Part 2: Recognising Burnout – Signs and Symptoms in Your People

 10 Part Blog Series: Understanding & Combating Burnout in the Workplace

Burnout can be sneaky. 

It doesn’t always announce itself with a loud crash or a big warning sign. It often starts with small, subtle shifts—before it spirals into something that cannot be ignored. 

As HR professionals, recognising Burnout early is crucial.

When you understand the signs and symptoms, you can act quickly to prevent further harm. But, the first step is knowing what to look for. The earlier Burnout is spotted, the sooner you can help prevent its escalation.

Signs and Symptoms of Burnout

Burnout doesn’t look the same for everyone. While some may show clear signs, others may mask their exhaustion or disengagement. Here are a few common symptoms to watch for:

• Emotional Symptoms: Cynicism, irritability, lack of enthusiasm, feeling disconnected from work or colleagues.
• Physical Symptoms: Chronic fatigue, trouble sleeping, headaches...

In 2022 I was contacted by an event company to ask if I could deliver keynote talks about Burnot at two of their Leadership events, one was for CFOs the other was for HRDs.

They provided the dates along with a link to view the events online, where I could arrange a call with the organiser if I'd be willing to attend and speak.

My first question, was why the CFO event was three days and two nights, with a gala dinner at a luxury resort, while the HRD event was one day at an ok-ish conference venue in London. No dinner, no gala, no luxury, not even any networking drinks - just show up, listen to the speakers, and leave.

In 2014 when I'd set up my company, having worked away from my hometown for the last 10 years, I started to attend some local HR events. 

I wanted to get to know some of the local HR Leaders, find out what was happening locally, and generally, just build my support squad now I was no longer in London five days a week, attending London events, or part of a large organi...

"We'd like to say thank you to everyone involved in making this project a success, we know you've all worked hard, put in a lot of extra hours, and made a lot of sacrifices over the last few months.  You've done a great job ..." individually thanks all of the teams involved, excludes HR.

I was once part of a quiz team called Human Remains.

I was newly appointed and the Senior HR Team members were in consultation as part of a restructuring, the Head of HR included.

They each asked me to accompany them to their consultation meetings, where nobody who knew about HR was present.  The legal team had provided a script of things to say, questions to ask, and answers to provide as part of the meetings - I controlled the meeting.

The HR Team were all under instruction to not discuss this with anyone outside of the team, and that we should show a united front at the company quiz night, especially as the event was raising money for charity, the CEO was not impressed by the name we'd chosen fo...

How often, as an HR Leader, have you said that you hate people?

I mean, I lost count during my in-house days.

And of course, I don't actually hate people, but after the thousandth interruption of the day, you do start to wonder why some people do really stupid things.

I've always believed that nobody gets up in the morning and decides, today I'm going to be an utter d*!k at work, and yet every day, we see and hear of people doing just that.

Like the couple who were having an affair and decided that the storeroom would be a great place to 'get it on'.

Or the other couple who were having an affair, and replied all in an email chain with some extremely private pictures.

The driver who refused to mention the 37 parking tickets he'd gotten in a week.

The woman who didn't think anyone would notice the money she was stealing.

The IT Director who was selling out of hours IT support to help people hide their search history, and this is quite literally just the tip of the iceberg.

Or th...

HR Leaders can banish burnout, and live and lead happier and healthier lives with the right support squad around them.

Often when I start coaching Senior HR Leaders, they’ve felt alone and undersupported for a long time, they’re exhausted, frustrated, and on the brink of Burnout.

For years, whilst they’ve been the shoulder of support for so many others, although they’ve had their team around them, their support squad stops there.  And whilst protecting their team from so much of what is going on in the organisation, they need extremely broad shoulders indeed.

The role of HR, and that of the Senior HR Leader is often misunderstood and underestimated by so many, and when you finish work unless you have friends, family, or partners in the profession, they don’t understand why you care so much.

They don’t understand the often complex, demanding, and varied role of HR.

One minute you’re discussing strategy around the Boardroom table, and the next you’re speaking to someone about a pers...

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 profession ...

Is in-house HR at risk of extinction?

Yes, absolutely!

But probably not for the reasons that you think.

I've been in the HR and People space now for 25 years (25 YEARS!!), and in that time I've worked in Staff and Training, Personnel, HR, People, People and Change, People and Culture, before leaving the in-house world.

I'm bored of the 'should we rename and rebrand HR?' conversation.

The answer is no.

It doesn't need renaming or rebranding again, it needs DEFINING, and HR Leaders need to be able to set boundaries for themselves and their teams the way that EVERY other team in the organisation does.

Because, what's going to cause the extinction of in-house HR, is BURNOUT.

People who love HR, but who can no longer handle:

❌ Leaders not leading

❌ Managers not managers

❌ Strategies not being approved

❌ One rule for everyone else and another for HR

❌ No support

❌ Nodding dog syndrome when they ask for things to be done by leaders across the business with NO action

❌ Being inc...

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, and this same survival response is what is keeping you going. ...

One of the biggest frustrations I hear from my HR clients is that they don’t feel heard. At Board meetings, they feel that whenever they speak, their colleagues turn into nodding dogs, agreeing that things need to change, but not actually taking any steps outside of the Boardroom to action or implement anything differently.

HR feel that they are banging their heads against a brick wall trying to get their Exec colleagues to pay attention to any of the People stuff, whilst everyone else remains so fixated on the money and the numbers.

A question I find myself asking often is ‘Have you explained your frustration?’ and the answer is usually no. The reasoning behind this is that they think it will be a waste of time, particularly given that their colleagues have made comments before about:

·     You do the people stuff

·     Tell us what you want us to do and we’ll just do it

·     I don’t really care about the people stuff, that’s your domain

·     I’m not comfortable with the peopl...