2025 - The year of…
I’m at gate 8 getting ready to board a flight at Melbourne airport. I look around at the faces of my fellow travellers, they are all wearing the same expression. They looked shattered, many of them are leaning on things confirming my suspicions that it was taking all their strength just to stay upright. I think the word for this year would be one my teen would use - ‘Cooked’. You know like “Stick a fork in me - I’m done”!
Their grim state is confirming two things in my mind:
1. Every client over the last 12 months has said the same thing, “My people are cooked! I have never seen them so tired.”
2. And you know what - I’m right there with them. I was feeling like the walking dead.
When I reflected with my wife Christine (who’s a lot smarter than me) - who also works with me – I had an amazing revelation. I initially said to her, “I just feel like I haven’t worked hard enough this year to be this tired!”
She replied “Think about all the things that we have gone through this year, both as a family and a business. We did one of the biggest studies in the world on secondary trauma and how it impacts educators. Reading all those stories of trauma took a toll on us. We also had a lot of change in the business. Essential and positive changes but change none the less, unexpected changes in staffing, poor health of family members. Your mum in hospital twice. Our youngest child ended up in ICU after having an anaphylactic response to anaesthetic. Then add in the just normal ups and down of life. No wonder you are done.”
My response was “But I mentally I feel fine”.
Then she dropped the big wisdom on me “Yeah but that’s because you are really good at preventing burnout by dialling up your recovery. However, you haven’t processed all the emotional things you have gone through, and your body is ‘keeping the score’ (there is a great book by that name – you should read it). She was right (told you she was smarter than me).
Not only have I had an emotional year, the whole world has. (writing this as I hear and process the recent tragedy in Bondi, for which I send my whole hearted love and support to all those impacted)
This year more than any other, I have seen enormous levels of burnout across so many industries. It’s an emotional climate out there, it feels like everyone is white knuckling their way to Christmas. Interestingly, this doesn’t seem to be coming from one place, one thing,one source; but an accumulation of many things over many years. This ranges from the rise of AI and not knowing where that will lead us, people are still grappling with remote working, geopolitical instability and multiple wars making us fearful for the future, economic uncertainty, far too much time on screens, skyrocketing mental health challenges and increasing workloads. The only thing that is certain is Dan Murphy’s are going to do fine this Christmas.
I’m also seeing culture and change fatigue as many industries are adapting, evolving to survive but at a rate that makes it hard to sustain wellbeing and performance while trying to achieve strategic goals. In one client briefing they said to me, “Whatever you do, don’t mention change, our people have change fatigue and we just don’t need to hear the message that lots of things are changing.”
So, what does the guy who speaks about performance reimagined do when he’s over done?
My plan:
1. Starts with self-compassion - not judging myself for needing more input than usual.
It’s not the workload itself that’s the core of the issue, it’s the emotional load that came with it and I am not weak for needing it. Also staying away from bullshit language like “I just need to push through”, “Other people are coping, why can’t I!”
2. Some deep days of no responsibility (don’t have an agenda and don’t have to be productive).
I usually take one of these days once a month but as Brené Brene Brown says ‘the only cure for overwhelm is nothingness’. I’m going to head out with a mate on a boat, spend some time in nature, swimming and doing what I feel like at the time I feel like it. And yes, my wife gets these days too.
3. Don’t overschedule my break.
I’m going to actively avoid planning anything. Have you ever seen the movie National Lampoons European vacation? Its an 80’s classic where Chevy Chase has every minute of every day accounted for on their overseas holiday - such as 15 minutes in the Louvre to see the Mona Lisa. Well, I am going to do the opposite of that! I will be planning very little and aiming not to maximise anything but relaxation. Sure, I may miss out on seeing a few things but that not the point of this break.
4. Minimising screen time.
I love binging TV series during the holidays as it’s something I rarely do during the year (hello Stranger Things). But spending a lot of time on screens (especially your phone) reduces your ability to recover.
5. Introduce a new habit – reading fiction.
Disengage from work wholly and completely. This one I usually struggle with - I have an active and curious mind and I love my work. I often read interesting books related to my work on the break. But for me to be creative and innovative, I need to let my brain stop. To that end, I am reading fiction for the first time since writing up my PhD (where I read Harry Potter to get my brain to go to sleep).
6. Morning and evening sun.
Make sure I get sun exposure in the morning and in the afternoon. Light on your eyes at this point of the day helps set the rhythms of your body, which dramatically improves your wellbeing.
7. Get regular (nothing to do with fibre).
Aim to go to bed and wake up at the same time each day. A regular sleep pattern dramatically improves your quality of sleep.
Further evidence for the fact that the workforce as a whole is not coping is the introduction of Psychosocial Risk legislation, as well as the Right to Disconnect laws. This reflects the needs for workforce wide reimagining of how we work, how we organise our work, what we expect of our people and ourselves. I was recently chatting with a mate, David Lawson, who is an amazing OD specialist and he said “I just can’t remember meeting anyone this year who was carefree and truly joyous. We used to be like that, but we lost it somewhere.” Before January arrives (all too soon), think about how you can use this break to recover from this year. How will you fill up your cup? My advice for leaders is check in with your team members and talk to them about what they have planned in order to recover from the year. Also role model taking time for recover, they will follow your lead.
If you want to step into 2026 differently, there are many ways my team and I are here to help you and your teams with that. We have had a real surge in working with leadership teams to create alignment at their strategy days. It is such an amazing privilege to see these leadership teams come together in common purpose, commit to each other and to their strategy. From there the sky’s the limits.