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From Mark,
| The final months of 2024 are upon us, and with shorter days and longer to-do lists, many organizations are facing a familiar challenge: end-of-year burnout. Like the autumn fog that settles in during October evenings, workplace exhaustion can creep up gradually, affecting teams before leadership has a chance to intervene. The relentless pace towards the holidays is particularly jarring because we’ve been conditioned since childhood to think of this time of year as a series of “breaks”, but we know it’s anything but that. For many organizations, Q4 means the year-end push, bringing a unique convergence of pressures that can overwhelm even your most resilient team members – projects carrying over from Q3, prioritization offsites and leadership forums, the seemingly endless meetings about 2025 budget planning and resource allocation, and the always-challenging management of PTO requests, listening surveys, benefits enrollment, performance reviews, and goal assessments. To state the obvious, this pace is simply not sustainable. As stewards of organizational wellbeing and the employee experience, leaders must take proactive steps to address burnout before it impacts both morale and performance. This is particularly true when your stated values and EVP attest to an organization largely unrecognizable to those within it. Whether it’s conducting a thorough audit of projects and deadlines to make tough start/stop/continue decisions, a work activity study to see where teams are mired in the morass of transactional activities, or end-to-process optimization to separate signal from noise, work with your executive leadership to establish and protect reasonable working hours and respecting stated boundaries. Introducing simple things like “Focus Fridays” through November and December can minimize meetings and create space for deep work and project completion, all with a goal of helping employees stay healthy and focused. And when it’s actually time off, it’s often as simple as encouraging your people to be anywhere but working. Addressing year-end burnout isn’t just about managing current stress—it’s about building resilient teams and sustainable practices that will carry your organization forward. By taking action now, you can help ensure your teams enter 2025 energized and focused, rather than exhausted and overwhelmed. |
 Founder/Managing Principal/Perennial Burnout, IA |
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Of Interest
reframe setbacks
Transformations are complex initiatives with massive goals, often seeking to enhance organizational efficiency, employee experience, and overall workforce effectiveness. However, even with the best intentions and meticulous planning, business transformations can sometimes face setbacks and challenges that lead to a moment like the one experienced in the workshop above. The good news is that failure is not the end; it’s an opportunity for learning and course correction, especially for the leader spearheading the change. Turn setbacks into opportunities for growth and success.
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