhaustion. We start out with high energy and the best of intentions but soon feel overwhelmed, overloaded, and overextended in meeting problems that surpass our ability to give. Bearing the trauma of others becomes traumatizing, as the feelings of stress and powerlessness become constant.
The next stop is cynicism. Here, we try to conserve their energy by pulling back emotionally. We detach from our work and cut ourselves off from the empathy we need to serve well. We treat others with contempt and, over time, turn our contempt inward.
The final stop is feelings of ineffectiveness. Exhausted and cynical, we begin to view our work—and ourselves—as a waste. And then we give up.
When we tell our burnout stories, Maslach writes, we often blame ourselves. “People work,” after all, is hard. Positive feedback is rare and primary and secondary traumatization are high, leaving us feeling resentful and hurt. We might have bought into a model of care that puts too much pressure on us. We might not be good at drawing boundaries. We're addicted to guilt.
In other words, if we’re feeling burned out, we often think we need to be more resilient, meditate more, speak up for ourselves, or be more grateful.
And that's true to a point. Sometimes, we may need to change how we approach our work.
Yet, Maslach argues that blaming ourselves for our burnout deflects attention from the structural issues in play. When we're feeling burned out, she believes we also need to wonder:
How much control do we have over the work we do?
How well respected is our profession?
How well are we paid?
How supportive are our coworkers?
How healthy is our organizational culture?
How healthy is our society?
How are our policies and procedures generating necessary stress?
How supportive is our leadership?
Maslach contends that how we answer these questions is just as important, if not more important, for healing our burnout.
Being resilient isn't enough. We need to change the system, too.
As a coach, then, I help by working on both sides of the problem. We work together to build you back up while also helping you to break out of the system that’s breaking you.
Want to learn more? Book your free Discovery Session here.
