Is the UK facing a burnout crisis? And what can we do about it…

Co-founder Phoebe Cherry shares her personal experience with burnout and offers practical advice for recognising, preventing, and addressing it. Both personally and at work.

Is the UK facing a burnout crisis - Strive Events and Experiences

“I would never wish that feeling of burnout on anyone, certainly not within a team I lead.”

It was sometime in the autumn of 2018. I went for a one-to-one meeting with my then-boss outside of the office. In fact, it was a lunch meeting in a restaurant and I broke down in tears opposite him. (To be clear, this story is not about the boss, it could have been anyone!) Those who know me know that I’m not a crier, I pretty much only cry at funerals, so something was definitely off to be crying in any kind of work setting.

Something was, of course, off. The power of hindsight is a wonderful thing. I look back now at 28-year-old me sitting in that restaurant in Covent Garden, and I know now that I was on the edge of burnout in that moment of crying opposite my boss. Maybe not even the edge, maybe fully immersed in a spiral of burnout doom. Hindsight has also shown me that there were plenty of other signs, like a strange lack of motivation, a feeling of numbness almost, real trouble concentrating, and I was irritable and resentful towards friends and family, that one stings me the most when I look back on it. The thing about burnout is that when you’re going through it, you don’t really know that you’re going through it. It’s only with the power of hindsight that we give it that label, and that we can understand what we were experiencing.

For me, it was rough. I broke down and didn’t really cope well with life during that stage. I took a three-month sabbatical out of work, which helped somewhat, before then taking bigger steps to change what was broken. Whilst it was a rough period, I genuinely count myself quite lucky that I experienced burnout at a relatively young age and strangely lucky that it was quite hard and fast like that. Everything I’ve done in my career since then has been with my physical and mental well-being at the forefront and the well-being of the team and people around me, because I would never wish that feeling of burnout on anyone, certainly not within a team I lead.

It truly saddens me to hear we’re amidst a burnout crisis in the UK, with more of us than ever before on the brink of burnout. I wish I had a magic wand to eradicate this problem. Of course, I don’t have a wand, but I do however, have some practical advice…

Is the UK facing a burnout crisis And what can we do about it - Strive Events & Experiences (2)

Some words to the leaders out there

If someone in your team seems burnt out and struggling, please listen and watch for the warning signs. Asking ‘Are you okay?’ isn’t always enough, and most people will say ‘yes’ even when they’re not. Trust your instincts.
If you’re in the privileged position of managing others, you have a responsibility to support them. Here’s how you can make a real impact:
• Offer coaching (ideally external, if resources allow).
• Lighten their load — reduce both workload and responsibility.
Encourage and enable healthy behaviours for a sensible work-life balance, such as limiting out-of-hours emails and messages, and please allow annual leave to be a proper break for your people.

Ways you can support your colleagues

Offer a space to talk, listen and validate their thoughts and feelings so they know they aren’t alone. Try to regularly check in!
If you’re more confident with your own boundaries, then showcase these and offer to help discuss systems that might work for your colleague.
If you’re in a position to do so, offer some support and lighten their workload.

Things to help YOU

My third section of advice goes from me to you. If you’re someone at risk of burnout right now, here are some things that work for me. I don’t have all the answers, and it’s not one size fits all, but if one tip here helps just one person, then I’ll be happy.

First up, call it out – even if only inside your own head at first. If you’re feeling like “hmm, possibly I could be at risk”, it’s ok to tell yourself that and first recognise there is an impending problem. I wish I had been honest with myself sooner and made changes before it got so bad.
Pause and get to know yourself. For me, this was the deepest, most impactful work I’ve ever done. Understand your values and your limiting beliefs — maybe through time out or journaling. I worked with an external coach and always recommend that. Burnout can bring a loss of identity, and this helps overcome it.
Boundaries, boundaries, boundaries. What can you put in place that will serve you better without reducing your impact at work? I made the decision not to put work emails on my phone. Never have, never will, and it’s one of my favourite boundaries. It felt so wild and wrong at first, but honestly, no one else even notices.

Remember your mental health is more important than any job or project or deadline will ever be, so try your best to gain that perspective in the dark moments.

I hope sharing my personal experience and advice is of some use to you, dear readers, and I wish you the best of luck in navigating the wild world of work. If anything here resonates, feel free to drop me a DM on LinkedIn