San Diego Women Leaders Association Chapter Meeting: Keys to Real Self Care and Burnout Prevention.

So, Kimberly, can you turn your camera on and say hello? I can. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. You sound wonderful. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. Yes. Okay, there we go. I think I am officially sharing. Um, thank you so much for the kickoff. Um, I'm very, very excited to be here today. And today, what I'm going to be talking about is burnout. I think burnout is probably something that everybody here is relatively familiar with. But what I'm going to do is take a little bit of a deeper dive into burnout, how to deal with burnout. We're going to define what burnout is. And we're going to be thinking about ourselves not only as female leaders within whatever industry that you're in, but also as employees, as humans, as people, and how we can overcome burnout and prepare for what may come.
So, I there we go. Um, just a little bit about myself. Uh, my name is Kim Hill and I am the senior director of the global client learning team at Neielen. I don't know if everybody here knows what Neielen is. A lot of times when I say Neielson, I usually follow it up with we are the ratings company. Um, so that's usually how people are a little bit more familiar with who we are and what we do. We are so much more than that nowadays because we basically have our fingers and toes in every single media type that is out there and we are measuring audiences across television, across digital, across uh we even do print.
So people that still read the newspaper, we're still measuring what they do and where they do it. Um I do I am from Wisconsin. I went to the University of Wisconsin Oclair. I've worked at a couple of television stations, advertising agencies, and now I am currently with Neielson. So, um, just a little bit about me personally is that I have two boys and I have a wonderful husband. Um, I love to run, hike, walk my dog. I'm actually doing karate right now. It started out as a family adventure and, uh, I really I stuck with it. So, I just tested for my brown belt last week, so that was really exciting. Um, guilty pleasures. Uh, I love frozen yogurt.
So, if you know of a great frozen yogurt shop in the area, please let me know. And, um, now that my kids are a little bit older, I actually, uh, can nap once in a while. So, um, that may or may not be part of this burnout conversation. So, because I do work for Neielen and we are the ratings company, um, I like to start everything here with an icebreaker. And uh the question is what are you watching? So go ahead and put in the chat feature which is on my other screen over here. Oops. Sorry about that. I want to hear what everybody Oh, Maryann I love naps more than fro yo. A good day is I get a nap and fro yo.
Um what's everybody watching? Okay. The new Kate Hudson show. Reacher. Kate Hudson show. I've heard great things about um lots of good viewership on that. I'll tell you a couple things that I am watching. Um I am a little bit late to the party. Uh I just started watching Dexter. Um it took me a while. I started and stopped it several times and I just needed to kind of get over, you know, what what I was thinking it was going to be. Um but I did just finish The Good Place. And as we talk about Burnout, I do actually have a shout out to um to The Good Place here in my presentation. It's a really really fun, light-hearted show that if you ever need something to just kind of take the edge off, I highly recommend that one.
So that's The Good Place on Netflix. All right, so let's start by defining what is burnout. Uh oh, there. Thanks, Laura. It's one of the best series ever. Thank you. I just started season two, so that's great. Okay, so let's talk about what is burnout. So, Spring Health, um they're actually a partner of Neielson's. Um so, you're going to hear I do have a couple of uh really good slides with some of their information, but 76% of American workers actually report experiencing burnout. Um to be honest, I think that there's probably more. Um, I think about what we do on a regular basis, dealing with life, dealing with families, dealing with work, dealing with, you know, the news nowadays.
I feel like that is probably more closer to, you know, 80 90%. But for those 24% of the people that say that they are not experiencing burnout, um, you know, I give them a lot of credit because it is a very very common, um, theme right now. A lot of people across all industries are feeling this. So, let's talk about what is burnout. And I apologize because I need to move. There we go. Um, so when we think about burnout here, burnout, it's a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. So, burnout comes in those three phases. You may sometimes feel that you're just emotionally burned out. You may feel physically burned out. You're just tired.
We go we go for those naps, right? Or mentally exhausted. But all three of those can equate to what is that state of burnout. It's result from prolonged stress and from overwork. So again nowadays people are working long long hours. They're working seven days a week. They are working through stressful times. So, an employee who's experiencing burnout, they may seem tired. They may act unusually irritable. They may complain about difficulties concentrating. The other thing that I want you to think about is if you have employees who may be experiencing burnout, they may start to question their value to the organization, maybe sense that their work doesn't matter. They may seem less confident about the quality of their work.
