Burnout isn’t a new topic in the workplace. According to the American Psychological Association, 3 in 5 workers have experienced negative mental and physical impacts due to work-related stress.
You’ve likely experienced burnout yourself or may even be dealing with it right now. (The post-pandemic culture has accelerated the crisis for many of us as business cultures and expectations have changed.)
While we’ve made progress talking openly about this issue, we’ve still got work to do when it comes to addressing it. The goal of this article is both to bring more awareness to burnout in the project manager role and to provide actionable steps that empower you to change your situation.
As a former project manager with 20 years of experience in the tech industry (now a digital strategist), I’ll share both my successes and failures as I’ve tried to navigate burnout. While every journey is different, hopefully, some of these lessons can help you along your path.
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion that occurs when your job demands more energy than you have available on a day-to-day basis. You experience intense, prolonged stress that becomes unsustainable over time.
The time it takes to reach burnout is different for everyone and can be impacted by various factors, including what’s going on in your personal life.
Burnout should be a concern for everyone in the workplace, whether you, your coworkers, or employees are experiencing it. That’s because burnout can amplify other mental health issues, lead to poor work performance, create less job satisfaction, and ultimately cause us to look for another position.
Before we continue, it might be helpful to talk about the difference between burnout and boreout. (Yes, that’s a real thing.)
Wikipedia defines boreout as “a psychological disorder that causes physical illness, mainly caused by mental underload at the workplace due to lack of either adequate quantitative or qualitative workload.”
Basically, your work doesn’t challenge you for whatever reason, and you find it meaningless. Maybe your work doesn’t provide value or have an impact, or your job isn’t what you thought it would be.
The difference is usually measured by the number of hours you work, though that isn’t always the case. If you’re not sure, spend 2 weeks tracking your time into clear buckets. The more detailed, the better. Ideally, the data should show you how much time you’re spending on what.
I’ve done this a couple of times over my career to reset my perspective, but one time in particular was a big eye-opener. I felt extremely overworked and misallocated and started tracking my time in order to have data I could share with my employer.
After just 2 weeks, I discovered I was working a quite reasonable amount of hours. The issue instead was that I felt undervalued and had become unmotivated.
This process helped show me I was experiencing boreout. With the data in hand, I reset my mind and approach to address the real issue at hand.
With almost 60% of American workers experiencing at least moderate levels of burnout, the odds are already stacked against us. Unfortunately, I believe project managers are at even more risk than many other positions in tech, and here’s why:
Have you ever tried to tell your friends and family what you do all day? Do you ever say, “I just attend meetings and send a bunch of emails”?
This unclear role definition comes with too many “other duties as assigned” tasks. That means it’s hard to estimate and plan for the time we need to do our job and not be overwhelmed.
While our job as project managers is to create and execute a clear, controlled plan, the actual role is grounded in chaos. Projects have changing priorities, team members shift, and deadlines move.
In addition, we often have little control over the number of projects assigned to us, how our organization is changing, and the time we have to react and grow. This lack of control and constant changes in this fast-paced environment take a toll.
Easy drag and drop features with templates for faster scheduling. Plan a project in minutes, collaborate easily as a team, and switch to calendar and list views in a single click.
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Project managers are the glue that holds the project team together. We’re responsible for leading our digital tribe—carrying the burden of success and failure (right or wrong) on our backs.
We sit squarely at the center of all communication, progress, and decisions and are ultimately responsible for keeping the train moving. This puts us under a lot of pressure without necessarily the permission to lead.
As a leader and sometimes the no-fun police, you can quickly become isolated from the rest of the team. This can cause frustration because our work requires interaction, and project managers are often extroverts.
On top of it, many of us work from home now, giving us even less social boost and minimal ways to get team members to engage on items we need to complete for our jobs. Now add the new pressure of being the virtual team culture builder to the list…
The final big difference I see is the lack of respect and investment many project managers experience in their roles. And when employees feel like they’re being treated unfairly, they’re 2.3 times more likely to experience high levels of burnout.
Too many places still don’t believe in the value of project managers, and it shows. They may leave a project without a project manager, pay project managers less, and hide project management costs in budgets. I’ve also seen professional development funds set aside for UX, design, and development, but not for project managers.
