Erin Rocchio: Executive and Team Coach

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Workplace Burnout: How To Spot It For Your Enneagram Type

We all have someone that comes to mind when we think of the most goal-oriented, athletic person we know. Similarly, someone different comes to mind when we think of the timid individual who keeps to themselves but is kind to everyone. Perhaps you identify with either of these? But, to this point, our unique personalities, archetypical or otherwise, are more susceptible to different sources of burnout. Today, we want to take you through the things you can look for in your enneagram type and perhaps avoid burnout altogether.

What Is Burnout?

But before we dive in, we first need to establish the baseline. What is burnout anyway? In our studies, we have discovered that burnout is a type of stress. Though there is good stress (eustress), burnout is one that compounds over time. 

Like a snowball that starts packed in between your hands. It only takes setting it on the snowy ground and releasing it down a hill for it to catch more snow and grow. It is physically and emotionally draining and pours into your work and home life. It makes us feel like giving up, question why we do what we do in the first place and often leaves us unmotivated. 

The fact is, though, that if you catch it, you can work towards freeing yourself from burnout and even re-spark the passion you had for the very thing that is causing it. But, first, you must become self-aware.

The Enneagram One 

Ones seek perfection. Seeking to improve not only yourself but everyone and thing around you is exhausting. Catching that perfectionism when it starts and introducing acceptance into your self-care practice can be pivotal in avoiding workplace burnout. You don’t want to be judged by anyone, but what if you are? What if you accept that all of us, every human, is judged? You can make extraordinary changes in our world, but first, you must remember to care for your basic needs. 

The Enneagram Two

The Helper. You are dubbed that nickname for a reason, Twos. Trying to meet everyone’s needs around you, and, in cases, trying to be like the people you look up to leaves little room for self. Your warm-heartedness and sincerity are appreciated, but sometimes you freely give those to the cost of your health. 

A natural helper, we understand your need to give. But you cannot give what you don’t have. Start to notice where you can care for yourself more and lean into helping you. Ignoring your needs will inevitably lead to burnout.

The Enneagram Three

If you related to the first example in this post, when the words goal-oriented flashed on the screen, you might be the Enneagram Three. Many people want to be this type, but it does not come without worry. Threes feel responsible. 

There’s no doubt the mantra, “Get Sh*t Done,” came from one. This attitude makes you prone to overworking. Trying to make it look like you have it all together all of the time while work and priorities pile up around you is exhausting. Step back, assess your priorities, and give yourself grace when you realize that you genuinely cannot do it all. It will free you.

The Enneagram Four

One of the most sensitive types, Fours, need support. With their natural propensity to withdraw from people, this can be hard to get. If you are a Four, you must ask for support. 

You also want to express yourself, show your individuality, and bathe in self-expression. To do so, can you find a creative outlet to pursue? This could be key in unlocking your calm and avoiding work burnout.

The Enneagram Five

An Investigator by nature, Fives want info. Emotional detachment keeps involvement in others at bay, leaving room for deep-dives into complex ideas. They want to be experts and fear intrusion from others will thwart it. So, fives can hold critical information from those who need it to help carry the workload. 

Tending to your physical wellbeing and leaning into the friendships and relationships around you can help stave off burnout. Giving information to others is rewarding, and it helps everyone. 

The Enneagram Six

Reliable and loyal. Loyal to belief. Loyal to ideas. Loyal to systems. If you have learned about Wholeness At Work, you know that burnout can exist within a system. So, Sixes have a unique hill to climb. 

They strive to avoid failure and lack self-confidence, which can, in itself, lead to burnout. But, not being willing to question a system in place which may be causing burnout amongst the team could lead them even further down the path. Keep your loyalty, but know when to step out of the box and identify when change is beneficial.

The Enneagram Seven

For Sevens, new ideas fuel them. But, in planning to keep their options open for the next best thing, Sevens can quickly become scatter-brained. 

If you are an enneagram seven, how can you connect with the here and now? Find a way to connect to now so that tomorrow can lead to you reaching your biggest goals. 

The Enneagram Eight

Type Eights are strong and confident, but this can lead you to hide your vulnerabilities. The truth is, vulnerability is a strength. You may feel the need to reject people or possible failures before they reject you—but that can lead to a quick depletion. 

Can you find a way to become open to criticism, the leadership of others, and vulnerability? How can you get there?

