HOW TO START AN UNBIASED CONVERSATION ABOUT EXHAUSTION

Abstract

AbstractThe author, a self‐employed occupational health psychologist, presents her research on various nuanced aspects of exhaustion, stress, and burnout, as they related to leadership and organizations. She also notes her TEDx talk “Let’s talk about the bright side of exhaustion,” and writes that “using study results based on data of more than 26,000 participants and illustrative anecdotes, I will explain why exhaustion is more complicated than most realize, that there is not only a dark but also a bright side, and how leaders can make sure that people in their environment experience the bright side of exhaustion by improving person‐job matches.” She describes her own personal background within these issues, and Figure 1 depicts a Conversation Starter for Exhaustion Model. The Venn diagram has “Joyfully Exhausted” in the middle, surrounded by the keywords Meaning, Support, Autonomy, and Appreciation. In the article text, regarding meaning, she writes “As a leader you need to know what kind of work is meaningful for each person around you and ideally create work environments where people can mainly focus on performing these tasks. This makes it easier for individuals in your work environment to better perform and make the effort feel worthwhile.”