Welcome to the third post in the “How She Does It” blog series, featuring Black, Indigenous, and Women of Colour (“BIWOC”) founders and business owners. The mission: support BIWOC-owned businesses and initiatives by creating an online space for their stories, brands, and experiences.
With little separation between home and work, and childcare and education taking place at kitchen tables, burnout continues to exist, if not exacerbated. This is especially relevant to those from BIPOC communities, where data confirms that COVID-19 is hitting racialized and lower-income groups harder than the rest of Toronto’s population, exposing long-standing inequities related to poverty and racism.
I sat down with Shirley Zhou, Co-Founder, of The Burnout Clinic to discuss her story, her clinic’s work, and strategies for dealing with burnout.
Difference between wellness and well-being
Shirley started her career as a Child and Youth counsellor, and was passionate about making a difference. However, like many working in social services, she quickly experienced burnout. She began practising yoga, and eventually became a teacher.
However, she continued to feel like she was constantly running on empty. Coming home and crashing on the couch, Shirley found it difficult to muster the energy to focus on the other areas of her life, including taking care of her fur baby and her relationship.
In her mind, she was doing all the right things – exercising, practicing mindfulness, etc. However, Shirley realized these were band-aid solutions: “There’s a difference between wellness and well-being. Wellness is going to your classes; well-being is the ability to centre yourself in order to tackle the tasks ahead of you.”
With this principle, Shirley and her now-husband founded The Burnout Clinic, which flips the script on tackling burnout by focusing on intervention. This includes a two day mental and emotional release process, a burnout recovery program with training and one-on-one coaching.
One size doesn’t fit all
Shirley’s definition of burnout is: “expending more energy than you can replenish as a habit.”
With a mission to remove the stigma around mental health, Shirley notes that mental health/burnout strategies should be personalized, with consideration of cultural differences. For example, burnout can show up differently for those identifying as BIPOC due to familial pressures, cultural stigmas, and experiences of systemic racism.
Using herself as an example, Shirley describes her experiences as a female entrepreneur and a person of colour: “One challenge I face is imposter syndrome. I used to think that people would not take me seriously given the way that I look. I had an idea of what an entrepreneur looked like – someone who appears very confident and always know what she’s doing. Through the methodologies and practices we use at the clinic, I recognized that imposter syndrome used to hold me back – it was in the driver’s seat. I now recognize that it’s just a visitor.”
Burnout Strategies
In terms of dealing with burnout, Shirley notes that burnout exists at various levels, which require different strategies. In the initial stages, the following advice may be helpful:
- Going for a walk
- Developing solid boundaries between work and life
- Practicing good sleep hygiene
- Mindful eating
- Limiting screen time; and,
- Reflecting on where you spend most of your time emotionally.
The above are common burnout prevention tips, and Shirley realizes that they may no longer be effective due to the pandemic. With the stacking of responsibilities at home, and added pandemic-related stress, many people are operating with lower emotional and mental capacity – all while attempting to produce the same amount of work. As a result, “we’re trying to use willpower, which runs out eventually.”
Being a self-described “resilient” person also has its limits: “No matter how resilient we are, we all have a threshold. [With] high levels of burnout, we’re usually operating outside the point of no return, and my advice is to seek professional support.”
The Burnout Clinic has created a free COVID-19 audio recording, to help with anxiety relief: available here, and gifting a two-day Burnout Intervention session for essential/front line workers.
Personal Tips for WFH Burnout
Like many, I’ve spent the last six months working from home. In addition to Shirley’s advice, I’ve found the below the most useful for myself (backed up by research in this Harvard Business Review article:)
- Develop a morning routine: Although we’re no longer commuting to work, developing a morning routine helps get you mentally ready to “go to work”. Personally, I find that taking a shower, putting the kettle on, and making up my bed helps signal the start of a work day.
- Temporal boundaries: If managing teams, it’s important to be conscious that a 9-to-5 schedule may not work for those caring for children and elders. For myself, I set up half-hour blocks of time in my calendar which allow me to step away from my computer and have lunch, or move around a bit.
- Stop multitasking: I have a bad habit of doing too many things at the same time – I’m either responding to e-mails at all hours or immediately responding to texts while on a call. What helps me: 1. when on a call, move my phone out of sight; 2. Create a to-do list and work on each single activity until completion.
- Have some compassion for yourself: This is a big one, which I still struggle with. We’re in the midst of unpredictable times, and as such, don’t expect that you’ll be 100% productive compared to pre-COVID levels. What’s worked for me: asking what sounds like fun today – and doing that.
Quick Questions
- Freedom is… empowerment.
- If you really knew me, you would know that… I’ve trekked to Mount Everest.
- What value is important to you now that wasn’t important to you when you were younger? Congruency and authenticity – congruency is knowing who you are and feeling empowered to live aligned with this.
- What do you think the world needs more of right now? Love and compassion.
- As Oprah says, what do you know for sure? There’s always going to be obstacles and challenges – it comes down to how you choose to face it.