Protect Your Energy and Avoid Burnout
- Feb 18
- 3 min read
By Alicia K. Anderson, Ph.D.
When authors write about “quiet quitting” and “quiet cracking” in the workplace, they are talking about stages of burnout. By not referring to it as burnout, the authors are placing the blame for “quietly” declining in workplace performance on the individual, rather than the company, management, or the systems causing the problems. Burnout, too, is frequently framed as an individual failure, rather than a systemic one.
Of course, there is an individual component to burnout. Those who are most prone to burning out are the Type A achievers, the perfectionists, the people-pleasers – the ones who are usually the superstars of the workplace. These are the same leaders who are “quietly” breaking down – either at work or after work.
The most important thing to know about burnout is that the primary emotion associated with it is anger. Anger can be directed outward – at the job, the workload, the manager, the coworkers. This is usually less quiet, and more obvious. But anger can also be directed inwardly – imploding in a form of self-loathing, self-distrust, and frustration that eventually turns into despair. If you find yourself “quiet quitting,” it’s very important to tap into that anger.
Top performers can protect our energy by noticing when we’re angry. Anger is rocket fuel for change. It’s energizing and empowering because we have had a boundary violation that needs to be addressed. The anger is there to help us stick up for ourselves and enforce that boundary.
I recommend speed-journaling "I'm angry that...." ten times quickly and seeing what bubbles up. This allows us to then choose which of those violations must be acted upon. Whether that's turning off notifications after hours, declining meetings that are booked over lunch hour, or simply using that powerful anger to say a firm "no." This helps protect our energy, and it helps us process and use that anger without turning it on ourselves later.
By protecting our energy and maintaining healthy boundaries, we can rest when we need to rest and work hard when the need arises. Productivity doesn’t come from to-do lists and key milestones. It comes from making sure that we honor our bodies and their natural rhythms to ensure that we’re able to meet challenges when they arise. The biggest productivity belief that should be challenged is that rest is not productive. We get our most creative insights and ideas when we're doing nothing at all. Rest and play, and relaxation make us more productive.
But burnout prevention isn’t just about taking a well-timed vacation or turning off phone notifications. Sometimes work picks up speed, and we’re asked to do a lot in a short period of time. Most workplaces have natural rhythms that occur where “busy seasons” are at roughly the same time every year. Depending on the nature of the business, the holidays, quarterly shareholder reports or big annual trade shows might dictate when those busier times occur.
I recommend making a note of our stressful times of year and preparing for those in advance. If you know you have a lot of deadlines every Q2, or at the end of every quarter, make space for that. Heading into a busy season, I might clear my calendar of extra stuff (maybe that dental cleaning can be bumped out a month). I meal prep and freeze nutritious food in advance so I can eat well with minimal planning and effort. I plan a vacation for immediately after the big deadline. I try to ensure that my team is doing similar stuff for themselves so they are also ready to put in a short-term effort.
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