Managing Corporate Burnout
As one of the founding directors of Women Industry Leaders (WIL), I was excited to be featured as a blog post for August. When I joined in early 2023, I was excited for the innovation and involvement this organization would bring to me to personally be fulfilled and the greater community of WIL. However, I hit a wall.
I was burned out from previous jobs and didn’t realize until joining this organization that I couldn’t take on another responsibility. I ended up prioritizing myself and communicating with my fellow Board of Directors. It really compounded when this occurred. A lot had happened to me directly and indirectly where I was in fight or flight mode for the better part of 4 years. I don’t need to get into a ton of detail, but what caught up with me was 4 things: becoming pregnant at the beginning of COVID, having that child, all while working in an incredibly toxic work environment, and battling postpartum depression. I was really proud of myself that I was able to get out of these situations and do a reset – quit my job and found my place at EYEP Solutions, set some boundaries in my personal and professional life, and get help for my postpartum depression. That’s a lot to do when you’re in the middle of everything all at once.
However, I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I wasn’t doing something I was supposed to do to help me heal. It was still very raw my emotions from that trauma. I tried therapy as I was able to identify that in addition to postpartum depression, I was also in a career burnout. Traditional therapy did not help one bit. They had no idea what burnout could include and could not relate – other than go take a walk (guess what? I did take a lot of walks). Nothing that even scratched the surface of what needed to be worked on.
I ended up finding a coach on TikTok who specialized in career burnout. I contacted Elissa (see her fabulous TikTok) and signed on as a client. We were able to quickly identify and work on the things I mentioned above that I couldn’t work on alone – removing my bad behaviors externally but also my bad behaviors that make me an overachiever. We also identified and worked on how to not let these behaviors creep back in as my default state.
Asking for help when you can’t help yourself is something that I needed to work on, and I am so glad that I did. It’s not perfect but I now have the tools in my toolbox if I need to refer back to them later and do a reset on how I approach my professional and personal life to prevent burnout.