So these are some things I want you to look for. So when we think about burnout, we talked about it as as females. We talked about it as uh maybe parents, employees, spouses. It's often associated with careers that are extremely demanding or stressful. But the condition can strike any employee in any industry. So it's not just people who are working in the emergency room. It's not just people that you know they are working 12 14-hour days. It could be anybody depending on the level of stress that they're feeling on a regular basis. And it can affect anybody. That's another thing to take into account. If you look at some of your most engaged, your most motivated, positive, most productive employees, they're actually prone to taking on more work than than other team members.
So, if you think about those people that may seem to be overachievers, stop and take a look at what they're actually doing. Because they're overachievers, they may have significantly more stress. They may have more of that emotional, physical, mental exhaustion. Now, after this meeting, you guys are going to get a copy of this this presentation. Um, in there, I do have some links to some great studies that I found on burnout. Um, so you'll see one linked here. But twothirds of full-time employees report experiencing burnout. And that's um similar to the study that we saw from uh Spring Health, but this one is from a Gallup study. I'm keeping an eye on the chat to see if there's any questions coming in.
Oh, um, the slides aren't advancing. Oh, you do. Okay. Um, I see the what I see the what is burnout page. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Jennifer, you may just have to refresh. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Okay. Wonderful. Thank you. Okay. So, as leaders, as co-workers, as peers, as spouses, as parents, I want you to think about recognizing these concerns at work. Now I I I have on here at work but again we have people that we love our friends and our family that we also want to look at these concerns across all spectrums. So listed below are some of the common signs that I want you guys to think about. So a change in performance are they performing better?
Are they performing you know at a different quality than than you're typically used to? Is there an increase in workplace conflicts? That's another one that's really interesting. If you start to hear rumblings about maybe maybe you know some of your high performing employees maybe having clashes at work that may be a sign of burnout. If they have a change in personality, are they withdrawing from things that they like? Are they withdrawing from conversations? Are they less chitchat?
increased conversations about problems. That may be with you or that may be with other co-workers. Hopefully, their pure sight can come to you and say, 'Hey, you know what? I'm seeing something that's very concerning.' Hopefully, they come to this with a with a tone of concern rather than more of a kind of snitching or um making remarks that that you know it's it's a negative behavior. This one I found really interesting. Um, but it's true. Notable changes in hygiene. And that may not be they come to work stinky or they, you know, didn't change their clothes, that kind of thing. But just maybe they're just looking a little bit more disheveled than they have in the past.
Are they having difficulty con uh concentrating? Are they missing deadlines, key deliverables? Those are things to really really keep an eye out that may be a sign of burnout. I mentioned the hygiene but thinking about untidy dress or a workspace. So if their desk is thinking thinking if if you guys are working in offices does their workspace look different? Do they do they come to work in and again looking a little bit more disheveled? Are they commonly tardy? Are they commonly absent? And then this one is a big one. A very very big one. Impatience. irritability or anger. That's a that's a very key sign of somebody um dealing with burnout. So let's talk ne next about addressing the concerns.
So first thing here is listen and learn. So as a manager, as a leader, as a supervisor, as a peer, as a spouse, as a friend, it is you not your job to fix the problem. Okay. So, you are not a therapist. You may stand in as one once in a while. We all do as leaders. But it's not your problem to it's not your job, I should say, to fix the problem. But it is your responsibility as a leader to listen, to learn, and to empathize. So, here are some best practices to listening to those problems. While there's no strict rules here, aim to limit your speaking to 20% or less. Okay? So, everybody stop and think about that.
Somebody comes to you with a problem and you need to listen. You want to make sure that you are engaged in this conversation with them. But if you think about how often you are speaking, aim to speak 20% or less.
Okay. I think to me that's it's it's just really interesting to kind of think about that. Yes, you can't monetize or or quantify those exact minutes, but just kind of put that in the back of your mind. If your employee doesn't want to talk, okay, that's probably going to happen, right? Do not force it upon them, but let them know that you're there. If they need you, you are going to be a resource for them at any point. And then ask for permission to check in at a later time. That's another big one that I think is really valuable. Say, 'Hey, you know what? I understand you don't want to talk right now and that's okay.
