Manage pressure at work and prevent the risk of occupational depression

Goals

• Understand the process of professional burnout: mechanism, types and sources
• Identify stress factors, risks and leeway
• Make it easier to cope with work related stress, restore balance

Target audience

HR managers: to understand professional burnout syndrome, to identify early warning signs, to prevent risks, to help colleagues in difficult situation.

Managers: to adapt management style, restore balance and engage team members feeling under-pressure.

Prerequisite

None

Contents

Professional burnout process: forms and mechanism

• Visible characteristics: progressive, constant and insidious loss of physical and mental energy, leading to severe exhaustion
• Distinctive characteristics: diversity of feelings and behaviours from one person to the next, “good” and “bad” stress
• The modern forms of professional burnout: bore-out and brown-out.

Origins of work related stress: when professional requirements are out of line with personal operating ways

• Motivation (and energy) sources
• Failure situations and mechanisms
• Search for meaning
• Personal issues
• Unfit professional environments
• Spontaneous abilities
• Agility, super-activated and sub-activated
• Management (interpersonal skills and interaction modes)

Prevention and action strategies

• Two steps approach: (1) identify early warning signs to (2) be able to act
• Holistic approach: consider the system as a whole (context)
• Risks analyse: identify work exhaustion sources (potential or real)
• Action plan: identify leeway, adapt or take actions to influence the environment