A Better Job Won't Help - The Truth about Burnout | Karen Curry Parker | TEDxColoradoSprings

Hard disagree on redefining Trauma on this way. Trauma is a clinical term that explains very unambiguous mental illness and redefining it in such a vague way even subjective way does deserve to its clinical use.

"When you can't access your vitality, you burn out". That's very accurate.

As the largest generation continues to retire and are not replaced and the rest of us have to fill the gaps, I'm fairly certain we will all experience some level of trauma for having to do the work of 2, 3, 4, or in my case, 5 people that were not replaced. Think I'm exaggerating?

In the past, the work ebb'd and flowed... I had stressful weeks and calm weeks. During the stressful weeks, my life suffered - I found it challenging to stick to a diet, to feel rested, to have the energy, to be motivated to socialize. But it usually bounced back when things got back to normal. Now it's impossible to bounce back. The new normal is this state of despair over being unable to complete tasks because I'm constantly interrupted by my cell phone ringing while I'm on my work phone, while Teams chats are coming at me 3 at a time and I have to be on 5-6 meetings a day while doing tedious tasks like inventory tracking, customer service, complicated analyses, presentations, meeting project deadlines, and also acting as my own manager overseeing the big picture and determining what my priorities are. In addition, everything I do is challenged and second-guessed, and often re-checked by others who get the same result. There is no trust, just orders, repeating the same questions over and over, analyzing and re-analyzing to death, a process so inefficient it's no wonder everything takes so long. Everyone is terrified of making decisions, of being willing to make mistakes. A task is now done by 3 different people, checked and reviewed by 3 more people, then changed, reviewed again, and changed again.

So, ask me - what is burnout? I can tell you.

What's worse though is not having the Master's degree, the mental bandwidth, or the time to escape. The best I can do is quiet quit, and even then it's impossible because that's just not who I am, no matter how much I want to. So, I just don't say anything when they hand over more work (because I've already been very clear that I don't have the mental resources) and when they give me more, I just don't do it. It just has to wait, and wait, and wait ....

In the meantime, I gain more weight and I sleep when I'm not working because I'm too tired to exist.

Has the job market burnt out the workforce due to focus on low value work?

Burnout to much ME to little GOD
People I help not doing what I think they should do 🤔🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

I became useless after I got what I thought was my dream job. I was good at it too, but I just couldn't force myself to work anymore. I'd scroll endlessly on my phone, play games, or do anything to avoid doing work, and I'd scream at myself in my head saying "wtf are you doing??"

Thank you Karen! I heard your talk 2 years ago for the first time, and listening to it again. Now I am your Student finishing QHDL4 THANK YOU SO MUCH, Human Designa and you and your team saved my life! I love you with all my heart! So proud of being part of the tribe! ❤❤❤

This could not be more wrong

I’m sure what she saying is also possible. However, burnout can happens when you are doing the job of 2 people for years. Then they give you more work. When I asked other people about their jobs, they tell me it’s happening at their company too.

I am a hospice nurse. I cut my hours back to 32 hours a week. What happened was what led to my burnout. Instead of decreasing my caseload, they increased it. The last week I worked before going on FMLA had me covering 23 visits. That's six visits three days and five on one day. But it got worse. Several of my patients took 45 minutes to get to their homes and another 45 to get to the next patient. So I ended up doing five people two days a week and six and seven people the other two days a week. It gets worse. Every other week, there were interdisciplinary group meetings that lasted three hours. Worse yet, to prepare for these meetings, I was required to complete special charting which took about three hours to complete. Needless to say, the evenings on those days I worked consisted of me charting and I was starting an hour earlier than usual in order to complete my visits. I felt I had lost total control of my work and, after voicing my concern regarding my schedule and not having any changes made, I felt my company didn't care about me. I was just going through the motions of work. I cried myself to sleep on most nights. I'm in week one of my FMLA and am already dreading going back. I managed to get an appointment with a therapist. I hope that taking the break and seeing a therapist will give me the tools to deal with this burnout. I love my job, just not the way the company didn't respond to my concerns. I plan on having an intermittent FMLA for in the future.

I'm 64 years old, been stressed all my life, over weight and have type 2 diabetes. Recently I've been to coaching sessions to address my weight issue. What I discovered is somewhere in my troublesome childhood I took responsibility for everything! I was stressed all the time! This was my core value. I'm now putting my needs first and I've starting to think more about what I eat, not through self discipline, but easily through self love. Suddenly my job has become alien to me because I was in it to rescue situations. What's interesting is these six coaching sessions have been funded by the UK National Health Service, where I live, via a charity that helps people like me. Keep up your great work, there must be so many people out dying because of unnecessary self inflected stress. Thank you 😊

Someone referencing the fraudulent W.H.O is a huge NO for me

TedX the Goodwill of self help talks

Let's say you never experienced trauma before and you were a well balanced person.. then you get a job in a corporation and move up the ladder.. as you become more important to the company, they demand more and more of you until your entire life revolves around keeping the company going.. when you started the job you were working 40 hours a week, now you are working 70+ hours a week and have a mortgage and cars to pay.. and kids to put through college.. and you are older now and know would be hard to find another career job at your age that will pay the bills... your ever demanding job has kept you away from your spouse and family, causing relationship problems.. I don't care how damn balanced you were before that, YOU WILL BE BURNED OUT after this! To think that trauma is the only cause of burnout is complete idiocy.

