When I first started my career in the social impact space, I was told that I would never truly work a day in my life because I would be doing something I loved. Of course I quickly learnt that work, no matter how meaningful, is work.
Many of my friends, sharing my passion for social justice, have said they would love to work in DEI but think the emotional toll is not worth it.
“How do you avoid burnout?”, they would ask. It’s a question I myself have asked other DEI Practitioner’s on more than one occasion.
Globally, we are seeing an exodus of DEI Practitioners from organisations. There was a wave of hiring of DEI practitioners following the 2020 media attention on the Black Lives Matter movement, yet many of the hopes for change of those hires, went unfulfilled.
Research from Diversity Atlas on career paths in Diversity and Inclusion with data sourced from 1000 Linkedin profiles of DEI professionals and survey respondents, found that nearly half the participants had experienced burnout and were lacking the tools to do their job satisfactorily, and about one-third of them were looking for a more financially secure job and thought there was a lack of career growth in DEI.
In addition to these challenges, peers within my DEI network are vocal about the challenges they experience:
- Receiving constant pushback against the tough and meaningful work, in favour for tokenistic actions such as potlucks and white-washed workshops.
- Constant exposure to dark and disturbing stories and statistics on discrimination.
- Struggling with the guilt of not doing more (despite often already having more on their plate than they should have).
While modern day corporate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is touted as a “new” industry, humans rights and social equity activism has been a long struggle that teaches us that change is hard, it takes time and patience that often isn’t given in fast moving corporate spaces. No wonder so many practitioners are burning out. In DEI it often feels like you have to run at full speed to even stay at the same spot. This is an industry wide challenge and isn’t likely to be solved just by DEI Practitioners taking better self-care. However, there are ways we can individually protect our peace, while working together to change the broader industry.
I’ve burned out twice in my Social Impact career for different reasons. Once physically, from pure overwork of being on 24 hour call. Another, emotionally from having misalignment between intention, and results of work. Since my last burn out, I’ve learnt several core habits that I’m taking into 2024 to preserve my optimism and energy:
- Define “enough”
I burnt out the first time by giving everything I had to my work. It was my first leadership role and I wanted to test my limits, so I invested all my resources, time and energy to my work. Resting felt indulgent when my social impact ambitions felt bigger than my capability at the time.
I felt especially guilty resting when there’s so much injustice going on in the world. You don’t have to look very far to see how much work our world has to do to create social equity and it often feels distasteful to be happy.
For example on New Years Day I logged into Insta to post a video of fireworks and someone had posted saying how privileged we are to know those fireworks aren’t bombs. I felt the urge to stop celebrating the New Year and to work, despite already having work the next day.
I felt the same way during the 2023 referendum for First Nations to have a Voice, the conflict in Sudan, the fall of Kabul, the deaths of millions throughout the COVID-19 crisis, every time I open an Australian news site and yet another woman has been killed by someone known to her.
It never feels enough because it can never be enough. The world is large and there is as much suffering as a mind can reach. So, constantly trying to work only leads to burn out, and you can’t pour from an empty cup.
So, I’ve been strict in prioritising my annual action plans and to do lists.
I always feel better when all of the ideas, goals and activities I can sustainably action are listed on a single page. I get not everyone enjoys lists, so this isn’t for everyone, but for me, scheduling an action item into my calendar tames the part of my brain that wants immediate action.
When I feel guilt for not working, I ask, “Why do I feel this way? What is the ROI of me jumping back to work and burning out?”.
Then, I look at my plan and remind myself that what I’ve planned is enough for now.
2. Do something completely different to work that energises me
I imagine my emotional energy as being a big tank. At the top of the tank is stress coming in, at the bottom is a faucet where the stress goes out.
My tank is naturally quite big because I’ve always been an optimist, but it still overflows, especially when injustice and violence floods my social media. I could just turn off the news, which I often do, but it is important to me and my work that I witness and understand what is happening around the world. So, I make sure everyday I turn on the faucet to let out stress by doing something completely different to work.
For me, that’s patting my cat, dancing salsa, having a walk at the dog park and spending time with loved ones.
I make sure that like my work goals, all of these stress relievers are scheduled into my calendar. I find booking in classes at my gym are particularly great because they have a $35 last minute cancellation fee. Meaning I can’t back out of it last minute to do extra work.
3. I read
I read stories from giants that have fought for social justice, I read my old journal entries that list why I got into the DEI field, I read stories from people positively impacted by progresses our world has made in social equity. I read fiction, non-fiction, poetry, study notes, I read it all.
Words are magic, they take form in your mind and for the moments you’re reading, you become someone else. Your thoughts are merged with the writers, your perspective changes and or you become clearer on your own thoughts. Reading is my ultimate energiser.
While these actions might not solve the core issue to why we have such high levels of burn out in the DEI industry, these are techniques I’ve applied to help give myself the energy to be a part of the broader solution.
How are you protecting your energy in 2024?
Steph Lam | DEI Practitioner | Writer 