Winds of Change

Workaholic vs. Burnout

Life has been busy for me ever since I got here, which naturally, I really enjoy. There have been plenty of 12 plus hour work days, and many, many times that work comes home with me. However, I have also discovered that there is a fine line between being a workaholic and a professional burnout. Working hard for long hours is honestly what I like to do; however, without a life outside of work this can quickly become all consuming.

As I have said before, much of my job is working with orphans and vulnerable children. I have been supervising a soup kitchen twice a week, working some with regional data that comes into our office to compile a report with my counterpart for the Catholic AIDS Action National office each month, and doing some supervision visits around the Omaheke region. However, that is really just the official part of my job. Anytime we do a workshop, I get a lot busier because I have generally four or five presentations in a week for our participants, which can be on any range of issues, and last between one and three hours each. At the same time, workshop weeks are also weeks which I can tend to end up helping with the catering for the workshop itself. This is something I enjoy, but it certainly can add to the list of things that I have to do. Many times all of these different things are happening at the same time, and I legitimately need to be at all of them at once; thus I end up running around all day trying to just keep on top of the various tasks before they can consume me.

After a few weeks of this, I started to notice myself withdrawing. I was easily frustrated, and would isolate myself from everyone, sometimes just by locking myself in my office because I didn’t want to deal with anyone or sometimes by not interacting with people in the way that was needed. However, one of the biggest problems for me was when there stopped being a separation between work and home.

One day I was looking at a burnout self test that I had created a PowerPoint presentation, and there were only two things left unchecked. It was as if reality had come knocking at my door. Naturally, I couldn’t change everything overnight, but I could start making sure that I got enough sleep, only worked at home when absolutely necessary, and taking time for myself as I needed to. I also started to pay attention to my needs when I needed to get out of here, and travel, even for just the day, to our different sites. Making the realization was the first step; however, there has been a lot of improvement from there.

You should all know that I am fine, and have not burned out; however, I was closer than I like to admit. Recognizing who I am, and what I need as been extremely productive.

I have done a lot of walking around in the community as well, and for many reasons, I work in a very tough community. The office that I work at is in Epako, a location of Gobabis; however, it is less than a block away from the informal settlements. In the settlements, it is VERY poor. There are no toilets, and so people use the bushes, there’s only running water at specific water points, the population density is extreme, the unemployment is greater than 80 percent, and many children are not going to school. Some of the things that you see walking around are very difficult to even get your mind around. In many of my interviews that I did, people would say that while HIV/AIDS was a major health factor, many were concerned mainly with day to day survival. This could be in terms of food and water, basic hygiene and sanitation, or poverty as a whole.