When bosses are burned out, employees can feel it – and according to Barbara Ferri, a therapist with Durango-based Solum Life Therapy, that can create tension in a workplace that might ultimately lead to a business’ downfall.
In a 2024 poll conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, more than half of employee respondents in all role levels said they felt burned out because of their job in the past year, and 37% reported feeling so overwhelmed that it impacted their ability to do their job well. Managers reported a 54% burnout rate – close to 15% higher than the burnout rate reported by entry-level employees.
Ferri discussed the concept of burned-out supervisors causing burned-out employees during the Southwest Colorado Small Business Conference in Ignacio earlier this month.
An employer’s nervous system effectively becomes their leadership style when they’re under pressure, Ferri said – and that can create an energy shift in the workplace that can spell disaster over time.
“Your team responds to your nervous system, not just your words,” she said. “As a leader, you’re the nucleus. You are the person projecting and rippling through everybody else. ... You’re going to create a stressed team that has tension and a sense of urgency constantly, a sense that we can’t take breaks. That’s terrible.”
A stressful work environment as a result of a stressed out boss can burn out employees to the point of eventually driving them away, Ferri said – even if a company offers high pay and good benefits.
“As leaders, we don’t want to create places that people want to leave,” she said. “It’s also a huge business expense (to drive employees away).”
Bosses – and employees – ignoring signals that they’re burning out is a problem across the workforce, Ferri said, in part because of a common misconception that stress equals productivity.
“There’s this belief that, ‘If I’m not stressed, I’m not productive – I’m not getting things done, (and) I need to feel this way,’” she said. “... People are so accustomed to feeling on edge that they don’t want to let it go.”
When a nervous system is stressed, thinking narrows, reactions speed up and leadership capacity drops, Ferri said – all of which can deplete a boss’ ability to lead their team well.
Though addressing burnout is a long-term process that involves closely evaluating which day-to-day demands in one’s workplace are truly sustainable, there are some micro-adjustments employers can make during the work day to shift their mood and help decrease the stress in a work environment, she said.
Some of these strategies include checking in with one’s nervous system so burnout can be identified to begin with; taking an intentional five-minute biological reset before high stakes meetings or work demands; taking a “post-conflict pause” in a different physical space following any acute operational friction; and “modeling the break” for employees.
“Modeling the break” means leadership granting their employees permission to recover and rest through modeling self-care in their own work, Ferri said. This can look like bosses visibly taking breaks themselves – not just telling others to – and showing employees it’s OK to take time to nourish themselves during their work day by taking time to eat and drink regularly, preferably away from the desk.
Sharina Ramsay-Adams, owner of Adams Overhead Door in Durango, said she’s pushed through burnout at her job before, and that she wants to be intentional about not inadvertently modeling burnout for her employees.
“I don’t eat lunch while I’m working. But I see where that might actually make my (employees) think, ‘Oh, well, we can just push through and not eat,’” she said. “But, no, I want (my employees) to stop. (I’ve realized) if I don’t take the lunch, maybe that’s why they don’t take the lunch.”
Ramsay-Adams said she’s seen the impact the energy of higher-ups at the company – including her own – can have on employees, and that she’s committed to incorporating more burnout-prevention measures to help retain employees and keep staff members motivated.
“My chaotic energy creates chaotic energy,” she said.
Loretta Velasquez, who works with senior in-home care company Home Instead, said burnout is a common issue in the health care field. She said she’s witnessed some people in leadership roles at her work trying to push through burnout in an unhealthy way that has led to stressful interactions with employees.
“Higher ups are not providing a decent environment for people that work in high-stress jobs,” she said. “They’re not doing their part to protect their business, because without employees, you’ve got nothing. You’re only as good as your team.”
Some employers may be unable to rise to the challenge of addressing their own burnout and keeping it from spreading to their workforce, Ferri said – and in those cases, it may be time for employees to seek alternative work.
“So many times I have people in my practice that ... have learned their boundaries, and they started resting and doing all these things, but it’s like (they’re) on an uphill battle,” she said. “Some places are just toxic, and you’re not going to out-nervous system it. I wish you could, but sometimes, sadly, people have to leave their jobs.”
In Ferri’s eyes, the success of a business is directly tied to how successful bosses are at regulating themselves and modeling work-life balance for their employees.
“Your nervous system state is not separate from your business, it is shaping it,” she said.
epond@durangoherald.com
