No One is Immune From Burnout at Work

Even at Mindful magazine, we have to work hard to make sure we’re not teetering on the edge of burnout. Editor-in-chief Heather Hurlock shares how she and her staff hold kind space for each other, while holding each other accountable.

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We are not immune from burnout here at Mindful. It takes constant communication for our small but mighty team to feel supported, balanced, fair, healthy—to create the psychological safety necessary for all of us to show up, make mistakes, fix them… and be real together so we can make quality things together.

We use weekly “Too Hot To Handle” check-ins to take each others’ temperature, see who’s “on fire,” and discuss how we can spread the work around to make sure we’re hot enough to keep us warm, not burn us out. Sometimes our systems fail us. Sometimes we take on too much. It takes all of us working together to maintain compassionate systems that support our thriving at work.

This New Year, rather than offering you a “New Year, New You” issue, we wanted to to explore how mindfulness can help with one of the most complex problems of our time: burnout. Because burnout isn’t an individual problem, it’s a collective challenge partially fueled by our disconnection from each other. Burnout at work happens to people who have been pushing themselves to perform for an extended period of time. It’s a byproduct of passion and…