The Enneagram Nine

You seek peace, harmony, and dislike ill will. Similar to Enneagram Two, you quickly place the needs of the group above your own. 

To avoid burnout, an Eight needs to prioritize self-care. Sometimes it is necessary to remind yourself that the more care you give to you will create room to care for others. How can you relax into self-care today?


If you feel like you are moving full speed ahead on the path to burnout, please join us on the Wholeness At Work journey. We dive into the symptoms, sources, and solutions to workplace burnout so that we can move forward whole in the workplace and our daily lives.

Filed Under: Enneagram, Wholeness At Work

5 Journal Prompts To Start Your Year And The Science Behind Journaling

Each year, many of us set out to resolve goals for the new year. While forward-thinking and goal setting is a helpful practice, reflection can be just as powerful. Often, it benefits us to sit in silence (or—in a busy home like many of ours—in whatever space gives you solitude) and journal.

Today, we want to provide you with journal writing prompts to establish a baseline for the days ahead and see if there are areas where you can pivot, push forward, or improve, if just by a little.

A Look Into Journaling

For many of us, when we were young, you could find diaries tucked into our secret hiding places filled with crushes, childhood drama, and feelings that we could lock away with our special keys. While we may not have realized it, it was healthy for us to get our emotions out on paper, no matter how trivial our thoughts may have seemed as we’ve aged.

As adults, for many of us, that practice slips away. But, as we launch into stressful careers, find partners, and grow our families, our lives get more complex. Old drama becomes a distant memory replaced with everyone relying on us, a global pandemic, working from home, and—well, you get it.

So, how do we delve into those emotions and sort them out? That diary from your childhood can make its way back into your life via a journal.

The Science Of Journaling

Several studies on expressive writing prove that it is beneficial and for more than just our creativity and aptitude. According to the New York Times, “The scientific research on the benefits of so-called expressive writing is surprisingly vast. Studies have shown that writing about oneself and personal experiences can improve mood disorders, help reduce symptoms among cancer patients, improve a person’s health after a heart attack, reduce doctor visits and even boost memory.” 

Tackling Complex Issues

You may think its time consuming, or find it self-absorbed, but it is not in the least. Journaling can help you structure complex thoughts. Thoughts that float in your mind and tackle each other every day. Perhaps your mind sounds a little something like this:

1:01 pm – “I want to leave my job.” 

1:02 pm – “I have to stay at my job because of my children.” 

1:03 pm – “This work is not fulfilling to me.” 

1:04 pm – “Who am I kidding? I have a degree in this field.” 

Replace these quotes with any other mind-bending personal issue, and you have yourself a complex problem. 

Re-organizing Your Thoughts

In this example, maybe the work is wrong, but your family depends on it, and your degree may put you into a similar position at a workplace that is even worse. But what about the flip side of this issue? How can you think through this complex issue to find solutions in which to resolve it?

Perhaps the root cause of why you want to leave your job is because your coworkers rely on you for the bulk of the workload. In your journaling, you might discover that the difference between a career you hate and a career you love comes down to working through the systems in your workplace to make the workload fairer for you all. 

That is the power of journaling.

Journaling In Wholeness At Work

This is why Wholeness At Work includes sections for journaling and reflection. It is in these moments of reflection where we can make clear roadmaps on how to move forward.

We learn how to free ourselves from workplace burnout, true. In doing so, we journal about the symptoms and sources to give us a well-rounded look into the solutions. If you would like to start reflecting, here are some things to think about.

5 Journal Writing Prompts To Help You Reflect Today

We wanted to include some self-reflection and positive affirmation journal prompts together to help keep your overall mindset positive. Not only can you extend loving-kindness to yourself, but others as you work through the following prompts.

  1. Who in my life do I want to extend some extra loving-kindness towards today?
  2. What do I deeply value and want to honor in my work/life?
  3. What pressures, expectations, or fears can I set down today?
  4. What mental habits and emotional loops do I notice in myself?
  5. What is filling me with a sense of meaning and purpose?

Self-Compassion In Journaling

We ask—as you take time writing—that you do so without judgment to your thoughts. It is important to be true to your feelings. Journaling may bring up something uncomfortable, something you choose to keep in your Id or Ego and not meet face-to-face daily. Show yourself some compassion as you come about those situations. If you think you might be on your way to workplace burnout, get access to our self-assessment here. Our community is working towards wholeness for good, together. Would you join us? Find out more about the Wholeness At Work journey here.

