Subject: Avoiding burn-out in yourself and your staff (December 2004)

This subject was this commission's "Hot Topic" at the 2004 NACADA conference. The following tips were compiled from the panel discussion and interaction with the audience. By the way, did you know there are over 700,000 web search references related to this topic? We talk a lot about it; now what can we do?

• You can't rejuvenate sitting at your desk almost 24/7; take a vacation. We get too absorbed in doing for others, supervisors, staff that we forget about ourselves. Even short three-day weekends can be refreshing.
• Encourage our staff members to take vacation. Do some creative scheduling to allow them to take vacation without feeling guilty about not being there to serve the students.
• Get out of the office for lunchtime; take a walk, get some fresh air. Have you recently visited your institution's art gallery or heard a noontime concert?
• Take a power walk once during the day.
• Use humor (appropriately) in the office - create a humor bulletin board for sharing jokes and clippings; declare an office humor day (wear funny shoes, ties, hats, etc.)
• Don't take things so personally; it's okay to be "dispensable".
• Bring healthy snacks to work; encourage others to do likewise or if you just have to have those doughnuts, offer a healthy alternative.
• Diet and exercise (or Take Care of You)
• Curb your work hours so you get away from work at a reasonable time each night. (Working overtime all the time will get you no time and nowhere.)
• Learn to delegate! (Then do it!)
• Read positive, motivational literature.
• Adopt a "shift" happens attitude - be flexible.
• Learn to say "no" to your boss and others who want more from you than you are able to give time and energy wise.
• Hire the "attitude" and train the skill. Uphill battles with disgruntled employees will send you to burnout city in no time flat.
• Make time for people - get to know those around you more than just by first name.
• Put this on your to-do list each day, "Compliment a staff member".
• Engage staff in the goal-setting process; connect with the institution's mission; each staff member sees how they fit into the big picture.
• Understand the multiple generations that are probably working on your team. Butting heads over a generational issue will be frustrating at best.
• Be aware of the signs of burnout. Some of them are extreme frustration with situations that use to not bother you, depression, loss of sleep or too much sleep, no enthusiasm for the job or others, becoming cynical, reclusive, overly agitated, and becoming pessimistic when normally optimistic.
• If you are feeling burned out, seek some professional help before you and your staff go "up in smoke". Also, is there someone whom you consider a mentor that you can talk with? Even we administrators need an empathetic ear from time-to-time.

Contributor: Paul Hesterman, Director of Advising, College of Management and Academic Standing Coordinator, Provost's Office, Metropolitan State University, Paul.Hesterman@metrostate.edu

• Be patient and forgiving toward yourself and others.  Expect people to do their best, but accept human frailty. 
• Invest your time and energy into people and projects that are important to you.  Don't expect an institution to be loyal to you because you burned yourself out investing in something that was important (at the time) to the institution.