Preventing Burnout: A Systemic Approach to Workplace Wellbeing
With National Stress Awareness Day (5 November) approaching, organisations are encouraged to look beyond individual resilience and consider the wider systems that influence staff wellbeing.
Burnout is more than exhaustion- research identifies three key dimensions:
- Emotional exhaustion – feeling depleted and drained
- Depersonalisation – becoming detached or cynical
- Reduced sense of personal achievement – feeling ineffective or undervalued
Many workplace initiatives focus on reducing emotional exhaustion but the other two dimensions, depersonalisation and a lack of personal achievement are often overlooked. Yet these are the factors that make the biggest difference to organisational outcomes. When people feel disconnected or undervalued, it can quietly reduce job commitment, motivation and performance across teams.
Taking a systemic approach means recognising burnout as a signal of how culture, workload and communication interact. Prevention starts with open dialogue, supportive systems and environments where people feel both valued and effective.
About Cavehill Psychology LTD
Dr Carol Strahan, Psychologist and Director of Cavehill Psychology LTD, supports organisations to improve workplace wellbeing, reduce burnout and manage transitions like retirement and redundancy through evidence-based consultancy and training. For further information: Cavehill Psychology