Filed Under: Emotional Intelligence, Leadership, Wellbeing, Wholeness At Work Tagged With: journal prompts, wholeness

What Is Workplace Burnout?

There comes a time in most of our lives where we have the worst type of “ah-ha!” moment at work – the moment where we realize and acknowledge that we are miserable in our position (don’t worry, you are not alone). 

In this moment, we’re overwhelmed by feelings of negativity, of hopelessness. We feel the tension so deeply that looking at our emails can feel like a monumental task. There are plenty of reasons why this feeling might have come to you, but the culprit usually comes down to one single idea:

Burnout. Workplace burnout, emotional burnout, job burnout, it’s all the same.

So now that we’ve identified the problem, we have to explore it. Getting to know the ins and outs of this awful feeling can help us conquer it in the long run. 

As far as definitions go, “burnout” is a type of stress that compounds over time, leaving you so physically and emotionally drained that it’s affecting your day-to-day life, especially at work. Burnout makes us feel like our accomplishments are meaningless and that our work serves no purpose, leaving us completely unmotivated to get anything done. 

The idea that stress can affect our lives beyond what’s in front of us (meaning our mental and physical health) is relatively new. The whole world is trying to figure out how to establish and maintain professional lives that aren’t overwhelmed by it. That’s why the work behind mitigating burnout can feel so intimidating: we’re all trying to figure this out together. 

Burnout can wreak havoc on you (“I”), your team (“we”), and the systems (“it”) that make up your workplace, so it’s imperative that you begin the journey to overcoming workplace burnout as soon as you recognize it.

What Causes Burnout?

Workplace burnout can come from a few different sources. 

One of those sources that we all need to keep an eye out for is mental health. Depression is a driver of some cases of workplace burnout, so when you start to recognize these feelings, it’s imperative that you sit down with yourself and really consider the situation you’re in as well as the emotions that are popping up. If those feelings weigh insurmountably heavily on your shoulders, it may be time to seek help from a medical professional. 

Once you’ve ruled out mental health as the culprit, workplace burnout can come from two other places: you or your environment. 

It’s important to ask yourself a few questions to determine what’s causing your burnout. If you’re working in a way that doesn’t serve you or honor the boundaries you need to set for yourself, it’s possible that the burnout was caused by the way you approach your work. This is very common in high-achieving leaders. If this is the case, you have an amazing opportunity to redefine how you work so that it is conducive to your spiritual, mental, and emotional well-being. 

There is also a good chance that your burnout isn’t an “I” issue but a “we” and “it” issue. 

“We” is all about your team. Are you and other leaders in your space asking your team to work beyond their abilities? Are leaders willing to work with others? To trust them? 

When the “we” is affected by workplace burnout, negative attitudes settle into “it,” meaning the systems that make up a company. Asking team members to work after-hours when it isn’t appropriate, maintaining unrealistic workloads, and a lack of communication, for example, all set a precedent for creating systemic workplace burnout. 

How Can We Fix Workplace Burnout? 

The key to finding a solution to workplace burnout is digging deep into all of the pieces that make up your workplace through the lenses of “I,” “we,” and “it.” Recognizing that there is a problem at all is a huge step.

If you’re in a leadership position and you recognize signs of burnout in your workplace, it’s incredible that you’ve made your way to this article. I have worked with countless teams to improve workplace culture with burnout in mind and have the resources to take you, your team, and the systems of your workplace to healthy, purposeful, and whole futures you never considered before. 

Filed Under: Burnout, Leadership, Teams, Wellbeing Tagged With: burnout, Workplace Advice

Who Is Wholeness At Work For?

Erin Rocchio, MPOD, created Wholeness At Work with a distinct goal in mind—to help leaders learn the science behind burnout symptoms, gain a comprehensive understanding of its sources, and discover personalized solutions to the chronic power stress of burnout. It is essential to understand burnout as a whole to avoid it. But, who is Wholeness At Work for? We dive into that today.

What Is Wholeness At Work?

Burnout is officially recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an “occupational phenomenon” since 2019. This year (2020) has brought on an enclave of burnout that couldn’t have been predicted and has taken its toll on individuals and entire organizations in a huge way. While it has not been formally evaluated, we have seen some of the repercussions of individuals and businesses being pushed to their absolute limits as we never have before.

