Both ends of the candle. Why BURNOUT matters to your nonprofit.

INTEGRALTrends is a series that looks at the trends and dynamics that impact how we plan, lead, and operate our nonprofits and charities. As the environment that nonprofits work within continues to shift, leaders need to keep a finger on the pulse of external trends – what’s happening in politics, economics, funding, and the nonprofit sector as a whole – to understand how to best prepare and adapt. 

As we (hopefully!) emerge from the worst of the pandemic and spring begins to bloom, signs point to nonprofit organizations shifting back to ways of working that are starting to look a little more normal. As we embrace the longer days and an increasing sense of certainty about what the future may hold, there may well be some repair work to do inside our organizations before we can fully move ahead.

One of the areas that came to the forefront in the early months of the COVID pandemic was staff mental health. And as the pandemic continued, work by Albert Nonprofit Network, Imagine Canada, and others showed that for nonprofit organizations staff mental health and wellbeing was top of mind along with finances as the most significant areas of concern.

Until the pandemic, staff burnout was probably not an area we thought we needed to develop coping mechanisms for.

Even as we move beyond the pandemic, there is new data coming out that saying this remains a significant issue for the nonprofit sector. Last month, Abacus Data released a survey that showed that 34% of working Canadians are feeling burned out. While this will be an issue for all industries, it may be more acute within the nonprofit sector, where the survey indicated that 43% of employees are feeling burned out.   

Impacts of burnout on staff

Until this time, staff burnout was probably not an area we thought we needed to develop coping mechanisms for. But I think today we’re starting to see some data indicate that this is a significant issue for the nonprofit sector. Nonprofit staff have had to dig deep during this time, oftentimes with fewer resources. And now we’re starting to see the larger impacts of burnout on staff.

In the nonprofit world, we are used to dealing with ups and downs in funding – and we have developed mechanisms to adapt to those dynamics. We do more with less, we work a little harder, we dig deeper, we make cuts here or there. But these coping mechanisms are perhaps the exact opposite of what we need to do when we talk about staff mental health and wellbeing.

But the coping mechanisms we have developed to deal with the ups and downs of funding are perhaps the exact opposite of what we need to do when we talk about staff mental health and wellbeing.

Burnout shows up in different ways

“Burnout” is a very specific term. As we move out of crisis mode into recovery, we see that the impacts are varied and burnout manifests in different, sometimes very personal ways that are different for each person.

At times, we might notice increased absenteeism, increased pressure on EAP programs, or a level of disinterest in the work. It can also show up in how we engage with our peers or in a lack of civility. Or it could just be a feeling of work being a grind. Sometimes the indications are quite hidden, so demystifying this trend and engaging with solutions can be challenging.

Restoration before recovery

One thing we need to take note of as we move towards recovery, is that there's probably a stage of restoration that needs to happen first. We’ve been waiting so long for things to get back to the familiar and a semblance of how things were. But maybe now is an opportunity to step back and say before we recover, we need to restore. A few places to start…

1. Talk to your staff and volunteers. Open up a conversation with team members to hear where they could use more support, suggest adjustments, or benefit from extra understanding. Recognize that different people will have different burnout pressure points – some might struggle with workload, others with monotony, and still others with adjusting to new roles and responsibilities. Collaborate on tailored solutions to prevent burnout and promote meaning in work.
2.  Adjust your expectations. The pandemic revealed how little we can accurately gauge about the future. While 2020 required adaptation to many changes and uncertainties, emerging from the COVID-19 crisis should bring with it a little more caution and humility about our forecasts. How we work best will likely look different than it did in pre-2020 times, so remain open.
3.  Take care of yourself. Ask yourself: in what ways am I seeking out and finding rest? Does my team see me doing this? Modelling a habit of rest and self care, in addition to reminding others to do so, can be incredibly powerful – for your own health and your organization’s ongoing work.

View a video of Mike Grogan discussing this trend.

Mike Grogan is President and CEO of IntegralOrg, a capacity-building nonprofit that provides governance and management support and resources for Alberta nonprofits and charities. IntegralOrg is grateful for the support of the Calgary Foundation to undertake this work.