How to … Avoid Burnout as a Nonprofit Employee

Writing yesterday in the Tallahassee Democrat, Kelly Otte, the executive director of United Partners for Human Services, strongly advised nonprofit employees and board members to take proactive steps to manage stress and avoid burnout. Otte’s counsel was generally sound:

Keep reminding yourself that your job is not your entire life. … You won’t be able to help anyone if you’re so stressed out that you aren’t nearly as effective as you could be.

If you gave up hobbies for the job, pick them back up. Find a new one. And schedule time each week to spend on it. …

Your family and friends come first. Always. Think about who will be there with you in the darkest days of your life, sitting beside your bed and holding your hand. Believe me, it won’t be your colleagues.

Good advice, but there was one clunker in there:

Take a minimum of two consecutive weeks off every year. One-week vacations don’t do anything for someone who is tired or stressed. Just about the time they stop thinking about work they have to go back. Don’t have policies that say no one can be gone longer than a week. Bad idea. Staying at home and shutting down from the whole world is sometimes the most relaxing thing you can do. But lie to everyone and tell them you are in Russia.

Come on now. This is simply not feasible. I agree that no one should be prevented from taking two straight weeks of vacation if they’ve earned the time, but job demands and staffing levels at most nonprofits make this a virtual impossibility. More reasonable is for nonprofits to be insistent that employees take their allotted time and that they institute policies that encourage work-life balance (telecommuting, early dismissal on summertime Fridays, etc.). There’s a lot that can be done on the employer side to foster a more healthy and energized workforce without having to sacrifice performance or critically needed resources. Nonprofit HR folks should put on their creative-thinking caps and get to work. | 501(c)

Tags: Kelly Otte, stress, burnout