Can Burnout Be Prevented?

photo by auntie p

I just read a phenomenal post on burnout – well researched, explained and experienced.  And while I’m a big believer in work-life balance I was left with a question for which I don’t have an answer.

Can burnout be prevented through the right set of challenges and rewards?

In my sample of one, the times in which I’ve experienced burnout are when I don’t see the value of my work.

In other words, the work I was doing wasn’t challenging enough, the reason I was doing it didn’t align with my motivations and the rewards were captured by someone else.

Is it possible to solve burnout not by giving your team a few extra days off and returning to the same situation that created it in the first place but by getting to know what drives everyone on your team and assigning work accordingly?

If you knew why each individual on the team wanted to work, how they preferred to be rewarded and what their long-term goals were, do you think they’d burn out?

I don’t mean to suggest people can be worked indefinitely.  Creative people (of which we are all a part in some manner) need to recharge at some point.  But if we create work environments that provide the road map by which people can reach their goals and get the rewards they seek along the way then I think we’d see far less talk about burnout and being over-stressed.

Please jot your thoughts in the comments below.  Thanks.

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