Resilience, burnout, and Easter

The Covid-19 pandemic may be “over” – (more or less) but according to stats, burnout is still high. 35% of ALL Canadian workers. And this does not include those who retired early during Covid or those with work disability from psychiatric diagnoses that overlap with symptoms of burnout (such as depression). And it began before Covid.

Officially, “burnout” is a workplace condition, an “occupational phenomenon,” according to the World Health Organization. It is marked by fatigue, cynicism, and decreased professional efficacy (inability to do the work).

Why are so many people burning out?

There are of course factors in the world of work that are hard—bad bosses who don’t care about their employees, bullying, toxic workplace culture, too much work, too long hours, and so forth. Then the trauma of Covid happened, making matters much worse in many sectors, particularly healthcare.

In her book, The Burnout Epidemic, Jennifer Moss of Harvard Business Review, lists the six most common workplace causes of burnout:

Excessive workload
Perceived lack of control
Lack of reward or recognition
Poor relationships
Lack of fairness
Values mismatch

There is good data to support that healthy work, with a positive workplace culture, is health promoting. On the other side of the coin, though, as Jeffrey Pfeffer points out in Dying for a Paycheck, toxic workplaces can be harmful to health and well-being in both the physical and psychological realms.

It behooves workplace leaders (owners, CEOs, and managers) to understand their impact on workplace well-being, and to learn how to address the gaps contributing to their burned out workers and retention problems. Invariably, it needs to start with their own self-leadership (including their own self-care and healing journey).

Personal worker risk factors

Individual employees also come to the workplace with their own journeys and experiences, irrespective of their work environment. What do we know of those risk factors for ill-health or burnout?

There are at least three main risk factors (apart from being physically out of shape) that may lead to the lack of resilience to come to work, and do hard things:

Unresolved and unprocessed childhood trauma (both neglect and frank psychological, physical, or sexual abuse)
Ongoing life stressors (single parenting, care of elders, separation or divorce, loneliness, etc. etc.) with inevitable coping mechanisms (such as substance abuse)
Personality traits (there are 3 for sure – the highly sensitive person, the empath, and Type Ts who are risk takers)

Beside expecting a great place to work (which is what everyone wants and deserves), we ALL have a personal responsibility to pursue our own healing journey. Not one of us has arrived! We only need to examine the actions of world leaders where unhealed people end.

Resilience and Easter

So, what does the Good Friday and Easter story have to do with resilience?

People are more resilience when they have ALL their needs met in a balanced way. This fact has found its way into the world of work and business (and sages and people of faith have written about for millennia).

The following graphics are from research and work done by Tony Swartz of Harvard Business Review:

Of our known four core needs (physical, psychological, relational, and spiritual), research of almost 20,000 employees found that only 7% of workers have their 4 basic core needs met (at work).

But illustrated in the next graphic are the effects on productivity and well-being:

When all four core needs are met, engagement, retention, stress reduction, focus, life satisfaction, and positive energy at work all improve.

Given that one of those core needs is spiritual, the Easter Story, for those who do follow Jesus in their faith journey, is highly significant. Not only does this give people of faith hope in the afterlife, it is also a source of strength and energy in the now-life.

Here is what Paul wrote about that in Ephesians 1:19-20

“I pray that you will continually experience the immeasurable greatness of God’s power made available to you through faith. Then your lives will be an advertisement of this immense power as it works through you! This is the mighty power that was released when God raised Christ from the dead and exalted him to the place of highest honor and supreme authority in the heavenly realm!”
Apostle Paul, in The Passion Translation

How culture affects resilience

Much is being written about cultural trends, resilience, and loss of mental well-being—from Free Range Kids, Lost Connections, to Dopamine Nation, just to name a few. Then there is advertising for instant cures for everything. And device and social media addiction.

Faith and religious institutions have gotten a bad rap recently from past misdeeds (which today’s leaders are increasingly acknowledging and repentant of) but to throw the baby out with the bath water on the road to atheism has historically resulted in even worse outcomes—the genocide of the Holocaust and millions executed under Stalinism.

There is strong evidence from research that healthy spirituality, and healthy faith community, are health promoting.

At the time of this writing, we are in what followers of Jesus call “Holy Week.” We at IHTC challenge you to reflect in your own spiritual journey this week during the Easter Season.

Next steps

Regardless of where you are in your journey, from frank skepticism to a strong faith, we at IHTC are here to serve you on that journey. We provide group workshops, individual and couple restorative therapy, as well as a resources for leaders. We do not discriminate against any faith, ethnicity, or gender. Like one song-writer sings, “We all bleed the same.”

If you identify yourself as an empath (what we also call “Burden Bearing”), we are offering a two session workshop to help you with healthier boundaries.

Also, if you experienced rejection as a child, or as an adult, an upcoming five session workshop is being offered. Check our Events Page for more information and to register.

Thank you for journeying with us. On a personal note, my wife and I just returned from a 50 day “pilgrimage” around the United States that has been inspiring and refreshing. In part of that journey we were accompanied by some of our IHTC team. We look forward to sharing more.