Until we can expose the cost of project managers on all budgets—and have no issue defending the costs to our clients—this issue won’t be resolved.
Make a case for why project managers are good for business.
Identifying burnout as a project manager can be very difficult. On a daily basis, you’re managing numerous projects, tasks, and relationships. There’s no concrete limit and no “I hit my 30 billable hours so I’ll pick up next week” for this role.
As project managers, we have to magically absorb when projects need more and add to our pile when new projects come in. That’s why it’s so important to recognize when we reach our limits and our mental health is at risk.
So, what does burnout look like? Burnout shows up as exhaustion, alienation, and reduced performance. Here’s what these signs might look like day to day:
We’re all going to experience some of these at different times. So how do you know if you’re in caution or crisis mode? You know yourself best. If you’re experiencing multiple symptoms, it’s time to create a plan before it gets worse.
Of course, that’s much easier said than done. I personally have a bad track record of allowing alarm bells to go off for too long before doing anything. Like most project managers, I put more pressure on myself than anyone else around me expects (especially if they knew how it impacted me).
Here are some more tangible things you might notice—or others might comment on—that signal burnout
My lowest point came when I was managing a team during a stressful restructuring process. It wasn’t the specific situation but really the months leading up to it that had the greatest impact.
My body reacted by waking me up 3 nights in a row with extreme chest pains that led me straight to the doctor's office. My heart was fine. What I was dealing with was panic attacks.
At the time, I didn’t realize its severity. But with time and distance, I was able to see the signs and symptoms (and everyone around me shouting them at me). That experience has allowed me a greater awareness today, but back then, it was hard to muster up the strength to make a change.
The goal is to get to a place where we are actively avoiding burnout, but sometimes that doesn’t happen and we find ourselves already in the middle.
Let’s look at what steps you can focus on in the first month to gain some relief and begin resetting your path.
It's important to acknowledge where you are today and share that with your friends, family, and co-workers. Saying things out loud makes burnout real and something that needs to be addressed.
Sharing it with others allows them to understand what’s going on and figure out how to best support you, which is critical to getting back to a healthy place.
Next, I turn my attention to my schedule since it’s usually out of control at this point. It’s an area where you can feel immediate relief and, hopefully, as project managers, we know a bit about how to fix this.
Roll up your sleeves and identify which tasks and deadlines can be moved with low impact. This will give you space to breathe.
Also, begin using “No, but I can…” statements to avoid immediately adding more work to your plate. You need to build a good 3-4 week path of relief before turning your attention to creating long-term boundaries.
Easy drag and drop features with templates for faster scheduling. Plan a project in minutes, collaborate easily as a team, and switch to calendar and list views in a single click.
Create your free planFeeling better starts with good food, quality sleep, and moving your body. The frozen lunch entree you’ve been eating hunched over your desk isn’t going to get you anywhere.
Deprioritizing your health greatly contributes to your burnout, and, unfortunately, it takes more effort to enact good self-care than not. While the right long-term plan is needed, start with the following:
You also likely need to look at your work-home boundaries. When you feel behind, it’s easy to think you can get ahead if you just do a couple of tasks before tomorrow. Turns out, this rarely makes a difference when you’re burned out.
Some boundaries you might consider are:
Let’s shift to talking about how to ideally prevent burnout in the first place. These practices can help you set a more sustainable path for the future.
Now that you can hopefully breathe, I’d suggest figuring out what challenges you might need to tackle. Take a month to gather both qualitative and quantitative data. This might include:
After you gather everything, pull it together, and outline common themes you see and want to address. I recommend repeating this process every year, so you have a good pulse on what’s happening and how it aligns with (or strays from) your goals.
Every time I was close to or in the throes of burnout, I realized I was really unclear about my professional and/or personal goals and direction. I was just trying to clock in for the day and survive.
To move forward with purpose, you must take time to reassess where you are and where you want to go next. These questions are a great place to start:
Writing down my thoughts always helps me bring things into focus, so I created a worksheet to help you define your purpose more clearly.
Download the Defining Your Direction to Conquer Burnout worksheet.
Now it's time to make big changes in your life. What that looks like will really depend on the data and your goals, but here are some areas you might consider.
