#ThisIsBurnout

January 2013, I returned from the Christmas break and straight?back into the toxic environment that was to be with my last ever employer.?My last ever corporate role.?My last ever rung on the corporate ladder.?

After just one morning back at work, I couldn't stand up, the pain was far too unbearable.

The following day I couldn't walk, I did though still make it to work (what a wally!)

And by day three, I couldn't stand unaided, I could just about walk, and I couldn't carry my own bag.??But YES, I still made it to work.

7 months and two operations in 48 hours later at different hospitals with two different consultants, and the word?Burnout?was mentioned to me for the first time.?Of course, I shrugged it off because I wasn't stressed, what did the doctors know anyway!?

And I wasn't stressed, not in the way I'd been taught to identify stress.?I was though, burned out, seriously ill, working in a toxic environment, and trying to manage the morals and ethics of the entire exec team because I could see the toxicity oozing out in every single conversation and every action and every meeting, and somehow I'd convinced myself that I, Kelly Swingler (well actually I was Kelly Fryer back then), would be the one to change the workplace from toxic to healthy and transform the culture.

I didn't want to fail at the top job that I'd worked my arse off for, I didn't want to walk away, I didn't want to let my team down and I didn't want anyone to think I was weak.

I did go back after the operations.?For four months.?But I'd gone back as me, the real me, the core-led, kick-ass me that I'd been when I first started at this particular company, the me I'd been throughout my career, the me that had been HUGELY successful in my career to date.?I wasn't the first HRD to become ill at that company. I wasn't the second. And I wasn't even the third. And my replacement died in her room whilst away at a leadership residential.

And I realised I was a round peg in a square hole.?But, when I made the decision to leave, at first I just thought I'd just get another job.?I didn't realise I'd end up leaving corporate completely and going it alone on my mission to change the world of work and eliminate burnout.

And of course, the reality is, I'm a coach, speaker and author.?My clients are the ones creating the BIG change, I hold the space for them.?But nevertheless, my mission is to change the world of work and eliminate burnout, and?I NEED YOU, to help me.

Or at least I need you to help me to share a post or two, maybe a hashtag, and perhaps even a picture or two, between the 9th and 12th of January as I interview 16 people who will be sharing their Burnout experience.

Why Is This Campaign Important?

I've been talking about Burnout, and my experience of it, for 9 years, I've even written the book on it, and yet, every single week I receive messages from people who have "been following you for years, and never thought it would happen to me".

A handful of the messages I received at the end of last year included:

• I've just had a stroke
• I'm seriously ill in hospital and I may not be out for Christmas
• I have sepsis
• I passed out and ended up laying in the road
• I'm at breaking point and I've just quit my job

And these aren't one-off messages, my inbox and DM's are filled each week with people telling me how Burnout has impacted them and what they wish they had done about it before it happened to them.

And every time I come off stage after delivering a talk, I have a queue of people who share their story and experience with me. At one talk last year, there were five women in tears, because what I had said had been a reflection of their Burnout experience. I receive messages days and weeks later from people who tell me they were too emotional to speak to me at the time but wanted to thank me for sharing my story.

I'm not alone in sharing my Burnout story, many of you are doing the same. I'm not alone in experiencing Burnout, many of you have experienced the same, and I'm not alone in knowing that we prevent Burnout.

Financial crisis or not, if you are a leader who is not putting your people first, and I don't mean the bog standard stuff that you should be doing anyway, like actually having the right number of people to do the job and ensuring effective communication and paying people fairly, and being truly inclusive - actually, I do, because enough of the basics are missing in far too many businesses already. So fix the basics and then focus on your awards and shiny badges!

But this has to be the year that we truly focus on ending Toxic Workplaces and Toxic Leadership, it has to be, because it is quite literally killing people, and this shit has to stop.

I'm not interested in your Wellbeing campaigns this year if they do not include fixing your culture, creating a psychologically safe and inclusive workplace and recruiting the right number of people to do the job.

I'm not going to apologise for filling your inboxes and your social feeds with the same images and the same messages over the course of the next week, or even the next year. BURNOUT CAN BE PREVENTED, and we all play a part in making that happen.

And let's not forget, if money is your only focus in business, it's not the lazy bastards who don't give a shit about your business that are burning out, becoming ill and leaving to go somewhere else, or do something else, this is the hardworking, engaged, passionate and driven people that have literally given you every inch of themselves that are burning out. So if you want to keep your talent and save yourself some money, you need to be doing something different this year.

I will keep talking about Burnout, and I will be doing my absolute best to ensure that every single person that is close to Burnout, leaves your company before they reach that point.

The campaign and hashtag are #ThisIsBurnout please tag me if you share a post so that I can include it in the campaign posts and follow up.?And, if you want to know how you can get involved, and also encourage others to get involved, as well as some images you might be able to share, you'll find all of the info?here.

Burnout numbers are rising, quickly.

Burnout isn't a quick fix, just get yourself off for a holiday kind of thing.

It's ten years since Burnout took hold of me physically, and I am still living with a serious health condition, triggered by burnout and the toxic work environment and I truly, madly deeply, want to ensure that nobody else ever has to experience what I did.

So please, whatever you can do to help raise awareness, to share the stories and experiences, and to help to eliminate burnout, I'll be forever grateful!

Kelly?

Kelly Swingler is an Executive Coach, Speaker and Author at?kellyswingler.com. She burned out not once, but twice, and has been passionate about preventing burnout since 2014.?

Her latest book,?Mind The Gap; A Story of Burnout, Breakthrough and Beyond?is helping people from around the world make changes in their lives and acknowledge the stress they have been putting on themselves.

Kelly talks to audiences from around the world about mindset and burnout, sharing her story and experience, and her geek time is spent focusing on Changing The World of Work, Neuroscience and Burnout research.