Passion & Burnout: Is There a Link?

Back in the day, I loved being a freelance journalist for magazines and newspapers. I’d get intrigued by a subject then get an editor interested too. To research my article, I’d follow every scent in pursuit of insights.

I fell into rabbit holes following leads deeper and deeper until I was exhausted — or ran out of time to meet a deadline. 

It wasn’t until I hit a wall in my late '30s, burned out and developed carpal tunnel syndrome that I began to question whether all that extra digging had truly been necessary. I wondered if my passion and intense curiosity might have contributed to my disabling injury. During my involuntary year-long downtime, I came to understand that social and financial pressures—aided by my fierce Protestant work ethic--had wreaked havoc on my body.
 
I share this with you because a recent podcast brought memories from this painful period flooding back.
 
The Anxious Achiever podcast (Season 9, Episode 53), is a presentation by three organizational behavior researchers: IMD’s Alyson Meister, Harvard Business School’s Jon Machimowicz and MIT-Sloan’s Basima Tewfik, followed by a discussion.
 
Moderated by host Morra Aarons-Mele, the podcast touches on research on several key burnout topics:

• Influence of our constant connectedness, aka 24/7 work culture

• Whether our work passion protects us from burnout

• The relationship between imposter thoughts and burnout

• Our identity as leaders and our beliefs about how responsive leaders have to be

• Workplace culture and employers’ responsibility to prevent burnout

A big takeaway for me, hinted at above, is that fervor for work does NOT protect against burnout. In fact, the research by Harvard’s Machimowicz finds that passion makes us more prone to burnout, not less. That’s because our deep intrinsic motivation to “move the needle” on our mission makes it tough when we feel fired up to both recognize we’re nearing our limit and take breaks to recharge.
 
Managers of passionate employees, he says, would do well to monitor the workload of these employees so that they don’t take on too much work. They also need to be mindful of their own tendency to assign extra tasks to their most dedicated workers.
 
This discussion is essential listening for anyone who manages people who care deeply about their work – including all of us in the social sector. As leaders, it’s imperative that we know our own limits and model healthy behaviors.

See prior posts on burnout: Whose Job Is It to Prevent Burnout? Let's Rest & Resist Grind Culture, Can We Talk about Our Overwhelm? and Always Chasing Your Tail?