Can I check in with you later this week? Just see how you're doing? I have regular check-ins with my employees and sometimes I take notes. See, last time they just they kind of seemed a little down in the dumps. They seemed a little stressed out about X, Y, or Z. So, I take those notes and I circulate back to that conversation. And here's another really important one. Be prepared to sit in silence. Okay? So, thinking about that, they may want to talk. They may have some weird awkward pauses, but as you are engaging in their conversation, as you're listening to them, those are some of the best practices that that I um would like to address.
Now, here is something that's really interesting is as you're addressing the concerns, remember Alec, A L E C. So, Alec, as you are having these conversations with your employees, ask that's the A. Help them open up by asking them open-ended class questions. Okay? I deal with this with my kids all the time. I commonly will ask them close-ended questions and then I have to remember, you know what, I have to ask them open-ended questions. So, some examples, is there anything troubling you? Mention specific things. So, if you see those concerns that we talked about, address those. You seem less chatty than usual. Are you
okay? We talked on the last slide a lot about listening. Okay, but that's the L in Alec. So listen, if they need time to think, sit patiently with silence. We talked about that. Engage them to open up by asking questions like, 'How are you feeling about that?' If they have a big project on their plate, ask them, 'How are you feeling? Do you feel like you can accomplish this? How long have you felt this way?' Show them that you've listened. Okay, we talked about listening on the last slide. Show them that you've listened by repeating back what you heard, but say it in your own words. Re reiterate what they said, but find a new way to help them understand that you were listening and that you
understand. Ask them if you've understood correctly, too. That's another big one. So, I think I heard X. Does that sound right? I have a question. I see a question that came in. It says, 'What if the team has addressed burnout to a manager and there's no empathy shown?' If you don't mind, let's hold on to that convers onto that question and I'll address that at the end. Um, but it's a very very great
question. I'm getting so many spam calls. I don't know if you guys are, but my phone is ringing off the hook with spam, so I apologize. Um, next up is for E, encouraging action. Okay, this could be another A, right? think about action, but encourage them to think about what they might do to help the situation. Okay? So, they need to be somewhat accountable for the fix. They're not, you know, we cannot solve everything for them. They cannot solve everything on their own. But what action could they do in their mind to help that situation? So, some questions to ask. What have you done in the past for similar situations? For some, maybe they've never ever embraced a situation like this.
What's something you could do right now that would be enjoyable or relaxing? Getting some fro yo, taking a nap, some of those great things. Watching Dexter. That's not very relaxing though. Kind of makes me tense up. thinking about what they could do in that moment to help them get through it. Okay? And we're going to talk again more about some some of that on on the slides coming up. So, checking in, ask if it would be okay and let them know that you'll check back in on a specific day. That's the C. We talked about that on the last slide. Now, let's talk a little bit about the business risks. Okay. Now we know that the the risks to human beings when we are dealing with burnout, right?
If you think about everything that can do to your body physically, everything it can do to you your body mentally, your sleep, your eating habits, okay, all of that. But as leaders in in whatever industry you might be in, we also see business risks that are associated with burnout. So, let's talk a little bit about those and why it's important for us moving forward in our businesses to also address this. So, burnout can cause employees to be less productive. We talked about that. A lot of times they'll call in sick more often and then some of them just leave their jobs altogether, right? All of that makes sense. But if you think about from a productivity standpoint, think about all of the work that could be done if we were to address burnout before it happens.
So it's very costly for businesses. So one review or one uh article from the Harvard Business um they estimate that the cost of healthcare spending due to burnout is between 125 and 190 billion. Okay, that's a lot of money to deal with with burnout that comes from employee burnout, from workspace burnout. That's not even speaking about I'm a parent and I just entered teenage years. True story. And that is causing burnout for me. That is very challenging. 13-year-old is really tough. Burned out employees are 13% less confident in their performance and 63% more likely to take a sick day. Okay. And again, that's more that goes back to that Gallup study. So, um, thinking about that, think about sick days.
