Don’t forget to leave room for amazement: The perils of occupational fatigue

If you’ll bear with me, friends, this week deals not so much with the harsh realities of our vocation, but with the hope that those harsh realities can be effectively managed.

One of the true blessings of my work as a consultant is the opportunity to change things up on a regular basis—meeting new people and seeing new places while still renewing acquaintances encountered on the journeys of the past 18 years. And, as I think about it, I do hope (at least some of the time) this blog provides you with some level of diversion, but occupational fatigue (aka work burnout) is more common than serves anyone’s benefit.

I am in the habit of collecting things that interest me, and sometimes I’ll encounter something of sufficient interest that I want to share it with you folks. In wandering around the internet in the wake of the anniversary of the first moon landing, I came across a blog post (written by Brad Stulberg) describing some ways of dealing with work burnout that I felt was worth sharing.

As with so many things that “occur” to me, it’s not so much the revelatory aspect of the piece (though there is that to some degree), but rather the “tone” of the article that really caught my attentions to the extent that I wanted to share this with you. It doesn’t necessarily relate to safety in a global sense (though I could make the case that it does relate to personal safety to a fair degree), but I think anything that can shift the direction of conversation, even for the briefest of moments, is time well spent.

So, a short one this week, but that should give you some time to seek out a little amazement—you can never have too much magic in your life!

About the Author: Steve MacArthur is a safety consultant with The Greeley Company in Danvers, Mass. He brings more than 30 years of healthcare management and consulting experience to his work with hospitals, physician offices, and ambulatory care facilities across the country. He is also a contributing editor for Healthcare Safety Leader. Contact Steve at stevemacsafetyspace@gmail.com.