Look lady you are way off on this.. trauma may have a relationship with burnout but its not the root cause. Companies in the United States typically work their employees into the ground, that's a fact. If you think otherwise you're living in a fantasy land.

Not true. Burn out is not a medical problem that you can get treatment or help for, at lest not in Texas. Your on your own to figure out how to survive

Perhaps. But I still think I need to a career change.

Yep my father continuously made me feel bad about wanting to do something I wanted. So now I work night shift at a Walmart and when I dream I only have dreams of working or nightmares. I've since gotten light insomnia I tried to write but my dad would always push it down and make me work the job he wanted

It's is said in Africa that you need your parents blessing to succeed in life. Now I see why..

This is, by far, the best, most accurate definition of burnout. I resonate with this, not as a person trying to function in this matrix, but also as a human-being.

Beautifully stated and great observations and points. I’ve experienced “big traumas” and plenty of day to day in childhood and adulthood. Even when I’m high on my career and ambitious, I’m equally floored and burnt out. I have felt burnt out for many many many many years. Now I have kids and want this to shift for so much more than myself. It’s getting there but still have some ways to go. What I always loved was music but I was never “the best” at it. I certainly wasn’t good enough to go to school for it so I followed what made me feel competent and strong and smart, unlike anything before and that was health and wellness and public health. I do love it and it’s near to my heart but I think there is a core much deeper I need to remember and stop being afraid to explore and try to enjoy again.

I can't find a job.

The universe is pointing me in the right direction. It is making me figure stuff out that needs to be fixed. Thanks.

I disagree. Actually in most cases a better job where people are valued and efforts are rewarded would definitely elevate work related trauma and burn out.

I worked for Walmart software side of things. I was worked like a horse, promised the sun and the moon on projects but in the end passed on like a banana peel after that project was finished. My bosses took all the credit and rarely would give credit. I never got a pay raise for 3.5 years. I never went on vacation. And I never got a pay raise. Despite all promised to me before every major project.

In the end I burnt out and couldnt even look at programming for while. If my work did not bash my expectations over and over again, gave me some credit and valued me especially in reward ie salary I would not have burnt out. I still feel trauma and wish I left sooner when I saw other people leave. I just thought they could not hack the work until it hit me.

Burnout can result when we are spending most of our waking hours not being connected & expressing our inner creativity. Thanks.

I'm a cnc lathe programmer/editor. I knew 0 about it but learned on the job. I am at a low to mid level pay range with what I know and can do.

If I stick with it I can potentially make a very good wage. But I'm so sick of making parts LOL.

I think I might just have to get new jobs everytime I get sick of them. Not the best but I gotta work. But I dont wanna be miserable either.

4 years at working at Goodwill all ways doing the same duties without moving up.. at 50 something and now with one kidney and trying keep up with the speed of every one àlse and the special education from California

Good talk until the virtue signaling started. Racism, racism everywhere!

sound is low

Awesome talk and great delivery. Thank you!!

My burnout has nothing to do with unresolved trauma. The trauma is the jobs I've experienced - repeatedly negative experiences. I legit have lost 3 jobs in 6 years, experienced 2 additional company closures, filed 2 lawsuits because I was not being paid fairly, and yet to find a job in my field that is stable. I think it's simply I need a new profession.

Thank you! The internal disconnect between one’s own values and the perceived ones, due to whatever external reason in the past, can be so damaging. You lose the sense of self worth because the values are not your own in the first place. But also, it’s not one’s mistake that the trauma happened to them. Yes, being observant and mindful growing up can probably help keep an eye on when exactly there is a conflict in values.

Letting the context off the hook helps no one...
The ideal of 'exceptional living' is a mirage - and one that actually leads to burn-out..

1. Corporal punishment
2. Strict parent (mother)
3. Domestic violence
4. Parents divorce
5. Mother leaving to study when I was young
OMG the list is very long includinghealth conditions caused by the trauma, yet nobody wants to listen to my pain and I should get "over it, it happened years ago".
I've experienced burnouts all the jobs that I've worked.

I ended thinking maybe I'm just failure 😔😪😕

Omg! I can relate soooooo much!!! I quit my job for something better....to do fashion design. My mom also scared me out of doing what I love instead of whatever will get me a job. It's madness....

Thank you!

This was great! I had a major episode of burn out at the beginning of the pandemic and went to therapy to address past traumas. Still not sure if I'm ready to reenter the workplace though.

Great video, but I do think changing your job to something more in line with your natural abilities will reduce burnout.

There has been a study about this: The ACE study (Adverse Childhood Experiences). Later in life these people are at higher risk for cancer, stroke and other serious illnesses.

I don't trust a Karen

so? how do i keep in touch with my sense of value?

Thank you for this.

I'd love to give you 10 thumbs up just to help spread this video! Excellent message, thank you so much. It really fills that gaping hole in the vicious circle of self-accusation around not having the right to be "traumatised" in comparison to the trauma cases you listed in the beginning.

You discovered the truth. Thank you for your work.

There should be two different words for particular burnouts. There is a different burnout for work and different burnout because of personal life.

Not enirely true .
TOXIC WORK ENVIRONMENT CAUSE TRAUMA

I'm with Karen! 👏

you are such a gift to this world. thank you for sharing your astute wisdom with us all.