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I was 41 when I had my first appointment with Newson Health and was immediately prescribed HRT, testosterone, oestrogen and progestogen, in fairly high doses that just kept rising over a period of months.

In that appointment I felt heard for the first time in nine years.

At 32, as a result of my first Burnout, I had developed severe Endometriosis and Chron's disease due to the stress my body had been under for a prolonged period of time.

By the time the stress had taken hold of my physically, what followed was seven months of hospital admittances due to the physical pain that was causing me to pass out. 

I once passed out at the top of the escalator at Liverpool Street Station from the street level to the concourse, and would have gone back to work if I hadn't ripped my clothes and instead headed straight home on the train and worked from the kitchen table for the rest of the afternoon.

Seven months after the physical pain had started to impact my body, I was in...

Can you reach Burnout more than once is a question I get asked a lot.

It's often also the biggest fear of the clients I work with through one to one coaching, reaching Burnout again.

And yes, you can reach Burnout more than once.

Many people live in the Burnout cycle, not quite reaching the point of full blown Burnout, and some keep repeating the crash and burn Burnout cycle over and over again.

So how can it happen again?

Why does the cycle often repeat itself?

And quite frankly, why don't people just learn their lesson?

I am a repeat offender.  My first Burnout made me seriously ill.  My second almost killed me.  And still I I know that I could reach Burnout again.

My biggest fear is that I wouldn't be able to survive Burnout number three.  And this fear in itself isn't really helpful, because at times I hold myself back, and in holding back I add to my stress even more, and then, thanks to the Bipolar that my Burnout caused, I can quickly spiral into a...

The closer you get to Burnout the more people around you will be trying to get you to take a break, to take some time off work and to slow down. 

But you can't.

You don't even feel like you need to. 

You feel like you need to keep going. 

You don't understand why people are insisting that you make some changes. 

And you can't see the warning signs that everyone around you can.

So, what is it that others can see and why can't you just take the break that could stop Burnout in its tracks? 

For the answer to that, let's understand a bit about the brain science that's keeping you pushing forward.  

When you're calm, you're able to function from the intellectual part of your brain. 

The intellectual part of your brain is positive, creative, innovative, and when you're operating from this part of your brain, you're able to think clearly and make decisions quickly and effectively.

When you're experiencing high and chronic stress levels, however,...

Burnout sucks your confidence, your self-worth, your relationships, your clarity, your decision-making ability, your trust, your energy, your health, your sleep, your life.

Every part of your life is impacted when Burnout knocks on your door.

The World Health Organisation when they categorised Burnout in 2019 called it a workplace syndrome and said it could only be related to the workplace.

A three-year research project conducted at KU Leuven proved that Burnout is not just limited to work and the workplace.

And for anyone that has experienced Burnout, you'll know it's a lot more than workplace stress.

And yet when it does relate to the workplace, our addiction to work is what becomes the most overwhelming part. It's the most obvious sign, and the one we often ignore.

You panic at the thought of taking time away from work.

You can't think about anything other than work.

You eat, sleep, and breathe work.

You're checking your emails and your phone every five seconds.

You panic about...

• In 2023 AXA Reported that Burnout was costing the UK economy £28bn a year.

• Harvard Business Review reported that in the US, the cost of Burnout was more than $500bn a year.

• WHOOP Unite reported that the costs to the global economy are more than $1 trillion a year.

• WHOOP also estimated that the cost of turnover for each person is 1.5 to 2 times their salary in both loss of knowledge and skills, and the cost to hire someone new.

And it doesn’t stop there.

Varying reports and surveys from Gallup, Workhuman, Deloitte and Harvard Business Review over the years have stated that between 62% and 70% of Executives are or have considered leaving their jobs for workplaces that care more about wellbeing, and in the same studies, 50% to 60% of people outside of management roles want to quit for similar reasons.

Yet still, so many Exec teams refuse to admit that Burnout is a thing that’s worth focusing on or talking about.

Studies show that 65% of leaders have...

I'll never forget the day that the call came to tell me my replacement had died.

I was on a Mastermind day, I'd seen a couple of missed calls and I stepped outside into the courtyard during the break. The sun was shining, my energy was high, and I thought the call would be good news.

I don't remember how I responded.

I felt a mix of emotions and I wasn't sure how to process any of it.

Two days later, the call came to let me know that I'd not been the first HRD in the organisation to have become seriously ill.

Something inside me changed that week.

I'd left my corporate career to start my multi award-winning People and Change Consultancy. We were doing great work, working with great clients, making great money, and doing things differently, but my contact with the CIPD took me down a different path.

I'd reached out to them to ask what support was available for HRDs. To find out how many of us were becoming ill as a result of workplaces. And to see what was being done to support our...

Shall we play a game of true or false?  Come on, it’ll be fun!

Ok, here goes.

I ran a 5k once so now I can just put on my running shoes and run a marathon – true or false?

I did some reps with my 15 kg dumbbells so now I’m ready to win the Olympic weightlifting team – true or false?

Ok, how about this one …

I went to bed really early last night as I’ve been feeling a bit run down over the last few weeks, and I can now limit my sleep for the rest of the year and stay healthy – true or false?

In case you need me to tell you the answers, they are false, false, and false, but you know that already.

So why when it comes to wellbeing in the workplace do you think that one event a year is going to make the difference for you and your people?

When I started my career in HR back in 1998, I wanted to stop the Monday-to-Friday dying syndrome that I saw so many of my friends and family experiencing on a daily basis. 

I genuinely wanted to...

What do you use your weekends for?

Rest, recharge, or recovery?

In the months and years leading up to my Burnout, weekends were about recovering from the work week that had been, and then just like a wind-up toy, I’d pop back into action, back into robot mode for the next week.

And like clockwork, I could tell you when I’d crash during my Christmas break, once I’d been the hostess with the mostess for family and friends for three days.

And not forgetting my summer holidays where I’d ended up with ‘flu’ aching and unable to move, but I forced myself to have fun with my family so that I didn’t disappoint them.

During the lead-up to Burnout, the stress is what keeps you going. 

The good old primitive brain and the fight/flight response keep you moving to try and keep you safe.

In the days of hunter-gatherers, you wouldn’t sit down and have a break and a picnic with your friends whilst surrounded by wild animals, you’d be eaten alive,...

Currently, without even realising it, many more of you will be Primitive Leaders, rather than Innovative Leaders, and it’s impacting you, your people, and your performance.

Here’s why!

As your stress levels increase you move from the intellectual part of the brain, the part that always gets things right in life, innovates, and sees possibilities, to the primitive part of the brain, the part where your fight and flight sits, the part where you can operate from previous patterns of thoughts and behaviours, the part that sees you in panic mode, always on the lookout for the next imminent danger.

The primitive part of the brain is what kept the hunters safe when we all lived in caves. It wasn’t weighing up whether any of the wild animals had eaten and encouraging you to sit down in the middle of the field and have a picnic with your friends, it was keeping you on red alert, and keeping you safe.

And it’s this red alert, that many Exec teams have been living...