NORTH AUGUSTA — Juggling jobs, careers and economic stressors in life can lead to burnout for women at many stage in life, but they have to remain resilient to get through it.
That was the message from a North Augusta Chamber of Commerce Women in Business luncheon May 5 that focused on burnout and what can be done to prevent it.
The event also featured speakers who are at many different stages of life and discussed the topic Resilient, Not Relentless: Leading Before Burnout Takes Hold.
“Not everyone is going to have a breakdown. You could be going through a burnout and keep persevering everyday,” Lauren Chavous with Bailey’s Comfort Services said prior to introducing the speaker of the event. “We keep on pushing through and we are women and that is what we have do.”
Sally Roberts, a human resources strategist with Sizemore, Inc., served as the speaker for the event and said everyone is a candidate for burnout. Roberts said being exhausted doesn’t help it, and said cynicism and a detachment from working can overall reduce effectiveness in how anyone is doing a job.
“Ladies and gentlemen, you are candidates of burnout,” Roberts said.
Reading from statistics, Roberts said the burnout rate among employees in the United States in 66 percent, which is two-thirds of the population. Roberts said she found that 81 percent of Millennials and Gen Z are facing burnout at higher rates.
Roberts said several factors that contribute to burnout include having more work to complete than time to do it, not enough resources or tools in doing a role or job, economic factors and taking on too much because of a labor crisis.
Roberts said burnout is more prevalent in women because women are juggling the responsibilities of working a job or career and taking care of their families.
“We put others first and think about their well-being, but we aren’t thinking about ourselves,” she said.
Roberts said burnout not only affects the individual but it can also affect the overall team at a company or business.
Roberts said being resilient is one way to help manage burnout. She described resilience as someone who keeps on going when things are not going great and being willing to adapt during challenges.
SME CPA marketing coordinator Amber Edmonston said being still young in her career, she manages burnout by doing things outside of work and having support from her job to do things for herself.
Sherry Hallums with Meybohm Real Estate said she had to set boundaries by learning to pivot in order to not face burnout.
Roberts said burnout is a long, drawn out process, and resilience is a muscle memory. She said resilience can be achieved by setting boundaries and priorities, work life integrations and emotional intelligence.
“When you start setting priorities and realize what is essential, that will give you back some of your life,” she said.
She said people burn out because they have been strong for too long and sometimes it’s OK to say no. She said taking a break is what has made leaders successful and can reduce burnout.
“The strongest leaders aren’t those who never stop, a strong leader knows when to pause and pivot and still keep going,” she said. “They are the ones who know how to rest and refocus before they burn out because if you don’t you are a strong candidate for burnout.”