If you just think about if you have one employee that's sick, you have one to two people trying to catch up on that work, trying to make up for that work or when that burned out employee comes back now, they have more work on their plate. So, really, I think with burnout, we really just want to get ahead of it. And that same study found that burnout employees are 2.6 six times more likely to seek a different job. Okay, turnover is not good. We don't want turnover. We want those great productive employees to doing keep doing great productive things for us, right? We don't want them to leave because they're feeling burned out. Since employee turnover is estimated costs organizations about $15,000 per employee.
Okay. So, we really want to remove that risk of burnout to improve retention rates. Talking about staff burnout a little bit. Um, we've talked about a few of these things, but kind of thinking very widely at the staff burnout. Keeping the communication channels open, right? We talked about listening. We always want to reinforce with our teams that we are here for them. Okay? We also want to encourage that amongst each other. We want to say, 'Hey, you know what? Go talk to your friends. Go have happy hour. I'll bring in donuts. Go hang out by the by the water cooler. Do they still have water coolers? I've been remote for so long. I don't know if they do.' But keeping those channels open, whether they're with you as a leader, whether they're with HR, whether they're with each other, whether they're with their peer sets.
Assessing the workloads. This is a really important one for us as leaders is to look at what is on the plates of our employees, right? It's easy to say that we as leaders do a lot of work, but it's hard to sometimes pull back the curtain and actually see exactly what they're doing and what they're dealing with on a regular basis. Okay. So again, those high performing employees, they may be working more than those maybe lesser motivated, those less uh disciplined employees.
thinking about oops sorry about that uh promoting healthy work habits. So thinking about your your environment that you have you may be a remote employee you may have a remote team you may be in office. So thinking about promoting some of these healthy work habits it may require revisiting your your organization's work policies in general. Thinking about a couple of these things. Do your team members receive adequate vacation time? Me at my work, we actually have unlimited vacation time. Sounds great, right? But do we use it? No. I don't think everybody uses it to what they should. Are your teams encouraged to take mental health days when they experience the symptoms of burnout or mental health challenges?
Okay. We want to make sure that we say, 'Hey, if you need a day, take a day. If you need an afternoon, take an afternoon. If you need that nap or fro yo in the middle of your workday, go do it. Don't take advantage of it.' But I find with my employees, if I encourage that type of behavior, they're not going to take advantage of it. They're going to be really, really grateful the next day when they come back and they're feeling a little bit more recharged.
And then again, you may or may not, I know there's a lot of conversation right now about return to office. Um, but do you have flexible work options? Telecommuting, working remotely, non-traditional work hours. Those are things again just really to consider. And then aiming for fairness. I think that this is one thing that's, you know, looking at the inequities of the workplace. um thinking about is everybody being treated fairly. Now again, sometimes we are oblivious as leaders. We may not see it and sometimes it needs to be addressed, but it's something I want you to proactively kind of look for. Am I being fair to all of my employees? Are there any sort of marginalization or under reppresentation in how we are are employing and how we are um working with our staff every single
day. All right. So, next up I want to talk about promoting self-care um as I as I start to wrap up and then we'll go into some questions. So 64% of leaders report experiencing anxiety, stress and or depression. I thought that this was really important. So we want to encourage self-care among our employees, but I really want to stress self-care amongst us as well. And I know easier said than done, right? But I want you if you if you are conscious of it on a regular basis, put it in your mind. Think about it. Think about everything that I just talked about. We don't want as leaders we can't be burned out, right? We have to be the core.
We have to be the backbone. We have to be the foundation of a very strong team. So think about self-care not only at towards our employees but also us as humans, as moms, as leaders, as spouses. Okay. Now, why is self-care important? So developing self-care practices before it happens. We talked about that. Being proactive. Don't let the burnout happen, right? It's harder to fix the burnout than it is to try to proactively get ahead of it. Paying attention to the warning signs that we talked about. I found this quote that I really like. People don't realize they're not taking care of themselves. Burnout doesn't happen suddenly. It happens slowly over time. We often begin to look for self-care when it's too late and we're already burned out.