With your goals in mind, it’s time to overhaul your work schedule. Adjust your schedule to account for maximum working and meeting hours, vacation needs, and flexible schedules. Schedule with those boundaries in mind, and use data to determine how much time you need to set aside for small, medium, and large projects.
Here are the 3 biggest changes that helped me:
Putting everyone—and every project—before your own needs is a big reason burnout happens in the first place. Consider ways to invest in yourself that provide joy and support your health. This could include:
In the middle of burnout, a vacation can feel like another stressor. There’s all the work you need to complete before you leave and then the pile of emails waiting for your return. That’s why scheduling fun—yep, I said schedule—is key.
Consider these benefits of having a plan:
I’ve found the schedule that works best for me is 1 long trip (7-9 days) a year, plus 3 long weekends out of town. I also try to have a special event, like a concert or play, on the calendar every 3 months. It feels very prescribed—and I’m cringing a bit writing it—but it really helps me.
You also have to be willing to enjoy it. If you’re like me, you might think checking and addressing emails and tasks while gone will help ease you back in. But it never did that for me, and I had a very smart client try to tell me that:
PS--welcome back Lynn and thanks for not "working" over your vacation (even though I'm sure you did but you were just stealthy about it...just remember nobody wins any awards for working on vacation when they should be spending time with family. =) Ha! Oh but with that said, you COULD win MOM OF THE YEAR from your kids if they have an epic time with you.)
While it took me longer than needed, I now leave my computer at home when traveling.
Sometimes, you just need a fresh start. If you’ve tried to reset without success in your current environment, it might be time to move on. Remove yourself from stressful situations and people, and find a healthy workplace that supports and encourages your new habits.
If you’re in a good place and able to help others, one of the most useful things you can do either as a team leader or manager is to build an environment that fights burnout. After all, we want to keep great team members around!
According to Yerbo’s The State of Burnout in Tech report, 76% of IT professionals with low risk of burnout actually want to keep their jobs. Yet, 42% with high levels of burnout risk will consider quitting within the next 6 months.
So how can you build the right environment? Here are a few areas you can focus on as a project manager.
Whether you’re creating a job description or onboarding team members to a new project, clearly outline all roles and expectations. Be sure to define what success and completion look like as both a team and individual for each phase.
Everyone wants to be acknowledged for their work—both big and small accomplishments. As a project manager, you have the opportunity to create space for praise. Here are a few ideas you could try:
Project managers have control over project timelines and deadlines. Make sure you’re building schedules that support work-life balance and leave room for learning, vacation, and sick time. TeamGantt’s workloads feature makes it easy to see how busy people are directly from your gantt chart, so you can avoid overbooking team members.
Remember to also consider team members’ flexible schedules when planning projects. This might include identifying different locations, work hours, and time blocks for heads-down work versus meetings.
Clients (with both good and bad intentions) can push some boundaries when they feel pressure on their side, and it can be hard for team members to resist their requests.
A 2021 Indeed survey on employee burnout found that 70% of all respondents have access to work communications on their phones, making them 84% more likely to work after hours.
Make sure clients understand when team members are available—and when they’re not. Also, encourage employees not to answer client emails outside of office hours.
A while back, I joined a project that was in an active maintenance relationship. A couple of weeks in, I found out the client had been regularly texting developers after hours. I was floored! As project managers, account managers, or team leaders, we should step in and change that behavior immediately. Team members don’t need to be put in a position to stand up to the client.
When possible, limit the number of extra tasks on the project. Just because there’s usually a step or template you and your team complete, it might not be needed on the current project. Also, look to see if there are any tools (maybe AI) that can save time and energy on this type of work.
If comfortable, take an active role in fostering an environment of open communication about mental health and your experiences. Once this becomes a shared conversation, others can join and gain support.
Finally, we’re all influenced by the culture around us. Lead by example by taking time off, not emailing clients after hours, asking people to “just make it happen,” and more. We all need to show each other what healthy looks like.
Just like anything in life, addressing and avoiding burnout requires constant work. I’ve never completely solved the problem, but hard work—combined with some key crisis moments—has helped me grow and stay on a better path.
Avoiding and recovering from burnout is about progress, not perfection—and we can all achieve progress.
