On burning out, speaking up, sailing away, and new beginnings!

How to identify and deal with burnout and speaking up when you have issues in the work place (also, JoCo Cruise, also big changes are coming for yours truly!)

Mar 20, 2024

“When you think you’re on the verge of burn out, you’re probably already burnt out…”

Ow. That one hurts to hear, but it’s very likely that it’s true. But what exactly is “burn out”? To quote this article from the NIH (The National Institute of Health):

The term “burnout” was coined in the 1970s by the American psychologist Herbert Freudenberger. He used it to describe the consequences of severe stress and high ideals in “helping” professions. Doctors and nurses, for example, who sacrifice themselves for others, would often end up being “burned out” – exhausted, listless, and unable to cope. Nowadays, the term is not only used for these helping professions, or for the dark side of self-sacrifice. It can affect anyone, from stressed-out career-driven people and celebrities to overworked employees and homemakers.

More specifically to me, someone who works in social media, community management and creative marketing, spotting burn out can be essential to identify what is causing it so you can do your best to keep it from happening. According to study in 2023 that Sprout Social did, over 40% of marketers plan to stop working in social media in the next 2 years, due to factors such as being spread too thin, comparably low compensation, and no work life balance, to name a few things. But alas, here we are, in a market that requires digital and social media marketing.

So how do we identify what burnout may look like in a workplace? Here are a few things I tried to look at first:

Lack of control: not having a say of what you do in your job. Also not being able or feeling comfortable to speak up about your schedule and workload.
Lack of clarity: you might feel like you’re busting your butt but not feel valued at work or by your higher ups. Or, no clear goals or paths to what “success” looks like.
Lack of support: not having the resources to do it without extra “sweat equity” or anyone else on the team that understands how to back you up when you need help.

Once you’re able to identify what these pain points are, try to resolve them. I’ll talk about how I personally tried to identify, solve, and then cope with my job burnout. Speaking from anecdotal experience:

Call it out (respectfully): If you feel like you’re being misrepresented by your management, speak up and ask for examples. If you’re being told that you’re “often” missing daily work or have missed deadlines “several” times, ask for concrete examples. Either they can provide you examples of these superfluous words and you can fix them or they can’t provide you examples and you can be firm in your understanding of your own scope of work.
Documentation: You can always ask for the job listing you were hired for so that you can look at what your role’s responsibilities are and push back on things that may have piled up on your plate over time. You can also document time it takes you to do specific projects so that the team know how long it takes you to do specific tasks. Also, you can keep a list of your documented “wins” that you’ve had, not only as reassurance but also as a way to show how you’ve added value to projects over time.
Advocate for yourself: This can include, but isn’t limited to, asking for resources that your company can provide when it comes to mental health support, taking scheduled rest breaks, and not feeling bad about stepping away. For example, you may have an EAP you don’t know about where you can speak to mental health pros to deal with your stress. Also, don’t do what I always find myself doing: “pushing through” to a larger, longer vacation, when you could still take a day here or there to recoup and rejuvenate.

A Nerd (me) Who Went on Their 5th Nerd Cruise (JoCo)

You heard that right! This was my 5th JoCo Cruise as part of the Board Game Team! We run the board game library and help with fun table top events throughout the week. The best way I can describe it is if you take a Table Top Convention, mix it with cozy crafting time, throw in some cool music artists, podcasters, performers and authors, and sprinkle super heavy hand of a week long summer camp/family reunion all over the top!

Highlights include playing 21 board games + TTRPG’s, formal night, cosplay day, exploring Puerto Plata + Grand Turk, a cake buffet on the ship, seeing artists Sammus + Omar Star perform live, going to Jean Grae’s “Church”, and celebrating my beau’s birthday! We also made our door a big game of MonsDRAWsity, where we left out a tape recorder and folks could play along each day and show off their monster drawings! It was a much needed break from “the real world” but I’m glad to be back.

Share 👾 DIGITAL THICCNESS 💪🏼

New adventures afoot!

After ~2.5 years years at my current job as the community and social media manager, I’m stepping away. Working in games has always been a dream of mine, and stepping away from a dream job isn’t easy, but after considering a lot of different factors, I think this is the best decision for me personally and professionally. I’m excited for new opportunities that await me and even though change can be a little scary because of the “unknown”, I have a strong support system (including everyone reading this) so I’m ready to take anything head on! Follow me on socials if you haven’t already to see where my next adventure will take me.

And that’s all for this issue, babes! Lots of moving pieces lately in a system that is always churning, but do what you can to take care of yourself and I’ll do the same. Let me know if you have any questions or topics you’d like me to cover in the future for me to consider!

Stay strong. Stay thicc. *Big hug*

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