Wholeness At Work will dive into the science behind burnout. It will extensively cover the symptoms, sources, and solutions for an in-depth understanding of this phenomenon. This coaching program is designed for individuals or teams to help identify where burnout persists and how to work through it.

The Recovering MBA: Enneagram 1

The Enneagram One is purposeful—always looking to improve themselves and the things around them. But, the constant quest for improvement can be exhausting. Continually trying to find approval from others and proving your goodness through sheer determination will only get you so far. In Wholeness At Work, you will find resources to help you identify the sources of burnout in yourself, your team, and the systems you have in place to ensure that you not only avoid burnout as an individual but can help alleviate those symptoms in your team.

The Conscious CEO: Enneagram 3

Being results-driven and successful is most often the main objective for the Enneagram Three. These are the true “people” people who want to make a social impact and connection with others, and be productive at the same time. But, this personality is susceptible to working, working, working, and never stopping. Wholeness At Work will help you evaluate when it is time to work and when it is time to step back and focus inward. You can’t sustain high performance if you are continually grinding day and night. How can you strike that beautiful place of balance where, as a whole person, you are being fulfilled and renewed on all levels?

The Millennial Manager: Enneagram 7

The Enneagram 7 seeks possibility and freedom, which are beautiful qualities. But, the enthusiasm for what’s possible, without grounded focus, can cause Type Sevens to spin out fairly quickly. So, how can you take all of these positive qualities of possibility seeking, vision, and self-realization and use them to avoid burnout? We can help guide you in Wholeness At Work.

The Type-A Working Mom: Enneagram 8

Do you have so much on your plate that you feel exhausted all the time? The Enneagram 8  is a type-A personality—they want control of their life and everything in it. But, some things we simply don’t have control of (See: 2020). That is what can send this type into a spiral, always aiming to achieve and execute flawlessly, even when the challenges thrown their way are too much for one person. We will help you step back and prioritize you in Wholeness At Work.

In reality, this self-guided coaching program is for anyone who is experiencing burnout at work or in their leadership roles wherever they come. It will help you identify systems and patterns that are feeding into – and maintaining – the cycle of burnout in your life. By identifying these and digging into all the root causes of your burnout pain, you can dismantle and reconstruct a way of leading and living that is more sustainable for you, your team, and your world. We are here for you at every step.

Filed Under: Enneagram, Wellbeing, Wholeness At Work Tagged With: burnout, wholeness at work, Workplace Advice

How Can Time Management Help You To Manage Stress At Work?

Remember college? You would get an assignment for a 3,000-word paper due in two weeks, and, without fail, you would say to yourself, “I am going to start TODAY.” But, ‘today’ would happen, and something more exciting would come up. A week would roll by, and pretty soon, you are sitting with a paper deadline in 24 hours thinking, “I should have scheduled my time better.” Many of us still experience this in one way or another throughout our careers, and that is where time management can come in handy.

What Is Time Management?

We are all well aware of the common thoughts on time management. Whether you work on time blocking your schedule to accomplish all that you can in the day or abide by the time management matrix, all of us have learned the tips and tricks to be productive. What few resources fail to mention, though, is that there are deeper drives to time management as a whole.

The scheduling of our day occurs at the behavioral or external level, which is important but certainly not the root of why you can’t seem to get tasks done. There are deeper drives at play. Beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and values motivate our behavior—as they should. So, how do you align your actions and structures with your thoughts, core values, and deep commitments?

1 | Focus On What Is Important

Your schedule should not just be a reflection of tasks that drop a dime into your bank account every few minutes. Instead, it should reflect what is important to you. There is a popular process creatd by Stephen Covey that puts tasks and commitments into 4 quadrants of time management: Urgent + Important, Not Urgent + Important, Urgent + Not Important, Not Urgent + Not Important. This works well, but it is not all that you need to have successful and holistic time management values. Instead, this can be step 1 of 6 needed for wholeness in time management. We would urge you as you work through this, though, to not just only think through your workday, think through personal tasks as well, and allow your schedule to reflect you as a whole person.

