Dealing with Corporate Burnout? One Easy Way to Manage Stress as a Nonprofit Leader with Jessie Pagliari
As nonprofit learning and development leaders, there are so many reasons we may feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or even burned out. And to overcome burnout, we need to be able to identify the underlying causes of it. That's why I've invited special guest Jessie Pagliari to talk about dealing with corporate burnout and managing stress as a nonprofit leader.
Listen to the episode or scroll down to read the blog post ↓
Key Points:
03:19 How Jessie’s medical leave and year-long sabbatical led to her creating her company, Everyday Bliss
05:30 Why burnout and corporate wellness are becoming such popular topics
08:12 How organizations typically respond to corporate burnout
11:00 The five key causes of burnout and the four ways stress affects us
13:19 One easy step to take to overcome burnout
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Dealing with Corporate Burnout? One Easy Way to Manage Stress as a Nonprofit Leader
As nonprofit learning and development leaders, we may feel burnout from time to time.
Maybe your workload is heavier than usual and feels unmanageable. Maybe you aren't getting the communication or direction you need from others in senior leadership. Maybe it's been a while since you were recognized for your work and the impact that learning and development has on the organization.
There are so many reasons we may feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or even burned out. I've been there.
To overcome burnout, we need to be able to identify the real underlying causes.
That's why I've invited special guest, Jessie Pagliari to join me today.
Jessie is the founder and CEO of Everyday Bliss, a personal and corporate wellness company. She is an ex-top performer in the Fortune 15 and a survivor of stress-related illness. She has combined her corporate experience, master's degree, and wellness certifications to build and deliver wellness programs that have a measurable impact on corporations and their employees.
Today, Jessie helps organizations support their employee wellness, engagement, and retention, through her evidence-based methodology.
And in this blog post, we’re covering the following:
I've been hearing a lot about wellness from nonprofit Learning and Development leaders. Wellness, well-being, and burnout are top conversations right now, and leaders are finally understanding the role it plays in their organization.
Not long ago, I had Mandy Sharp Eizinger on the podcast to talk about why staff well-being is the secret sauce to change management in nonprofit organizations. It was a great conversation, and if you want to learn more about fostering well-being in your nonprofit, you might also want to check out episode 30.
1) What Happens When We Ignore The Signs of Burnout?
Jessie previously worked at a large social networking site selling digital learning programs and was supporting about 50 different clients' with their programs.
It was here that Jessie says she developed burnout, which led to chronic burnout, and then stress-related illness.
“Stress is the source of 90% of disease.” - Jessie Pagliari
What started as burnout, turned into fibromyalgia, a chronic disorder that causes pain and tenderness throughout the body, as well as fatigue. Jessie ended up having to take a medical leave and then a year-long sabbatical from work altogether.
Jessie explains that during that time away from work, she was really able to reflect. She got her master's in communication, got stress management certified at the Mayo Clinic, and got her yoga breathwork and meditation certification from Yonder Yoga.
“In that time of reflection, I really thought wow, everything I'm learning could benefit all my peers and colleagues in these corporate settings [...] teachers could benefit from this, moms could benefit from this, leaders and managers can benefit from this. There's so many people experiencing stress all over the world who could benefit from just a few simple tips.” - Jessie Pagliari
Jessie took what she learned during her year-long sabbatical and built measurable evidence-based wellness strategies and solutions that she now delivers to corporations to help employees see real and measurable results in managing their own wellness.
2) Why Corporate Burnout is Such a Popular Term Now
According to Jessie, there are two reasons why corporate burnout is becoming so popular right now.
1- Eight out of ten Americans are affected by burnout. This data is from Gallup, an American analytics and advisory company.
“The official definition of burnout is the result of prolonged workplace stress. And what it looks like is feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, mental distance from one's job, or feelings of cynicism toward work. Some real-life examples may look like forgetfulness, or making more errors where you wouldn't usually make errors, and then these quick little tasks taking unreasonably long or just avoiding them altogether.” - Jessie Pagliari
Jessie highlights that eight in ten people being affected is a lot of people, it’s 80%. And that even if you as an organization are performing 50% better than that, that still means that 40% of your people are experiencing burnout.
2- Burnout is a costly problem.
According to Jessie, it costs the organization in terms of absenteeism, lost productivity, increased medical assistance, and needs for employees.