Okay. I think to me that really hits home. It hits home very very hard because you know as working in the tech industry, we are dealing with a lot of very stressful times. And sometimes I have to look back and be like, 'Oh my gosh, six months ago it was so easy.' and you realize where what you've been through and what you've done. So, again, getting ahead of it before it's too late. Yes, Jennifer, that is a great quote. I I loved it. That's why I threw it in there. I got a couple of other good ones in here, too. Um sometimes these these quotes, they speak way better than I do. So, um I am definitely taking advantage of that.
So, preventing burnout, um in addition to seeking professional help, I think that's something that's always going to be on everybody's mind. So ensure that you get sufficient sleep. Again, easier said than done. We talked about napping. Let's all do that. Let's try to make napping part of our regular days. Engaging in regular exercise. I one thing I'm going to talk about in a slide from now is I I love to encourage walk-in talks, but I also think that during the day, taking a walking break is the best way to recharge. A 15minute walk or even just stepping away from your desk does so so so much. diet is great. Maintaining a balanced diet with nutritious meals, all of that is just healthy for you on a, you know, very large scale basis.
But really, when you're thinking about burnout and your mental health, it goes such a long way. This one I really like is opening up to trusted individuals about your feelings. So again, thinking about your employees, help them find those trusted individuals, but you yourself do the same. Find somebody you can trust, a co-orker. I do encourage everybody to have a best friend at work, somebody that you can confide in with your feelings, and you don't think that they're going to go nar you out. Um, but also somebody if you just need a shoulder, if you just need a vent session, do it. Find that person. Practice self-compassion with yourself. This one again, it's it's it's so easy to say, 'Hey, I should have done better.
Hey, I got a little bit behind on that deadline.' But if you treat yourself with self-compassion, treat yourself kindly, say those nice words to yourself, it goes such a long way. And then making time for activities that that bring you joy. I'm doing a little Marie Condo on my life and I find that things that bring you joy are if you stop and you think about what brings you joy, whether it's that piece of clothing, that's my Marie Condo thing that I'm going through, or whether it's taking your dog for a walk or getting that fro yo or that nap. encourage yourself and your teams to reach out to the people in your lives that can take some of the weight off your shoulders and create a support system.
And again, that could be a friend, a family member, a therapist, anybody who's a stand-in therapist. I have my best friend at work. She's my therapist sometimes. I'm hers. All right, here's a couple more great quotes. What if self-care isn't enough? Let me pull up our our quot here. Uh, nobody knows you better than you. And if something doesn't feel right to you, it's worth checking in with yourself. That can make the difference between knowing how to take care of yourself properly. Then talk to a loved one who you trust and see if they are see if they are able to spot what's going on. Okay, we talked about that. Sometimes we are blind to what's going on around us.
Sometimes we're blind to our own burnout. This is a really good exercise. And then this one I also just truly loved. It's okay to ask for help. Asking for help is a sign of strength, not weakness. Okay. When I find myself resisting certain feelings, I welcome those thoughts and give myself permission to feel and get curious about what they're telling me I need in that moment. Okay, think about it. When your stomach growls, it means you need food. When you're yawning, that means that you're tired. Those are some very, very common symptoms that we've dealt with our entire lives. But here, thinking about burnout, thinking about getting that
self-care. Last slide that I have here, I just want to talk about some of my best practices that I do with my team. I have a team of people all across the globe and I I deal with them all the exact same way. The first is a reward system. That may be, you know, giving out some Starbucks gift cards, telling people that they did a great job. Fun engagement with teams. Let's play a game once a month. Let's get together during our team meetings and let's end it early and spend 15 minutes playing a game together. I love Cahoot. I don't know if everybody's been to cahoot.com. K ah o t. You can create some really fun games there.
And then again, I give them prizes. Starbucks gift cards go a long way. And they're global. You can get Starbucks gift cards in every country that my team is in. Recognition. Shout outs are huge. We use Google spaces. I shout out not only to them on the work that everybody else has done, but I shout out bigger and louder. I go all the way up the chain to our CEO sometimes and talk about the great work that my team has done. I encourage a lot of breaks. Get away. Step away from your desk. It's not going to do anything good for you to stay there any longer. Encourage those opportunities to step away. Okay? Saying, 'Hey, you know what?