2 | Prioritize Your Day

Now that you have your most important (and least important) duties laid out in front of you, it is time to prioritize. This is separate from the quadrants because something could be urgent + important, and easily delegated. You know the saying, “You have the same amount of hours in a day as [insert accomplished person’s name].” And it is true. But that sentiment doesn’t cover the fact that whoever you thought of would more than likely delegate one or many tasks a day. Everything from getting ready in the morning, picking out clothes, accounting, and the like can be delegated for some of the world’s most successful people. While we all don’t have that privilege, we can consider what is a priority for ourselves: jumping on a client call, going to your toddler’s baseball game, launching that new project you’ve been working on for months, etc., and then move down the list from there. 

3 | Align Your Core Values

We could write a whole book on values, but we don’t want to get too deep into that here. Values aren’t just something you have painted onto your office wall and think of passively. They should ease their way into the fiber of everything you do. Just as your personality comes to light in every one of your interactions, your values should be clear even in time management. As you think through how your time is being used up each day, ask yourself it is aligning with the values you hold true? If the answer is no, it might be time to drop the task or delegate to someone who would find alignment. 

4 | Keep Your Overall Vision In Mind

In this context, vision is synonymous with goals. But, vision encapsulates not just the endpoint where you can check off a box and say “done,” but how do your tasks feed into your overall vision for you.

Imagine you are just starting your business, and your vision is to someday expand your one-person accounting firm to an office full of accountants, investors, and financial representatives. Something like a marketing task might not align with the image you have for yourself, but without being able to delegate in this phase, it is good—if not helpful—to think of your overall vision. “If I work hard on marketing now, some day I can fulfill the dream of owning a full-service financial firm.”

Aligning tasks with your vision is an excellent way to restructure your feelings about some things that simply have to get done but don’t necessarily feed your fire. 

5 | Leave Time For Renewal

Often overlooked in time management is renewal. For those of us who were or are athletes, we know how essential rest is to ultimate performance. Working out every single day may seem like it would set you on the fast-track to ultimate strength and agility, but, on the contrary, your muscles are actually building and repairing on your rest days. So, the rest is where your power comes from.

Similarly, when you schedule a time for rest and renewal in your workday, you will be a stronger executive or team member when you return. There are science-backed ways to rest at the beginning, middle, and end of your day. The thing is, you must be intentional about it. Scheduling out a 20-minute walk when you typically experience your mid-day slump or being intentional about your sleep will not only make you feel better, it will also ensure that the time you spend on tasks is meant with the vibrancy and energy you so wonderfully have within you. 

6 | Practice Essentialism

All of these steps may feel like an arduous task in itself, but they are leading us to a fundamental process: essentialism. What is essential today in your life? By going through these five previous steps, you are more equipped to say “no” when an un-essential task raises its hand and “yes” when something essential comes up by aligning your day with your values, vision, etc—which is one of the main benefits of time management in this form.

Yeses and nos start to become more comfortable. Think about how good it would feel to be able to confidently say, “No, I do not want to take on this project because it does not align with my overall vision.” It can happen with practice. What you do not do in a day is just as important as what you do. If you are putting more effort into the things that don’t get you any results in your work and personal life than the things that do, it is time to reevaluate. As you work on effective time management, we hope that you view it as not just management of work time, but your time as a whole. That you use positive stress to fuel you and avoid negative stress.

Renewing your spirit, prioritizing things that are important to you, and avoiding burnout. As always, I am here to help you in whatever you may need.

Filed Under: Burnout, Leadership, Teams, Wellbeing Tagged With: burnout, stress, stress at work, stress management, time management

What Is Positive Stress In The Workplace?

Imagine yourself at work. You’ve just given a presentation or received an annual performance review. It didn’t go well. In fact, there is so much cortisol pumping through your body that you feel like you can’t breathe. You take a few deep breaths to calm down and remind yourself that you are not your job, that your job does not define you. 

That sense of distress lingers for a few hours, a few days, maybe even a few weeks. But eventually, there’s a chance that you’re going to have a moment in which something clicks. That sense of stress and panic all of the sudden becomes something useful. You decide that instead of being upset at yourself over your performance, you’re going to use that energy to turn a failure into a challenge for future success. 

This is the transition from negative stress to positive stress, and it will become useful in your professional life. So what is positive stress? How does this work? Let’s dig into it. 

First Things First: What Is Stress?

