Preventing Burnout in PR

People with burnout often tend to move on. Perhaps to something less stressful, perhaps leaving PR altogether for something where they can use their transferable skills. This, of course, is their prerogative.

However, wouldn't it be far better if you were able to create a workplace and culture where the risks for burnout are greatly reduced?

I've already spoken about the many stresses of PR leading to burnout, and the symptoms to look out for in previous newsletters. Our next step is looking at what we can do to minimise the chances of it happening.

I tend to apply the Human Givens approach to burnout. The foundation of the Human Givens is that we all have nine emotional needs. I am going to discuss three of them and how they apply to a PR and comms workplace here.

Achievement

Everyone needs to feel a sense of achievement. It’s vital for our self-esteem and mental health. Without it, we can feel unstretched and even bored. Keeping early years PR practitioners or comms apprentices doing daily grunt work may take the boring stuff off your hands, but is a perfect recipe for creating dissatisfaction.

Having a clear timetable for their development and growth in responsbilities (and sharing that with them) will reassure them of the process and give a glimpse into future achievements.

Conversely, if we have too much pressure on us to achieve, we may feel overwhelmed. This can be overly high KPIs, or juggling too many clients or tasks. Whilst most of us can cope with these for a while, keeping up this type of pressure for too long leads to chronic stress and ideal conditions for burnout. Getting your staff's input and suggestions for their own development and growth is important too.

I've mentioned early years PRs, but it's just as important that everyone feels that they are learning and not just repeating the same activities over and over again. The beauty of PR is that it is so varied, and there's always new things to learn. The danger of PR is that we can be so caught up doing the job, that we don't set aside time for learming and growth.

I've spoken about the responsibilities of the workplace, but we also have to take responsibility for ourselves. Beware of placing too much stress on yourself too. This may be because you want to show eagerness, or that you get your sense of purpose through doing. We often pull off great things in PR, and then immediately move onto someting else. Instead, build in opportunities to celebrate achievements, acknowledging the hard work that went into them, as well as the end result.

Status

Feeling that you are seen and heard is an important part of feeling accepted and valued. If this is not the case, we can get frustrated or even doubt that our presence matters. We will eventually stop putting ideas forward and withdraw into ourselves. Disengagement begins.

Likewise, if we or someone else is dominating conversations and not letting others shine, it may that their status is too high in the team, at the expense of others. Cultivating a place where everyone feels they can share ideas, concerns and even personal things and know they will be heard and addressed is vital. Without it, someone might be a step closer to burning out.

Control

Autonomy in our work is a strong emotional need. If we feel watched, micro-managed and distrusted, we are going to feel stressed. We will then be at a higher risk of burnout. What can we do to help create that sense of control? Asking someone to job design can help, where they input what they enjoy working on, or would like more experience with. ?We can also create very specific instructions and leave them to get on with it, knowing that you are at hand if needed.

As PRs, we are often at the behest of our clients or the organisation, not to mention the media and the bigger world of social media followers and commentators out there. All this can sometimes feel like we are scrabbling for a sense of control. Some people thrive under these conditions. For others, it is very stressful. Recognising that, and building in opportunities for people to feel some sense of control in their work, can help regulate emotions and, again, bring back a sense of achievement. Even something as prosiac as tending to a coverage spreadsheet or analysing engagement can be calming. It's is knowing how to use these seemingly mundane tasks to help us feel more in control that is key.

When things get tough, ask each other, what can we do to feel more in control right now?

Dealing with burnout in PR

The theme behind all these is knowing ourselves and our colleagues. ?However, each team member has a responsibility to know themselves and communicate what they need. This is where we begin with our work around burnout in PR. If you’re curious about knowing about them can help prevent burnout, contact me to discuss a booking one of our training sessions.

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