Leaders: Prevent Burnout
In Your Team
Why it’s critical for leaders to address the risk of workplace burnout
Far from being just a buzzword, burnout is a very real, very serious issue. Despite being a widely misunderstood term, employers and people leaders have a responsibility to understand and address it. Why?
Burnout can be caused by workplace systems.
It’s increasingly acknowledged that burnout isn’t a personal failing, or the sole fault of the individual. It can be caused by failure to address systemic workplace issues.
Employers have a Duty of Care to manage hazards that contribute to burnout.
Australia’s Work Health and Safety laws - and recently strengthened regulations - make it clear that employers have a Duty of Care to manage psychosocial hazards that contribute to burnout, such as role overload, role underload, conflict and lack of role clarity (amongst others).
Employees are unlikely to raise it.
Individuals are reluctant to start the conversation about burnout - around 1 in 3 workers don’t feel that they can talk to their manager about feeling burnt out, for fear of negative consequences.
Employers are the only ones who can address the root causes of burnout.
The individual can only do so much. As Great Place To Work confirms, “root causes of burnout — overwork, a lack of autonomy, or a lack of community — are problems that must be addressed by the organisation.”
Burnout is fundamentally a workplace issue.
In 2019, the World Health Organization classified it as an “occupational phenomenon", a syndrome “resulting from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed”.
Burnout shows up in the workplace.
It’s characterised by exhaustion, increased mental distance or negativism towards one's job, and reduced professional effectiveness. That means, you’ll see it at work.
Burnout has a ripple effect across workplaces.
Burnout and its effects aren’t contained to the individual. If a team leader is burnt out, their team will feel it, as will their colleagues.
Burnout costs employers dearly.
Billions of dollars for Australian businesses each year, in lost productivity, stress-related absenteeism, employee turnover and more. And beyond the dollars and cents, the impacts to team cohesion, morale and resilience.
I’m here to help you take action
by equipping you and your team with:
a deeper understanding of burnout and how it develops,
entirely innovative tools to identify the risk of burnout, and its causes, and
targeted strategies to help prevent burnout from developing or escalating further.
Hi, I’m Alex
What I bring to the conversation about burnout
I bring a unique and powerful mix of credentials to the critical work of preventing and addressing workplace burnout. My approach is grounded in expertise, experience and research.
My story combines:
Over 20 years in professional workplaces, across Corporate, Government, Media and the Cultural sector. Not purely theoretical, I’m intimately familiar with the workplace processes, systems and dynamics that contribute to burnout
Extensive people management and senior leadership experience, as well as professional leadership training, including Women in Leadership Australia’s Advanced Leadership program
My lived experience developing burnout symptoms. I have firsthand knowledge of how burnout develops, and know its personal, professional and organisational costs
The founding of my Work Life Consultancy, Arkie & Co., where I work with clients locally and internationally to improve their work lives and reduce burnout and the risk of burnout with targeted interventions and support.
Findings from dozens of in-depth interviews that I’ve conducted with professionals across industries to understand the stressors in their work lives and how that translates to burnout symptoms
The creation of my entirely original Burnout risk assessment model, developed to expand our understanding of the causes of burnout and to help identify burnout risk patterns before symptoms become obvious.
My multifaceted perspective gives me unique insight that purely theoretical solutions may miss.
It makes me an authentic and authoritative voice on the realities of burnout, and a persuasive communicator who can effect positive change.
My goal is to share my findings, my framework, and my solutions to help people build workplaces and careers that sustain, rather than consume.
Enquire About Group Training to Prevent Burnout
I offer customised Workplace Burnout Prevention and Risk Assessment training for groups.
This professional development training is appropriate for executives, leadership groups, management teams, senior professionals with people management responsibilities and other people leaders who are looking to address the burnout risk in their teams.
This training will provide your team with:
A deeper understanding of how burnout can present in the workplace (including the “hidden” symptoms we’re not expecting)
Research-based knowledge of what causes burnout and why
An understanding of your individual burnout risk, and what’s caused it
Strategies and tools to address the causes of burnout risk in your specific team or organisation.
If you’re observing the symptoms of workplace burnout starting to appear in your team, you have nothing to gain by waiting to see what happens next.
Use the form to send me an enquiry, or email me directly.