Chronic Stress: Connecting the Dots between Layoffs and Burnout with Cait Donovan

Nerd Journey: Career Advice for the Technology Professional

Recent episodes and tech industry layoff trends made us wonder – is there a connection between layoff events and burnout? And if there is, are there differences in how burnout shows up in people impacted by layoffs, in those who remain, and in leaders?
In episode 299 burnout expert, coach, keynote speaker, and podcaster Cait Donovan returns to help us connect the dots. We start by defining burnout and building up from there. You’ll hear thoughts on chronic stress, emotional processing, burnout risk factors, and burnout protection factors. Cait also reminds us that there is a distinct line between managers and employees that has become very blurry in the workplace.
Original Recording Date: 09-28-2024
Topics – Defining Burnout, Connecting Dots between Layoffs and Burnout, Emotional Toil and Processing, Chronic Stress and Capacity Noticers, Taking Stock of Burnout Risks and Protections, Burnout in Leadership, Boundaries and Closing Thoughts
2:08 – Defining Burnout
* Cait Donovan is a burnout expert, a coach, and a keynote speaker. She is also the host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast.
* Cait was a practicing acupuncturist for 15 years and then burned out. She would later pursue a degree in biobehavioral health to understand what stress does to our bodies.
* Cait spends her days podcasting, keynote speaking, and doing corporate training. She’s also working on a second book. Be sure to check out Cait’s first book, [The Bouncebackability Factor: End Burnout, Gain Resilience, and Change the World].(https://www.amazon.com/Bouncebackability-Factor-Burnout-Resilience-Change/dp/1735194905).
* If you missed the previous episodes we recorded with Cait, check out:
* Episode 214 – Across the Patterns of Burnout with Cait Donovan (1/2)
* Episode 215 – The Beautiful Right Turns with Cait Donovan (2/2)
* What is the definition of burnout?
* Cait likes to start with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of burnout. Burnout by their definition is an occupational hazard / phenomenon (neither a mental nor a physical health diagnosis). According to WHO, there are 3 components to burnout that must all be present:
* Physical and emotional exhaustion
* Cynicism and detachment
* Feeling a lack of productivity or lack of impact related to your work
* The above is a little generic and only deals with the workplace. Cait has found chronic stress is more pervasive than just the workplace and has much to do with how we were taught to interact with the world, which may impact many areas of our lives.
* Cait’s definition of burnout is “chronic stress that has led to a decline in functioning of your body, mind, soul, spirit…over an extended period of time so slow that you didn’t notice it happening until it was like, ‘where did I get here? What am I doing? What is this life, and why am I so miserable?”
5:00 – Connecting Dots between Layoffs and Burnout
* Many people are looking at the tech industry right now, see the layoffs happening, and they get worried / anxious / scared. After recording other layoff focused episodes with Kat Troyer and Liz Bronson from RealJobTalk, we thought it would be interesting to explore this topic with Cait through the lens of how this trends up or down with burnout.