Self Care Avoiding Burnout at Work Elizabeth Brown

Self Care: Avoiding Burnout at Work Elizabeth Brown Director of Human Resources Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County

Objectives: • Learn how to identify precursors to burnout in yourself and others. • Learn how to foster and support a culture that prioritizes self-care. • Create actions you can achieve in 30 days for yourself and in our organization.

What is Burnout? Two key definitions of burnout are: • “A state of physical, emotional , and mental exhaustion cased by long term involvement in emotionally demanding situations. ” Ayala Pines and Elliot Aronson (Career Burnout: Causes and Cures) • “A state of fatigue or frustration brought about by devotion to a case, way of life, or relationship that failed to produce the expected reward. ” Herbert J. Freudenberger (Burnout: The High cost of Achievement) Burnout is a mixture of stress, exhaustion, and long-term disillusionment. …mainly strikes people who are high performers and highly committed to their work

The Yerkes-Dodson Law …dictates that performances increases with physiological or mental arousal, but only up to a point. When levels of arousal become too high, performance decreases. (BURNOUT)

How Does Burnout affect Leaders in Legal Services? • High Achievers • Emotionally and physically • Hidden cost of empathy • Goals and objectives of the organization • Negatively, Poor Performance • e. g. paralysis, desensitized, overly sensitive and/or anxious • Outcomes for the population we serve • Poor performance from Advocates, results in poor outcomes for clients

We want to avoid this: “You can stop worrying about job burn-out”

Recognize and identify the signs of potential BURNOUT before it happens • Within yourself • With your team • Manage stress and stress factors—different from burnout • Eustress vs. Distress • How does this effect the Yerkes-Dodson Law Bell Curve?

What is the Key to Avoiding Burnout? SELF CARE

What is it and Why is it so important to Any activity that you do voluntarily which helps you maintain your physical, mental, or emotional health.

SELF CARE: What is it and Why is it so important? Identify your own needs and take steps to meet them. PERSONAL: • Care for yourself first • “Do no harm to yourself when helping others. ” • Prioritize your physical, social, emotional, spiritual needs. Examples? • Be aware of the emotional and physical manifestations of Burnout • E. g. empathic resonance, anger, sadness, hyperarousal, hypersensitivity Identify the needs of your organization and take steps to meet them. ORGANIZATIONAL: • Infuse self-care philosophy in Leadership Team • Regular supervision and ongoing support • Continuous Communication and Feedback • Infuse self care philosophy in meetings and staff interaction.

SELF CARE: How do we foster self care in our organization?

Fostering, Supporting, and Prioritizing Self-Care in your Organization The CLT Model • Culture: Change Culture Leadership • Leadership: Accountability; Manage with care in mind • Training: Awareness, Learning; Utilizing and leveraging internal skills; Practice Training

We need to incorporate self care in our organization…BUT HOW?

Executing Self-Care Principals: Create an Action Plan • List three stressors in your organization which you would like to eliminate. • Identify what you can change about these situations and what you cannot • List two methods of dealing with those stressors.

Discussion: Feedback and Questions

Session Summary: Did we achieve our objectives? • Learn how to identify precursors to burnout in yourself and others. • Learn how to foster and support a culture that prioritizes self-care. • Create actions you can achieve in 30 days for yourself and in our organization.

You will always get a high ROI when you invest in SELF CARE. THANK YOU! ELIZABETH BROWN Director of Human Resources Neighborhood Legal Services of Los Angeles County elizabethbrown@nlsla. org