Banish Burnout: How to Move from Stress to Success

Once at a family reunion, while listening to her mother ceaselessly complain about their relatives, Janice Litvin was struck with a powerful realization: She was prone to the same pattern of negative thinking as her mother, which drastically increased her stress levels.

“I have a decision to make,” she realized. “I can go on and be that negative person that’s always complaining, or I can make a change.”

Litvin's epiphany that day launched her journey into promoting self-care and wellness in the workplace. She now speaks on burnout and mental health, runs workshops, and has published a book—the Banish Burnout Toolkit—to combat burnout and encourage wellness at work.

In her book, Litvin describes how 66% of U.S. workers reported feeling burned out in 2018, a figure that spiked to 79% in 2021. “We are in a burnout crisis,” she told attendees of her June 25 session at the SHRM Annual Conference & Expo 2024 (SHRM24) in Chicago.

Litvin pointed out that the World Health Organization defines burnout as “an occupational syndrome caused by chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed.” Employees experiencing burnout complain of exhaustion, migraines, reduced immune functioning, and high blood pressure.

To help workplace leaders identify signs of burnout in themselves and their employees, Litvin shared these common indicators:

• Absenteeism.
• Emotional exhaustion.
• Avoidance.
• Feelings of dread.
• Feeling ineffective.
• Higher sensitivity to feedback.
• Snapping at others.
• Angry outbursts.
• Feeling resentful.
• Digestive issues.
• Sleep issues.

What do you do if you recognize these symptoms in yourself, a colleague, or an employee? Litvin offered three strategies from her book:

1. STOP and Audit.

STOP stands for “Stop. Take a breath. Observe. Proceed.” Stressful situations are inevitable, but when confronted with one, Litvin recommends removing yourself from the situation if possible (e.g., by going outside for a walk), focusing on your breathing, and auditing—reflecting on what happened, how it made you feel, and any physical reactions you may have had.

2. Know Your Stress, Spin Your Stress.

Self-reflection will engage the prefrontal cortex of your brain, which will allow you to reframe your reactions, or as Litvin put it, “spin your stress.” She explained that the two most common reactions to stress are overreaction and overgeneralization, which manifests in “never” and “always” statements (e.g., “John never gets his budget numbers in on time”) that increase stress and typically aren’t wholly truthful.

If you catch yourself overreacting or overgeneralizing, Litvin suggests a technique she calls “Reality Spin,” where you transform these lines of negative thinking into positive ones. She cited an example from her own life, when she encountered difficulties with a woman on a board she was running. Her stress response was to avoid the woman, but a SHRM coach challenged her to meet with the board member over coffee. After getting to know the woman on a personal level and altering her view of her, Litvin discovered her stress was noticeably alleviated.

3. Set Healthy Boundaries.

Another crucial practice in preventing and banishing burnout is setting healthy boundaries. People-pleasing and saying “yes”—especially to things you want to say “no” to—prime you for stress and burnout. While saying “no” can prove difficult, Litvin offers a couple of polite ways to decline a request:

• Say, “I’m sorry. I wish I could, but I can’t.” Litvin cautions not to over-explain why you can’t do something, as that might inspire further boundary-pushing.
• State your availability. If pushed to attend to something immediately, say something along the lines of “I am not available right now, but I can meet with you at 3 o’clock this afternoon.” Or, if asked to take on a large assignment, say something like “I can take on this project in six months” to enforce a healthy boundary. An important caveat to note is that if you receive a request like this from your manager or someone you are managing, you might need to switch tactics. (For example, when talking to your manager, ask about prioritization and cite a lack of bandwidth.)

“You are in charge of your mental health,” Litvin reminded the crowd. “You cannot take care of your community, your team, or your family if you do not take care of yourself.”