My one experience of burnout was whilst working as a Children & Families Social Worker in an Inner London department. The work was very demanding, with high caseloads, staff shortages, and constant child protection issues.

I brought work home and purchased a laptop just so I could keep up with all the reports. I wasn’t sleeping and felt totally exhausted. I was working on autopilot. I didn’t actually realize I was going through burnout until I broke down into tears during the team meeting. It was at that point, my Team Manager was aware of my situation despite me reporting my concerns to my line manager.

That experience taught me so much.

1: Never get in that position again.

2: Take time out and have a lunch break.

3: Speak up for myself and say NO.

4: Never take on extra work.

5: Set very clear boundaries with my line manager.

6: I no longer worked through the night trying to finish reports. If I did do extra, I made sure I got my time back that was owed.

7: I learned the valuable lesson of self-care because if you do not look after yourself who else is going to look after you?

8: Another valuable lesson was the importance of being able to talk to management and having concerns taken seriously.

I was determined that never again in my life would I let a job get me to the stage where I was actually burned out to the ground.