Go to the gym at lunch. I don't care. It's very healthy for you. If it takes you an hour and 15 minutes, I don't care. It's if you're going to come back mentally refreshed and recharged, I strongly recommend it. Walkin talks are huge. I do these all day. Not really all day, but I have a dog and she needs walks. So, I encourage walk and talks. What does that mean? That means if it's nice out, we live in San Diego, right? This usually works on most days except for today when it's raining. Put in your earbuds. If you don't need to be at your desk, step away. Go for a walk and talk. I talked about the buddy system or I talked about having a best friend at work, but think about a buddy system.
Just have somebody there. might be somebody across the globe that doesn't have anybody else. Make sure that they know that they have somebody. This is another big one. No camera days. My team loves it where I lo I I think it's very important as remote employees to always be on camera, but there are some days where it's okay not to be on camera and they like it when I say, 'You know what? Let's turn off our cameras today. It's just been a rough day. Let's turn them off.' Allow flexible scheduling. We talked about that. And then most importantly, empathy. So with the empathy, get in their shoes. Think about what they're dealing with. Okay? Be there for them and say, 'I understand.' You may not understand.
Try to. And I have one minute left and I want to make sure that I can answer some real quick questions, but I'm going to end with a an Eleanor Shelstrop quote. Um, like I said, I just finished watching The Good Place and it's so cute. I just can't get enough of it. If you try and ignore your sadness, it just ends up leaking out of you anyway. I've been there and everybody's been there, so don't fight it. Okay, so thank you. Um, let me go ahead and I'm going to pop over here and answer some real quick questions. Like I said, I probably have about 36 seconds left. Um, so one of the questions that came in is, 'What if the team has addressed burnout to a manager and there is no empathy shown?' So, I think I don't know if you have the higher power of working with HR.
Um, that is definitely a place that I would start. Um, hopefully that they have an open door policy. If they don't, I think what you all could do is go into the situation with some suggestions. So, not saying put together a whole sales pitch on how to address that burnout and how to try to find that empathy, but I think if you can go forward with some ideas to say, 'Hey, I think our team would be much more productive. I think that our team would feel better. I think there'd be a more optimistic and positive environment if we changed to X, Y, and Z.' I think that that would be a really great place to start.
Um, having an unempathetic um, unempathetic manager is really tough. I've been there. Um, and then, um, let's see here. Um, Ginger, please let me know when I need to be cut off here. Um, how can business balance need balance the need for high productivity with the risk of burnout? We're not we are on a hiring freeze and not replacing staff that leaves. Um, I have to tell you, Bel is we are actually in the exact same place. Um, I think it's really about prioritizing. And I know that that sounds like a really easy answer. Um, but it's really about determining what needs to get done and when. And I think just encouraging the fact that the end goal, what is the north star, making sure that everybody is striving towards that.
um that will help define those priorities because um I completely understand what it's like when you are short staffed but that job still needs to get done. What I would say is I would definitely not encourage teams to work extra hours. I would encourage them encourage them to work a little bit more efficiently with that time. And if they are feeling like they're wiped out, think about those things during the day that can help motivate them to be brighter, be more efficient, and really stay
productive. And then we have poor Juliana who's dealing with daylight savings burnout. I think we all are. Let's get let's get rid of daylight savings and we'll all be good. Um, she said, 'How do you even start a conversation with your team checking their burnout level?' I will tell you that I have one-on- ones with all of my team members. Um, I meet with them at least one once a month, if not more. And that's when I look for those cues. Um, I ask them how they're doing. I start very light and conversational. How you doing? What's going on? Um, and immediately within the first 5 minutes, I know whether or not they are coming in really positive.
Um, and sometimes we just have conversations about them and we don't even really get to a lot of business conversation. Um, because to me, my employees are the most important people or the most the most important factor on how to get the job done. Um, if they're not there mentally, I it's not even worth having a conversation about business. So, I hope that helps. Um, let's see here. I think I got to all the questions. I don't think we have time for any more questions. Ginger, correct me if I'm wrong. Um, but thank you. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for your time and for your fantastic presentation. Do you have one more final tip before we go to our next presentation?
I would say the biggest tip is empathy. if like if I could leave this and and it's again just walking away with the walking away with the conversation that you understand what they're going through and that you're there to work with them. Well, thank you. I used to work in Kernney Mason. I go I went there all the time. Well, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you. I'm excited to see everybody's presentations. Thank you.