“Overall, we're looking at about 18% of salary as the cost of burnout per employee. So in an organization of let's say, 5,000 employees with an average salary of $50,000, the cost of burnout is $30 million.” - Jessie Pagliari
But, Jessie also tells us that when we're thinking about an individual, burnout is costing them as well. “You're not you when you're burnt out. You feel removed from work, you can't perform and contribute in the way that you'd like to. And it costs you a lot of time and energy to get back to that place where you can.”
3) How Organizations Typically Respond to Corporate Burnout
Jessie sees businesses approach wellness as an event. This can look like having a free yoga class once a month, a team happy hour, a fireside chat where you're discussing different wellness topics, or perhaps a smoothie day.
And even though these are all great, and they can work towards morale building, team building, and maybe a boost in employee appreciation, Jessie highlights that these activities aren’t a solution to burnout.
“If someone is feeling exhausted and depleted, it might actually cost them more energy to go to the yoga event or the happy hour. And so while these things are great [...] they're really more of a phase one.” - Jessie Pagliari
What does she mean by that? They're an introduction to wellness and a great place to start before going into phase two, stress management.
Stress management can really help employees become more aware of the relationship between work and wellness.
According to Jessie, stress doesn't exist in a vacuum, it may continue for days, weeks, or months – and that affects your overall well-being.
She highlights that because of the preventative nature of stress management, stress management training tends to see a six-to-one return whereas reactive wellness sees a three-to-one return.
So from an investment standpoint, Jessie really recommends beginning with stress management rather than wellness events, because it's effective and efficient and it's something that all your employees could use.
4) Uncovering the Real Causes of Burnout
Gallup identifies five key causes of burnout:
Unreasonable time pressure on your tasks
Unmanageable workload
Unfair treatment at work
Unclear communication
Lack of manager support.
So with those being the key five areas, Jessie recommends paying attention to where those are existing in your work day.
Additionally, Jessie adds that stress affects us in four different ways:
It affects us mentally - how we're thinking and processing.
It affects our physical well-being - it could cause shortness of breath which could cause a faster heart rate, or it could cause feelings of tenseness throughout the body.
It affects us emotionally - how we are feeling throughout the day.
It affects us socially - maybe we're lashing out with others when we're not really intending to or maybe we are being more short, isolated, or closed off.
Jessie recommends looking at how you are behaving throughout the day. Are these four areas being touched? And if they are, then that's a really good indicator to start taking care of yourself in terms of the five areas that Gallup identified.
5) One Easy Way to Manage Your Stress
When we think about those five key reasons, Jessie highlights that two of them come from your manager - unclear communication from managers and lack of manager support.
“Managers are one of the most likely groups to be burnt out. So it is similar to what you hear on the airplane: put your own oxygen mask on before helping others. Managers really need to take care of themselves and be the example before they can extend themselves toward helping others. Because what I have found is most managers are already overextended.” - Jessie Pagliari
A great place to start, according to Jessie, is taking healthy breaks away from devices.
“Research shows that when we're in front of our devices, subconsciously, we hold our breath or breathe really shallowly from the chest rather than from the belly. Doctors are calling this email apnea.”
Jessie highlights how dangerous this is because shallow breathing can trigger our stress response, even when we're just sending emails, on a call, or going about our day as we normally would.
This stress response can contribute to furthering your burnout or creating burnout if you're not experiencing any.
“Taking healthy breaks means spending time in nature, going for a walk, or taking deep breaths and really stimulating the vagus nerve which is the driver of our nervous system and takes us out of fight or flight and into rest and digest. These are all great ways to spend your break time. And they're also clinically proven ways to support your nervous system and improve your ability to recover from stress.” - Jessie Pagliari
Managers and leaders have the most ability to influence burnout in their organizations.
After taking care of yourself, you can be an example for others. “If you're taking a break, encourage your team to take breaks. If you're spending time away from your devices, encourage your team to do so as well.”
This can open the dialogue around health and wellness and how to spread these better stress management behaviors across your organization.
To hear the full episode on the Learning for Good Podcast, scroll all the way up and tune into episode 38.
The Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective
Do you wish you could connect with other nonprofit learning and development leaders?
I know what it feels like to want someone to bounce ideas off of and to learn from, someone who really understands you and your work. Imagine if you could have a simple way to meet people in the field, ask questions, and share information.
That's why I created the Nonprofit Learning and Development Collective – so nonprofit L&D, talent management, and DEI leaders can connect with each other quickly and easily in a virtual space.
When you join this community, you will walk away with a new, diverse, and powerful network – and a sounding board for your staff development needs.
So if you're ready to exchange ideas and collaborate with your peers, come join the Nonprofit L&D Collective.
