S3 E57: Prioritizing, practicing and role modeling boundaries to prevent burnout
with mental health expert Alison Butler
Key Takeways
I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety and actually, you know, once I got past the initial sort of surprise of that, I was actually very happy about it because it really forced me to take a look at my own wellbeing in a different way. So I completely changed my career to become a mental health first aid trainer and to do the other types of work that I do now, working with individuals and workplaces to help support mental wellbeing.
What I was experiencing was likely burnout connected. I was really exhausted all the time. I was very irritable. I just had no energy or motivation for the things that I was interested in. And now the term that resonates with me a lot that I hear a lot of people use to describe their feelings is that feeling of numbness. Just this general lack of caring, and tired, so tired really low energy.
I just was starting to find that every time I got interrupted, which was constantly, with the emails and the phone and other people needing or wanting something from me and I was a fairly senior employee there at the time as well with a lot of years of experience and people would lean on me for that, so just the constant interruptions and then trying to bring my brain back to the task that I was trying to do I was really frustrated.
Motherhood has been a huge piece of this journey for me. And I really didn't feel like I was a good version of me at home. I actually think that my family was getting the worst version of me just because that irritability, I think that was where that really showed up.
Do I want to go around feeling like a shell of myself or do I want to feel like a good version of myself? And that has been for me, for my children, for my spouse, I've really chosen to make changes and do the work that allows me to find this better harmony between motherhood, career, self care, all of these things that are important to me. And that's been very liberating for me.
One of the big challenges that I see is that we sit in a one hour presentation and someone tells us how to manage our stress. And it all sounds really good. But then we go about our days and our weeks and we just revert back to the things that we always do. And I really wanted to help people work on these skills, figure out what works for them and what doesn't work for them, and then practice the skills in their own life. So that we can work on preventing further stages of burnout which is so important.
I think it comes down to prioritizing the mental wellbeing or supporting the mental wellbeing of your people as an organization. And mental health challenges are on the rise and from that we see in the workplace, increased absenteeism and impact on productivity, potentially additional like sick leave costs. There's a bottom line impact there for employers. So if you look at the cost of training people and caring about people and not just to check a box, but to actually start making changes from a leadership perspective. \
I think a lot of workplaces, and while I think it's fabulous for them to have wellness programs like gym memberships and healthy eating workshops and employee assistance programs and all these are all really important pieces. However it's so important to be able to look at job roles and outputs. And are we expecting our employees to be on 24 7? If I send you an email at 11:00 PM, do I expect you to respond? So from a culture perspective I think that often times organizations they have things in place that look good on paper, but from a culture perspective, people are working more and more.
We can't just say, okay, now we care about your mental health. We have to be able to show it in the actions that we do. But I think organizations have to be willing to say, okay, we need to look at what's working and what isn't working, and we need to be willing to listen to people. And see what's working and what's not working. And, sometimes I feel like it's just that let's check that mental health box.
If you are a manager within an organization, how you demons rate your own mental wellness absolutely has a trickle effect. If you show other people that you're creating boundaries around your work life and your home life all of these things, if you are open about supporting your own mental wellbeing, all of these things I think can have maybe a lot more of an impact than we even think.
Many of us have been taught to put others first. And our days are filled with commitments to others and our own needs often get pushed to the back burner. And if we are going to be a well version, of ourselves. If we are going to avoid burnout, we have to be able to make time for ourselves in our days. But the initial piece is changing our mindset around that and believing that this is something that is good for us and prioritizing it no matter what. And then from that comes the daily work and the commitment to actually do it, but the mindset has to come first, because if you don't believe that you are worthy or deserving of that, It's really difficult to make the behavior shifts.
The companies that are doing the best in addressing mental wellbeing in the workplace, they don't just have great wellness programs, they have leaders who are actively supporting mental health, whether that be through implementing training throughout the workplace, like we've spoken about or being open about their own mental health experiences and speaking openly about mental health. Again, not just a checkbox on a list, a real culture shift around supporting mental wellbeing. And I think that's the real key. That's the real kind of first step around making lasting impact and change for organizations. It's by doing, rather than just saying.
Bio
Alison Butler is a mom of 2 from Newfoundland and Labrador on the East Coast of Canada. She is a certified Mental Health First Aid (MHFA) facilitator and creator of The Energy Answer, an online program that supports personalized journeys to better understand and overcome stress focus on wellbeing, whatever that looks like for you.
The drive to continue conversations around mental health and wellbeing begins with her own personal experiences of overwhelm, exhaustion and depression.
Alison’s goal is to talk about mental health and wellbeing in a way that supports us all being a great version of ourselves.
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