Burnout isn’t boring. you’re just being lied to.

“I’m so bored of seeing posts about Burnout, we all know what it is” said a coach on one of my LinkedIn posts last week, and I get it.  I’m bored of seeing Burnout posts too, the ones that just regurgitate the World Health Organisation (WHO) definition or just quote the 121 stages of Burnout with ‘agree?’ tagged on the end.

I’m also bored of seeing Burnout being used as a marketing buzzword, or to explain why people finally took a week off in the sun and getting applauded for it.

And, don’t get me started on all of the ‘Burnout Awareness’ training which delivers, guess what? The WHO definition and the 12 stages of Burnout.

When this is the low bar that we set for Burnout Awareness, no wonder we’re all bored of it.  

And also it’s no wonder that nothing is changing. In fact, Burnout is spreading like wild fire, around the world, and we’re just accepting it.  Nodding along like nodding dogs at the same old definition being repackaged in a different colour business logo, with the exact same 12 stages across a slide deck and calling it innovative.

Here’s the definition of marriage.

marriage

/ˈmarɪdʒ/ noun

the legally or formally recognized union of two people as partners in a personal relationship (historically and in some jurisdiction specifically a union between a man and a woman.)

If you are, or have been married, you’d agree that this definition barely even touches the surface of what it means to be actually married (not to mention the outdated and exclusionary views).  If marriage were this basic and this simple in practice, then the whole industry of marriage coaches, therapists and counsellors would not be in business, and divorce, probably extinct.

If all you’re talking about with Burnout is that it’s a workplace phenomenon, you are seriously underestimating it, and confusing the simplicity of the definition with the actual damage that Burnout does.

The 12 stages? A good entry point. But they don’t explain what Burnout actually feels like—how it hijacks your brain, traps your body, and rewires your sense of self.

And no, most people don’t ‘lose interest in work’—they become addicted to it. They cling to it like a lifeline, right up to the collapse.

But the 12 stages won’t tell you that.

They won’t tell you about the trauma, the identity loss, or the nervous system shutdown that follows.

And, have you ever seen an infographic that explains what happens in the workplace to contribute to Burnout? No.  The 12 stages basically say you start to prove yourself a bit more, then you lose a bit of interest in your work and a few stages later you collapse.

Do you know what the collapse feels like?

Do you know what’s fuelling the need to prove?

Do you know that most people don’t actually lose interest in work at all, they just become addicted to it?

There is SO much more to Burnout that nobody is paying attention to. So of course we’re bored of hearing about it.  But I promise you this, nobody is bored of Burnout when they’re in a training room with me.

You have to stop the box-ticking when it comes to Burnout.  

There’s a difference between awareness that is ‘I know Burnout exists’, a difference between ‘I’ve read the WHO definition and and the 12 stages’, and a difference between Burnout Awareness that actually creates change, and transforms live - I’m the latter.

The world is noisy, the world of social media even more so is full of (mis)information, and the same old Burnout info being churned out daily.  I do this work all day every day, and most of what I’m seeing is boring me to death too.

But now is not the time to become complacent, assume we know it all, and switch off when we see yet another Burnout Awareness training, or another post about Burnout.  We need to start asking different questions.

Why are there so many people talking about Burnout?

Why are so many people churning out the same old information?

Why is Burnout rising so rapidly?

And how do we really create the change?

For over a decade I’ve been in this space, joining the dots.  I’ve coached almost 700 leaders, through Burnout, trained over 100 in the Burnout Academy in the last year alone, and spoken to tens of thousands more on stages, and I’ll tell you this, Burnout isn’t going anywhere.

Boredom isn’t going to create the change, nor will complacency, and the same old information being passed off as Burnout Awareness certainly won’t create the change.

I am SO passionate about Burnout Awareness, because I know we can prevent it.  I know we can create the changes necessary to stop Burnout killing confidence, careers and people.

I’m not here to make Burnout awareness more palatable. I’m here to make it powerful. Because that’s what it takes to actually stop it.

Kelly

I’m daring to imagine a world where Burnout no longer exists, and if you’re daring to imagine a world like that too, then come and join me.

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