Creative Mismatch: The Root Cause of Workplace Burnout and How to Address It
Burnout is affecting creatives of all kinds.
And in the workplace, it’s getting worse.
According to Future Forum, a research consortium backed by Slack and others, “Burnout is still on the rise globally, with 42% of the workforce reporting it.”
Though burnout can be caused by a prolonged imbalance from any part of our lives (i.e. home, finances, relationships), most people associate burnout with work.
An Elusive Foe For Working Creatives
As a creative pro, the tension between work and life can be especially complicated.
We love making things.
We love solving people’s problems.
We love sharing ideas with the world.
The problem we creatives face though is not knowing how and when to turn off that drive. The goals we have are more organic and elusive because of the creative process. The metrics we use to value our efforts are equally so.
But recently, I learned a different way of thinking about how we fall into Burnout’s clutches.
According to Dr. Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter in their book, The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Their Jobs, burnout is the result of a mismatch between the person and the workplace.
Burnout isn’t caused solely by the individual. Nor is it caused by the environment. Rather, it’s caused by the poor or eroded relationship between the two.
The Canary in the Coal Mine
Years ago, workers would bring along canaries in small cages as they worked the depths of the mines in search for coal.
Canaries have high sensitivity to carbon monoxide and other toxic gases. If a canary swayed, fell over, or stopped singing, the miners would know trouble was near and leave.
In a beautiful descriptive analogy, Dr. Maslach compares us as individuals to the canaries. The coal mine is the workplace we operate within.
A method I often advocate for when someone faces burnout is to pursue self-awareness. Become more aware of what got them there in the first place. Self-awareness leads to better boundaries, self-development, and sustainable balance. It also reduces the chances of burnout happening again.
But when there’s a danger in the mine, the miners don’t try to make the canary more self-aware, resilient, or mindful. They get the heck out of Dodge.
In the real world, no one ever considers changing the conditions of the work environment (or mine) itself.
While I still think there’s a strong case for self-awareness at the level of the individual, I was intrigued by Dr. Maslach’s argument that the relationship between the individual and the workplace is to blame.
We don’t think to change the mine (especially as creatives) because we believe we put ourselves there in the first place. And even if we did think it was the mine’s fault, we don’t believe we have the ability to change it.
It turns out we do have the power to fix it.
It starts with understanding the 6 core areas that determine the health of one’s relationship with their workplace.
The Dimensions of Mismatch
According to Dr. Maslach, there are 3 themes and a total of 6 core areas that people need support within and from their workplace. These areas are the metrics people internalize over time.
The Capability Dimension
Workload - Do I have a sustainable amount of work?
Control - Do I have autonomy over how I do my work?
The Social Dimension
Reward - Am I given practical and social compensation for my work?
Community - Do I have supportive connections with my peers and supervisors?
The Moral Dimension
Fairness - Am I and my peers provided the same opportunities?
Values - Do I find meaning in what I do in my work?
These six areas constitute the relationship one has with the workplace. When any one of them is a mismatch, it is more likely someone will burn out. Over time, these mismatches erode the relationship we have with our work.
When someone says they have a “toxic workplace,” it could mean any combination of these six areas is radically broken. That’s in part what makes the workplace so difficult to change.
The hope is that by understanding these areas exist for each person, individuals and organizations can make better choices going forward to better align the person to the workplace they work at.
How Do We Re-Work Our Relationship to Work?
Traditionally, a workplace will largely ignore the six areas (or some of them) and try to fit a person to the job. We train individuals and hope they’ll gel with the job. This is called a Person-Job Match.
But the healthier way to think about the workplace discussed by Dr. Maslach is the idea of a Job-Person Match. In this model, an organization understands that people as individuals require certain conditions to perform well. They then bring the six core areas to match the needs of the individual.
It's important to note that a Job-Person Match doesn’t put all of the onus on the workplace.
It’s still up to the individual to help identify their needs as best they can and speak up when those needs aren’t being met fairly.
How You Can Help Prevent Burnout in the Workplace
As a leader:
Get feedback - Ask office-wide (or by department) what struggles they’re having. The most common path to burnout may be a mismatch with workload, but that doesn’t mean that your workplace is suffering from that specifically.
Provide an environment that supports the six core areas - It may not be possible to improve all 6 at the same time (Workload, Control, Reward, Community, Fairness, and Values), but the effort to try is a start.
Start small - Based on the feedback from individuals, find the easiest (possibly even free) changes that could be made immediately.
Improve flexibility office-wide - Studies show that flexibility builds strong organizational cultures, counters spiking burnout trends, and is a key driver for productivity.
Schedule regular check-ins - Like your checkups at the Doctor, having a way to regularly assess the conditions of the workplace is extremely valuable. People change jobs and get promoted. Working knowledge of the issues in one year could be lost down the line in another. Don’t only assess when there’s an issue.
As an individual:
Get involved - Ask questions and be proactive in the evolution of the workplace. As a creative person, you’ll be able to offer insights and problem-solving techniques that can be applied to making office life better.
Try seeing yourself in your job - When you connect more with the work itself and why you’re doing it, the job will be easier and more enjoyable. Think about where you are now and what could make your job more fulfilling.
Create boundaries and regular patterns - Disconnecting from the work is one of the most important things you can control. It may be difficult to do in an ‘always-on,’ technological world, but it’s the only way to reset and recharge properly. By setting boundaries with your time and being consistent with them, you indirectly teach those around you how best to interface with your life.
Build yourself up outside of work - Self-awareness and self-development are critical to a life well-lived. Healthy habits, personal relationships, and fun goals can provide a strong buffer between you and some of the adverse effects of mismatch in the workplace.
Final Thoughts
Burnout is horrible no matter how it happens.
But the relationship we have as creatives to the workplace itself is more to blame than we might think.
As individuals, we have the power to control our lives outside of work and the types of jobs we pursue.
As workplaces, leaders need to better control how the environment shapes the experience for the individual.
It’s up to us to make the changes to the mine so we can keep doing the work we love and keep on chirping away as creative canaries do.
TL; DR
Burnout in the workplace is getting worse
Burnout is an elusive foe for creatives
Job Burnout is caused by a mismatch between the individual and the workplace
There are 6 core areas of potential mismatch
Workload
Control
Reward
Community
Fairness
Values
Match the job to the people, not the other way around
Work towards solutions that support the health of a creative’s 6 core areas
Attack burnout from leadership/workplace level and the individual level
Quote of the Week
“Burnout is best conceptualized as a relationship problem—an issue with the fit, or match, between the person and the job.”
—Dr. Christina Maslach, The Burnout Challenge
That's all for now.
Stay creative, my friends—and have a great week!
