Ask and You Shall Receive: Burnout II

There is a spiritual axiom that says “ask and you shall receive.” Burnout basically comes when you do not get positive feedback for the energy that you give. Let me put this in another way. If you cooked a meal every night and did not get some positive feedback from it, (“are we having this again?”) you would burnout from cooking real easily. From my observation people who do not burnout have a system that they use to get positive feedback.

Remember, there are a lot of people who are more then willing to give negative feedback.

If you are a good cook and have been cooking for years then you probably do this:

You tell others what a good cook you are.
You invite others to try the food.
Before they try it you tell the guest again that “the food is great and they will enjoy it.”
As they are biting into it you might say “isn’t that good” giving them no change to say “it is not good.”

Positive feedback gives you the energy and keeps you from burnout.

Anytime you put your heart and soul into something and get no positive results or feedback you will definitely burnout. Add in criticism and you can start hating your job or relationship. Never let people do that to you. If someone does criticize, ask what they like about what you did.

This goes for home too. If you spend a lot of time cleaning or cooking, don’t ever wait for someone to recognize it. If you clean, announce it and tell how long you spent doing it and how you expect some positive feedback. Avoid being a martyr in your office or at home. If it is your birthday let people know a few months ahead of time. I think it is cruel to withhold your anniversary date from your spouse.

Remember it is your job to stay enthusiastic; we are in a job that many people would envy, helping people.

Things to do at the office:

Next time you have a meeting with your customer / client start out by asking what things you have done for them that have helped.

If your birthday is coming up make some comment about it. Enjoy people making a fuss over you.

Put up a board in the lunchroom that can thank people for doing ordinary jobs.

If you are a supervisor make an extra effort to praise and notice things that your workers are doing.

Next staff meeting have a discussion on how to be supportive of each other.

What do you do to elicit positive feedback?

RESPONSES:

As for receiving positive feedback from those in charge of the programs I operate at school level, they are pretty good about letting you know that they appreciate my work ethics and follow through with paperwork as well as being a team player they can count on.

After three years in this position, I know that (they) know I love what I do and I do what I do so well. There is a bridge of confidence built between me and my bosses. It’s a bridge that I cherish.

It is a great feeling to receive positive feedback, as well as deliver positive feedback. I strongly believe that bosses deserve to hear from employees “positive feedback.”

Better things happen when people learn “To give positive feedback as it is to receive it.”

Patti , CA

Burnout now that is a difficult subject as it is so individualized. Finding the right balance for yourself is the key really. I have worked with JTPA and WIA for 17years now and two and a half years prior to that was with Human Services. I know what it is like to be a single parent with four children and be unemployed. It is not a feeling I shall ever forget, therefore every day it motivates me forward. I know that wonderful feeling that all will be right in the world once again when you get the call that you have been hired and you can feed your family once again. Even after all these years the happiest day of my life is the day I have sent off the bills and grocery shopping is done, it is pure contentment.

Burnout doesn't come from working with the people, for me it comes from the endless pressure of performance standards. I feel like the charts and graphs and follow-up, and all the things that we do for the bean counters not only takes huge amounts of time from the people we are trying to help but kills off morale to the point of despair. Sometimes I wonder if Washington D.C. really cares if people are working or if they just want it to look like it is important to them. Like Let's allocate billions to WIA then use the bulk of that funding to pay a bunch of people to keep track of the money to justify why we gave them the money in the first place. Then let's narrow down the place's people can go to receive training by using an ETPL list and then let's make those training facilities jump through so many hoops they won't want to be on the list. Helping people does not cause burnout, it is caused by bureaucrats who set up programs that are designed to fail. A novel idea might be to have real people that have actually worked in this field design the program

I have no cure for burnout but watching the people that designed WIA actually working with it would give us all something to chuckle at!

Charlene

This is awesome. I never thought of positive feedback as a way to counteract burnout.

This is great. I'll going to put some of these ideas into practice today.

Have a great week and try to stay out of the crowds.

Ruth

This is the first time I have responded to one of our e-mails but I
read them all and look forward to them. My favorite one liner I have
ever heard about burnout is that most people that claim to be burned
out have never been lit yet.

My positive feedback is the smile on my client's face when I know I found
them the job they were looking for. My other positive feedback is the
employer that keeps coming back to me for other placements.

Call me a simple guy but it doesn't take much.

Louie Montion

I agree. This job would not have burnout if there was much more positive feedback. But I'm moved and grateful for that which I receive.

Crandle

I think that all of your points are valid, but I think we often overlook the obvious in regard to our jobs. We get carried away trying to be professional all the time and forget that we, as well as our clients are all human. To me, the obvious here is have a little fun with it. Laughter is the best medicine for burnout and I think that as an administrator it is my job to keep things light around here when I can. Of course, there are times when it isn't appropriate, but in Social Services it is so easy to get caught up in all the negative issues in our clients lives. It becomes a challenge sometimes to remember that the world is not full of only negative things. I try to bring a little laughter into the office, sometimes it might be a joke or a clipping from the paper, other times it might be a ridiculous e-mail, last Halloween I wore a witches hat all day. The point is that if the staff feels that I can find the humor, then they seem to take the cue and follow suit. It breaks the monotony and keeps us a little fresher for the next crisis.

Terri

I give myself positive feedback by thinking on the many successes my participants and I have accomplished. I think of the mistakes as learning opportunities.

I get positive feedback from my participants’ remarks…”Thank you. I don’t know what I would do without you.” My supervisor offers positives and lifts me up when I am down. She seems to be able to sense my moods and what I need. When I need some positives, I tell others of successes within my program. It’s a way of asking for positive feedback, I think.

Bonnie

Thank you for your continual support and information in assisting us public workers. Boy you hit home with the burnout topic as I think all of us suffer from it now and then.

I'm currently reading a book by Peter Drucker (the business guru on management) called Managing the Next Society. In this book, I found something interesting he said which correlates with burnout in which most people in their forties who haven't reached their top of the game or who have, are looking for other outside activities to compensate the void and try to give back in other ways to society. For example, some of these individuals join community boards, volunteer in non profit organizations or work partime in another occupation. I'm finding that true with myself as I have several outside interest which make my life a bit more interesting and challenging.

Anyway I hope you enjoy the short blurp from Maui and thanks for your continual support and wisdom.

Aloha,

Donn on Maui WDD