Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Exploring both interstellar and interpersonal space-time continuums. The Last Show with David Cooper. Mid-career. It's supposed to be your power era. You're senior enough to matter in your job, stable enough to breathe. You're finally earning the amount that you thought you would. So why are so many people fried during this time in their career?
A burnout spike might be waiting for you in your 40s. I'm here to discuss just that with Dr. Katie Elizabeth Green, a senior lecturer in leadership at Manchester Metropolitan University in England. Katie, welcome to the show.
Hi, David. Thank you so much for having me on your show today.
When I think of like mid-career burnout, I think of like CEOs, high-powered individuals. I don't think of like average people.
Chapter 2: Why is mid-career a dangerous time for burnout?
Why is this time kind of a danger zone for a lot of us?
It's a great question, David. And yeah, we do typically think of kind of the CEO being sort of burnt out, stressed out at that top end of the organizational hierarchy. But actually, research has shown that those at mid-career are at the highest risk for getting burnt out. And some of the reasons for that really are because...
At that point in somebody's career, they're often juggling multiple competing demands. So typically at mid-career, many people have small children or lots of family responsibilities. At the same time, they're at a point in their career where organizations are really putting the pressure on them Because they're not at that kind of early point, that entry point anymore.
They've demonstrated their competence. They've demonstrated their skill. And they seem to be resilient and capable. And therefore, organizations will put the pressure on at that mid-career point. So it's a real kind of...
difficult period for many people a real tipping point where they've got those competing challenges of both increased pressure from organisations and also lots of challenges outside of work as well and often I think people at that point
struggle to reach out it's seen as well you just have to power on and just plow through and this is how this is what everybody deals with and therefore people are not are not um not reaching out when they're feeling the stress level starting to rise it's seen as just the norm
It seems like this kind of perfect storm at work and at home. Like you're supposed to take on big responsibilities at that age. At work, you're expected to be more senior. At home, you got the marriage, the kids, the mortgage. All of a sudden, you've got all these like mid-life big responsibilities you didn't have when you're younger.
If I'm feeling burnt out during this phase, is it a me problem? Is it something I'm supposed to fix? Or maybe it's like up to workplaces to address this problem.
Yeah, it's a great point. And I think there's definitely been a shift over the past five to 10 years in terms of how we're seeing burnout. Traditionally, burnout was seen as an individual problem, a lack of resilience or something like that. But actually, it's increasingly recognized that it's not an individual failing. Often, it is because a person is experiencing pressure from
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Chapter 3: What factors contribute to mid-career burnout?
poor leadership, lack of psychological safety where people feel like they can't speak up and share their perspectives. Those factors are very sort of commonly causing burnout for people.
I didn't always work in media and radio. I used to work at a big technology company, that kind of thing. And you're giving me flashbacks. This idea, though, that mid-career professionals are the reliable ones and they can absorb the pressure, they can absorb the stress. They should just have to deal with feeling burnt out and show up and do the job. How fair is that?
Is that something that we find happens as people get more experience and that corporations and managers don't really expect of younger people?
Yeah, absolutely. I think at that particular point of a person's career, they've demonstrated, in order to get to where they've got to, they've demonstrated a high level of competence. They've carved out a professional identity in most cases that demonstrates that they're capable, that they're able, that they can take the pressure.
And therefore, often managers and leaders will overload those individuals who have shown themselves to be capable ones without realizing that actually everybody has a limit, everybody has a point at which stress levels can accumulate and push them into a period of burnout.
So yes, we often see it in people will manage and cope and push on for many, many years and demonstrate that they're extremely capable they can hit very high performance targets and then something will happen and that person will start to crash. And it can be something quite small.
Maybe they're working on a different project or maybe they're working with a different individual and suddenly that person's levels of accumulated stress reach a point where their body is no longer able to push on and we see this burnout appearing. So yeah, it can take many years for somebody to get to a point where burnout is their reality.
If someone's in the age range we're talking about and listening and thinking, oh, it me, what recommendations do you have? I mean, what can we do to prevent this kind of mid-career burnout?
So I think it's about firstly recognizing some of those early warning signs in yourself. So maybe you're feeling more fatigued. Maybe you've got higher levels of anxiety than you felt before. Maybe you're experiencing less joy in your working life or you're noticing that you are less present around your family. You know, you're snappier, you're more irritable.
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Chapter 4: How do personal responsibilities affect burnout risk?
It's lovely to be on your show.
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