One of the most important aspects of—well, being alive—is maintaining your cool as a world of chaos unfolds around you. Getting cut off in traffic, an accidental coffee spill, a fight with a partner, or subtle disagreement with a coworker—you name it—our daily lives really come down to managing stress. It is our brain’s duty to try to keep our bodies in some semblance of homeostasis in which it can calmly and effectively get you through each and every day. 

When we’re thrown too far out of homeostasis, our performance suffers. We miss details, we have trouble focusing, and our relationships with others can be impeded. The term “stress,” which occurs when we deviate from homeostasis, was added to the medical lexicon and expanded upon by Hans Selye in the mid-late 20th century to two distinctive types of stress: positive and negative. These are also known as “eustress” and “distress.”

Eustress (Positive Stress) vs Distress (Negative Stress)

The easiest way to parse these two types of stress responses are:

  • Eustress = challenge
  • Distress = threat

The difference between a threat and a challenge is that one is bad for the body and the other actually quite good in small amounts. When we face distress for too long—we call this “chronic stress”—that is where our performance suffers. We face low energy, headaches, insomnia, a weakened immune system, and more. 

Eustress, or “positive stress,” on the other hand, actually leads to a stress response that is positive, constructive, and healthy. It typically results in a positive outcome. Positive stress examples include taking charge during a meeting or trying something new at the gym. While we still feel a racing heart and a surge of hormones as we start talking or exercising, by the end of the day the stressor has been mitigated and we come out feeling better—proud of accomplishing a challenge we set out for ourselves.

Positive Stress and Your Team

So up until this point, we’ve focused on the self as it relates to positive stress (“I”) in the workplace and beyond. But what about positive stress for a whole team of people (“We”)? 

We experience eustress when we choose goals and activities that get us excited and hopeful. The key to having an entire team of inspired people is to frame their challenges to be positive and optimistic. 

You’re a leader in your environment and it’s so important to use words of encouragement to show your peers that you are on their team, that you want to see them succeed. When we feel supported by those who surround us, it’s much easier for us to slip into the “challenge” mindset rather than the “threat” mindset that can be brought on by being criticized in a negative way instead of a constructive one. It is your job to guide people toward taking on the challenges of the tasks that cause the most negative stress and turning them into an opportunity. Cultivating an environment that makes people feel safe to try new things and push to succeed is vital to shifting stressors at work from negative to positive.

Once your team (“We”) sees your shift in attitude, their performance will improve, which is where an entire company can see a positive shift. As you focus on projects massive and minuscule, your system as a whole (“It”) will see an evolution that trends toward collaboration, synergy, and progress. One of the most incredible aspects of positive stress and developing that comfortable, encouraging environment is how very contagious it can be to the whole. 

Mindset Matters: Turning Negative Stress to Positive

How we approach stress and the ways in which we shift our framework of thinking can be incorporated into our lives if we give it an honest effort. 

A few ways of practicing that shift include:

  • Considering your resources. When faced with a problem, you have to dig into your arsenal of tools knowing that you can use them to set out on your goal.
  • Looking at the bright side. Failing in your presentation means you have an opportunity for proving to yourself and to your coworkers that you can learn and improve.
  • Don’t forget how amazing you are. Play to your strengths and remind yourself of them whenever you need a mood boost. 
  • Have a “jar half full” mindset. Try not to give the part of your brain that’s telling you the sky is falling any attention. 

This isn’t always realistic, so don’t feel bad if you and your team face a stressor that you can’t just turn into a positive. Those feelings are still valid and important, so do your best to feel them quickly, collectively address them, and move forward. 

When it comes to positive stress in the workplace, be careful—don’t turn your office into a game of creating eustress. Not everything has to be a challenge, and our societal obsession with “the grind” can cloud our thinking when it comes to improvement. There is something to be said for appreciating a comfort zone but getting outside of it when you and your team need to. Think about eustress like the eject button in James Bond’s Aston Martin. Try to maneuver a situation calmly and carefully before you push the exit button and get to grinding. 

Going Forward

Find a moment to sit down, take stock of this advice, and consider how you can use positive stress for yourself (“I”) and your team (“We”) to establish a welcoming, exciting, progressive environment (“It”). And if you need a little backup in getting those ideas to a place where your team can utilize them, I’m here to serve as a gentle push moving you forward.

