Burnout.
Carol B offers her personal metaphor for burnout in Christina Maslach‘s quintessential, and my favorite book on burnout: Burnout the Cost of Caring.
“When I try to describe my experience to someone else, I use the analogy of a teapot. Just like a teapot, I was on the fire, with water boiling – working hard to handle problems and do good. But after several years, the water had boiled away, and yet I was still on the fire – a burned-out teapot in danger of cracking.”
I first read this in 1983 and resonated strongly with the description but unfortunately I am seeing far too many burned-out teapots today from healthcare workers to home-workers!
As a Canadian, I hope my American friends will use this Thanksgiving weekend to ‘put more water in your teapots.’ We need good recovery as a resource to meet the demands of our work. We need to be hearty in our work not suffering from a permanent hardening of our human heart in relationships to our work.
In January of 2021, I will be offering online workshops, facilitation, and coaching to dampen the flames of burnout. If you are interested leave a comment or direct message.
In the interim take care and carry on caring.