Podcast Episode 49 | Rethinking Burnout and Why it is Important to Address it at the Organizational Level

Becoming a lawyer made Paula Davis realize that she’d always been destined for one kind of job: teaching! She just took a less-than-typical route to make it happen.

After earning her undergraduate degree in psychology, Paula graduated from law school. Working for corporate America eventually burned her out. That’s when she returned to her plans to teach.

She went back to school, graduating from the University of Pennsylvania’s Applied PositivePsychology program. As part of the university’s Resiliency Program, she taught Army personnel coping skills for depression. Based on this education, Paula was able to finally become a teacher.

Of her time in the program, Paula says, “It taught me about how to teach adults and how to learn these types of skills because I was a lawyer—I had no clue how to do that.” She credits the program with giving her the tools she needed to start the Stress and Resilience Institute(SRI). She’s also the author of the book “Beating Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience.”

In this episode of the Prosperous Doc®, our host Shane Tenny, CFP®, welcomes Paula Davis to discuss the work taking place at the SRI. The institute’s areas of research include the effects of stress and burnout in industries including tech, the military, and healthcare, and strategies to help individuals and leaders better manage their working environments.

Paula also discusses what she calls the Core Six causes of burnout, and a strategy called PRIME.

“Each letter stands for a really important competency or set of skills that a team, individuals, and leaders can implement to create this great environment and slow burnout,” she says.

Company: Stress and Resilience Institute

Book: Bearing Burnout at Work: Why Teams Hold the Secret to Well-Being and Resilience

Words of wisdom: “[Resilience] is largely misunderstood because we equate resilience with making me tougher... It was [really] about helping them recognize and understand how to navigate everyday challenges and significant challenges.

Connect:  LinkedIn | Twitter | Email

•  Stress and burnout are not the same. Everyone feels fluctuating levels of stress at work. Maybe it’s up one day because you have a deadline, and down the next when your workload has decreased comfortably. Burnout is the result of chronic stress, and often manifests in small ways. The challenge, Paula says, is determining whether you’re experiencing normal levels of work-related stress, or if you’re reaching the burnout stage.
  
• Address burnout at the organizational level. Burnout isn’t just an individual issue: It’susually caused by problems that are present throughout the organization. Unfortunately, managers and supervisors often don’t notice the true extent of these issues, and the impact on workers, until it’s too late.
  
• The PRIME way to address burnout at work. Paula uses the acronym PRIME to describe tools teams can use to prevent burnout. It stands for psychological safety and needs; relationships; impact; mental strength; and energy.

[02:33] A long time coming: Paula Davis says that although COVID-19 exacerbated burnout, Americans have been suffering from a burnout crisis for quite some time. It's urgent that professional leaders take action. 

[08:00] Rethink resilience: When people hear the term "resilient", they assume it means to toughen up. Paula, however, defines "resilience" as the ability to handle the daily and major challenges without feeling overwhelmed.

[10:00] Recognize the signs: Paula says burnout is the combination of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion, and chronic cynicism. People should look out for these three components. 

[14:57] Restart at the top: According to Paula, individual instances of burnout often reflect an issue that's prevalent throughout the workplace. Burnout therefore needs to be addressed as a systemic issue, not as the experience of one individual.

[18:58] The Core Six: Paula identifies the Core Six causes of burnout in the workplace: Lack of flexibility, unmanageable workload, lack of community, unfairness, disconnected values, and lack of recognition.

[32:52] Approach with care: Before approaching a colleague you think is showing possible signs of burnout, Paula advises first considering your relationship with them. When you open up the conversation, make it easy for them to talk, without feeling judged or criticized - something Paula calls "humble curiosity."

[41:01] Harness skills and tools: Paula's acronym, PRIME, identifies skill sets individuals and teams need to learn to help them address burnout in the workplace, and hopefully prevent it from taking root. 

[03:07] "If I could give folks a simple definition or a simple formula for what causes burnout, it's too many job demands and too few job resources."

[13:05] "[Burnout is] the combination of chronic physical and emotional exhaustion, and chronic cynicism, and also then feeling this sense of detachment."

[15:23] "I think burnout as the individual manifestation of a workplace system or cultural issue... This is another place where we go wrong in the burnout conversation: We think of it as purely an individual experience, or purely an individual problem to be solved by individuals."