Leaders facing pandemic burnout must adapt, practise self-compassion: CEO, workplace expert

For the last 393 days, through rain, sun, snow or sleet, Dorota Blumczynska has not missed a single sunrise. 

Blumczynska — who took over as CEO of the Manitoba Museum in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic — walks to meet the morning sun every single day for her mental health. 

"As someone who really enjoys New Year's resolutions, I thought of a way that I could make a commitment to myself — a commitment to be outside, a commitment to give myself 20 minutes of permission to just feel whatever I am going to feel and to step outside of my present reality," she said in an interview with CBC's Information Radio.

As the pandemic has dragged on, everyone has had to find ways to cope with stress and burnout — and that includes people who work in leadership roles, like Blumczynska.

For many workplace leaders, "the expectation is you know where we're headed," she said. 

"You have all the answers. You're going to figure it out. You're doing it smiling and cheering us all on."

At the beginning of 2021, just before she started in her new role at the museum — following years of work as an advocate for refugees and immigrants, including as the executive director of the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization of Manitoba (IRCOM) — Blumczynska was beginning to feel exhausted as a result of the pandemic.

"I just felt so weighed down by that pressure, and I was also hearing from others who were feeling so weighed down that we just couldn't keep up the facade," she said.

One day she chose to escape the feelings of hopelessness by going on a walk to watch the sun rise. 

One day turned to two, and two days turned into a continuing commitment to give herself that 20 minutes every morning. She now shares her daily sunrise photos with the world in a social media post. 

Sometimes the posts shine a light on another aspect of life; sadness, hopelessness or burnout. 

That kind of honesty is important for people in leadership roles, Blumczynska says.

"You know, I forgive myself for those moments in which I feel I have failed others," she said. "I recognize that I am a human being and I'm not this impenetrable tower."

Leaders must adjust style: workplace expert

Patricia Grabarek, a workplace wellness expert and adjunct professor at the University of Southern California, says people in leadership roles have had to change their style during the pandemic.

"In the beginning, no one really knew what to do, right? So the strong managers are the ones that were being very open, flexible, allowing people to kind of figure things out, as we were transitioning into this new world," she told host Marcy Markusa in an interview this week with Information Radio.

Leaders who were able to quickly adapt and allow flexibility as people adjusted to things like working from home and remote learning for their kids "really did the best service for their teams," she said.

"But most managers were struggling because they were also going through that shift."

'Cry to the sun, scream at the sun, argue with the sun': Dorota Blumczynska's morning ritual of peace

3 years ago

Duration 2:39

For 391 days in a row, Dorota Blumczynska has photographed the sunrise and believes this simple ritual has helped her cope with the pandemic.

Grabarek's business website, Workr Beeing, notes that leaders have an immense impact on the employee experience, particularly when it comes to what's referred to as the workplace's psychosocial safety climate, or PSC. 

That's a measure of the priority an organization sets for the psychological health and safety of its employees, according to the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology.

A recent study published in that journal looked at the how leaders can help set that level of safety.

The most successful leaders now are those who have been able to "create environments where their employees have that flexibility that we know is really critical for employee wellness," Grabarek said.

"They are continuing to build a safe space where employees can talk to them and create the workplace that makes sense for their current situations."

Leaders who haven't adapted may be struggling, she says.

"They still are trying to be too 'micromanage-y' of what's going on with their team members," she said.

"They're used to people being in the office, for example, and so they can't let go and allow for things to shift and change, and that's when people start to feel that this isn't the right fit for me."

'We will show up for one another': CEO

Grabarek says a balanced workload, the ability to disconnect after the work day, sick days and overall openness can all help provide the psychosocial safety climate needed to keep employees mentally healthy at work. 

But both Blumczynska and Grabarek say the common idea of work-life balance — with the two clearly separated — is antiquated. Successful managers will have to adapt to life's personal challenges spilling into work, just as work challenges can often overflow into personal time, they say.

"You're seeing burnout because people are just overwhelmed and overworked in both realms of their life," Grabarek said.

WATCH | Dorota Blumczynska explains how her daily ritual has helped her during the pandemic:

Blumczynska's strategy to move forward is to role model the self-compassion and the mental health awareness that she wants to see in her team. 

That means being willing "to risk being honest in order to exist as who you are in every single space."

"We need to learn to take up space, not just with our good moments.… There is space for the hard things, and there is space for the sadness and the grief, and you don't need to hide that away from others," she said.

"We welcome it. We will show up for one another, and we are never alone."