Filed Under: Burnout, Teams, Wellbeing Tagged With: stress, stress at work, stress management

Work and Stress: How Do They Correlate?

As humans, we spend almost 30% of our lives working, equivalent to about 25-30 years. Add the additional 36 years we spend sleeping, and you’ve got little time for much else. It’s no wonder why work-related stress is prevalent in so many of us. Work and stress correlate. They have no chance not to. Today we want to talk about that correlation as it relates to an individual (“I”), a team (“We”),  and work systems (“It”) to give you a better understanding of work-related stress.

What Is Stress?

You may be thinking, “I don’t need to read about what stress is—I live with it!” but it is essential to dive into the science behind stress because stress isn’t all bad. Stress is an integral part of being alive. It is what tells us, “This situation doesn’t feel right, and I need to leave.” or, “The deadline is tomorrow!? Time to pull a few extra hours.” This fight or flight feeling dates all of the way back to our ancestors when they needed to decide if they should fight an animal or dangerous situation or flee from it.

The problem exists when we can’t get rid of this feeling—when we feel stress in day-to-day situations. Chronic stress can create many issues, from low energy, insomnia, jaw-clenching, aches and pains, difficulty paying attention, poor judgment, forgetfulness, and more. When this stress is being caused by work, it is time to look at the sources and see how we can combat them.

Causes of Stress At Work

According to The American Institute of Stress, the leading causes of work stress are workload (at a whopping 46%), personnel issues (28%), juggling work and personal lives (20%), and the lack of job security (6%).

Some unnecessary stress at work can be thwarted by simply thinking ahead. We outlined how to navigate through a political season on our blog. Thinking through situations like these can help employees feel included and help keep some personnel issues at bay. Helping us thwart stress within the system of the workplace (“It”), which can trickle down.

With that in mind, knowing the workplace stressors that most employees feel on an individual level (“I”) can help you in working with your team to think ahead. Stress about job security sometimes comes down to your employees simply not receiving any feedback on their work. They may be working day-in and day-out to meet goals and deadlines and doing a wonderful job at it. However, if you do not have a feedback protocol in place, you could be missing an easy way to make sure that your team feels heard. A solution for this is to have an open dialogue with your team. Give them clear benchmarks and award good behavior. A simple “Great job.” could be the difference between your team feeling secure at their job—and thus, keeping stress within your “We” (team) at a healthier level.

Your employees also want to feel a level of control over their work outcomes. As leaders, we can sometimes want to see something done our way and only our way. But, an employee is hired to help solve a problem within the workplace. Allow them a level of freedom to get the job done and even provide new solutions to problems that could make your workflow stronger than before (“It”). Allow your employees to make suggestions and be open with you about how their job could be enhanced, and then take the suggestions seriously. You might not always want to take on an employee’s recommendation, but seriously considering what they say will make them feel heard and could save you money in the long run.

The Cost Of Work-Related Stress

For those who think in numbers or wonder how stress impacts our businesses’ bottom line, we wanted to lay out some numbers for you. According to the same article by The American Institute of Stress, job stress is expensive. In the U.S. alone, it is estimated to cost 300 billion dollars annually. Not just from workers’ compensation and less productivity either. Accidents, absentees, employee turnover, less productivity, and medical, legal, and insurance costs are outlined. So, it makes sense not only for our teams that we care so deeply about but also from a business perspective to be proactive about stress reduction and the overall positive work culture.

How To Recover From Work-Related Stress

The good news in all of this is that stress doesn’t have to lead to that 300 billion dollar price tag or for your whole team to feel a level of burnout. You can work proactively to encourage self-care and build a happy and resilient team.

We all can see burnout creeping in. Whether you feel it as a leader (“I”), you start to see your team showing some symptoms (“We”), or you start to see stress cracks in your systems (“It”). This is when it is time to take action. On an individual level, you can give your employees resources to work on their stress-levels. Fitness and mindfulness apps, time for reflection or rest, and healthy foods in the breakroom can help. For each of us, coping with stress may look a little different, but by providing the resources someone might need, you can help them get through the moments we all experience. 

Another thing to help is to think proactively. If there is something big coming up like a deadline, annual sale, a shift in the marketplace, or a shift in your team, it is essential to sit down with your HR professional and think of proactive ways to maintain your healthy workplace. Though we can’t always be proactive, it is best to get ahead of any arising issues than fight them when they are already festering. This can help keep stress within your team (“We”), and within your systems (“It”) at bay.

