I want to know if this is something the female bosses on the bowl agree with. On behalf of myself and my entire team, I spoke with my manager about the burnout we were all facing. And in response she said "burnout is deeply connected to our inner selves- it’s often a sign of an underlying, unrecognized conflict within. It’s your spirit’s way of signaling that something isn’t aligned, even if you’re outwardly productive and genuinely striving to do meaningful work. Having plenty of work and a drive to excel should feel fulfilling. But when it doesn’t, it’s worth asking: what’s out of sync beneath the surface?" It sounds smart but also conniving. Thoughts??
Honestly, I don’t agree with that take at all. While self-reflection and inner alignment are valid topics to talk about, burnout is very much the result of external factors, unrealistic workloads, lack of support, poor management, constant pressure etc. Suggesting it’s mainly about some inner spiritual conflict feels like a way to shift responsibility away from the organization and onto the individual. If the entire team is feeling burnt out, that’s a clear sign something’s wrong with the work environment, not just with each person’s mindset. Tell your manager to stop viewing everything from his/her privileged seat.
It depends on the context and the speaker. To me it sounds like a cop-out that pushes the burnout problem back on the employee. What’s out of sync is my workload relative to the number of hours in my day as well as my salary. The amount of work I have to do isn’t aligned with the tools and resources I have to accomplish everything on my to do list. This isn’t a spiritual issue or a problem with my inner self, and I can’t fix burnout in this context on my own.
You’re right. The current state of the job market and my salary being where it is are inner *me* problems. I should pull myself up by my bootstraps! It’s all my fault!
/gaslighting 101
The real question is what was the goal of communicating this to your manager? Depending on desired outcome the response would change. The type of work, the amount of work, the management style, the atmosphere all can make the work unfulfilling and make you feel out of sync beneath the surface.
She is gaslighting you
No. This MAY be an answer for one person, but burnout does not have to be so deep. Like, you can be burnt out because your team fired a bunch of people and didn’t replace them.
This is one of those things I think, you either get it or you don't, and both are fine. It is technically accurate but most people cannot psychologically process or accept how much of their life they truly have control over. Burnout is an alignment issue at a soul level. There are always events upstream which seem are the "real problem" but the burnout is the smoke, and the spark is usually something like self-abandonment. Some thought or desire that lies repressed and unconscious until enough triggers pile up to make us aware. This same concept is why we also see stress as a factor for many illnesses. We have conscious and unconscious thoughts, emotions, beliefs.. Every aspect of professional and self development, spiritual development, is about making the unconscious, conscious. The answer for burnout starts with figuring out in what specific way you are not acting in alignment.
As a PS - I wouldn't dare dream to offer her answer IRL at work, given how unconscious most people seem to be and how taboo spirituality has been made. And not even taboo, as much as antithetical to capitalism. I think it's a good sign she isn't spewing the standard corporate rhetoric, even though it seems more frustrating of an answer.
So it’s your problem, yours alone, and even though your whole team individually feels this problem as well, it’s not related to the environment? Come on.