Wholeness At Work

This all may sound a little daunting, so having a coach or consultant come in to give some outside perspective is one great way to help. Erin has almost 15 years of experience helping leaders and teams work through burnout. Through her passion for the scientific reasons burnout persists and how to combat it, she has also created a self-guided coaching program that you can do with your entire team called Wholeness At Work. This program is meant to help you get straight to the source of your burnout and find lasting ways to the feeling of wholeness.

As you move through your professional career as a leader or an integral team member, you will feel stress. By knowing what it is and its causes, you can equip yourself with the knowledge to make you a stronger and happier colleague for your entire career. So, let’s take a moment to imagine your lasting happiness and success and celebrate it. To your future!

Filed Under: Burnout, Leadership, Teams, Wellbeing Tagged With: i we it, stress, stress at work, stress management

Politics In The Workplace: How to Navigate This Voting Season

Going into an election year can be difficult for leaders and teams with varying opinions and strong personal belief-systems. But, there are ways to navigate the voting season successfully with your team. Many leaders do not know how to talk politics at work in a respectful and safe way, but it can be done. Here are some tips for how to navigate your workspace this voting season and beyond.

Have A Plan

In research by Illinois Technology Association, their team found that out of their members, 31% were unsure whether or not they should talk about the upcoming election, and 79% said they had no policy at all for talking about politics at work. With much of our lives spent with the people we work with, it is unrealistic to think that there will be absolutely no political talk in the workplace, especially during such tumultuous election cycles. The thing you need to have prepared as a leader is a plan with your HR department or your team to handle such discussions. How can you support healthy and respectful conversations of politics in the workplace and also show respect for those who may be uncomfortable with the conversations all together? It is a big task, but your team can come prepared for each election season.

Give Your Team Time To Vote

Election day is challenging for much of the nation. Not only are emotions boiling over from a heavy campaign, but some people are also afraid that if they take time off to vote, they will lose money on their paycheck. That’s why creating some peace-of-mind for your employees by giving them time to vote is an incredible perk. In 2016, only 60% of our eligible voters even cast ballots. It makes sense, though. Many people struggle to make ends meet, using their entire paychecks to put their kids through school and keep their lights on—this makes it incredibly hard to find a few minutes in the day to drop off a ballot or wait in a long line. Companies like Bark and Chosen Foods have joined the Time To Vote Movement, a non-partisan campaign that ensures employees a schedule that will allow them to cast their ballot and have a say in the upcoming election. Giving yourself and your employees the chance to have their voices heard is one way to make lasting change in our Nation.

Allow For Political Diversity

When the word diversity comes up, we often think of ethnic, gender, or cultural differences, which are all incredibly important. However, we tend to forget to be mindful of diversity of thoughts and beliefs. The truth is, humans are drawn to other people who think like them. In business, this can be detrimental because it means that we tend to interact only with people who think like us, have similar experiences or backgrounds, and we miss out on new perspectives that a diverse group of people bring to the table. We can’t support or empathize with others, let alone lead effectively, if we don’t understand and appreciate their unique points of view. So, as you hire, consider all forms that diversity might support your organization’s success. Work hard to foster a business culture that encourages respectful dialogue, understanding over judgment, and dignity for all. Most of all, focus on the shared values you hold as a team and use those values to ground, stabilize, and align your team on what’s most important. This is how we will evolve as a society and create healthy change.

Be Prepared For Any Outcome

The day after the election, when votes are still being counted and there is some tension in the air, it is essential to be prepared. We know at this point that tensions will be high. This election feels very personal. No matter your political affiliation, your employee’s mental health and well-being should be a top priority. The leadership and HR preparedness we spoke about above will need to be in overdrive post-election. Keeping your workplace respectful, fun, and maintaining the company culture you’ve worked so hard to achieve can be done with careful planning and candid, safe discussions with your team. 

“My dear friends: Your vote is precious, almost sacred. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have to create a more perfect union.”

— Former Rep. John Lewis (1940-2020)

A trustworthy, respectful, and healthy workplace marked by diverse views, even political ones, is a sure recipe to make real, impactful change in our world. If you need help navigating this election season, please reach out.

Filed Under: Leadership, Teams Tagged With: Business Advice, Workplace Advice

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