Tag Archives: aid workers’ burnout
Good people, bad leaders
Why are good people bad leaders? How to deal with a toxic boss or a toxic work environment? Why change can be a good and meaningful thing? I picked this video especially for my friends in the nonprofit sector who … Continue reading
Posted in Letters to the field
Tagged aid workers' burnout, organizational culture in aid
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Disengaged: burned-out or ‘bored-out’?
Today I want to explore two ways that lead to disengagement at work: burnout and boredom. Burnout as exhaustion and loss of meaning Burnout is a common malaise in the nonprofit sector. Individuals (and organisations) don’t burnout simply because of … Continue reading
Building healthy organisations: resilience and burnout
Resilience I like to think of resilience as the ability to ‘fall seven times and stand up eight’ as a Japanese proverb says. In organisations it also means being mindful of each other and ‘seeing beyond what is’. ‘In resilient cultures, members have figured out … Continue reading
Presenteeism and Burnout
A strange phenomena appears with those who are at risk, or suffer from burnout, it is called ‘presenteeism’. No matter how unwell you feel, or what you are going through in your personal life, you will show up at work. Continue reading
Jerusalem, stress and burnout
Obama is coming to town There’s never a dull moment in this land! I leave Jerusalem on a windy March morning, helicopters hovering over the city, freshly printed banners hang from lamp-posts declaring the unbreakable bond between Israel and the … Continue reading
Forget work-life balance!
I find most of the material I come across on work-life balance irrelevant. We need work, and we need rest: yes, even God gave it a rest on the 7th day. As much as I have my issues with Shabbat, as … Continue reading
Quitting is leading too
Quitting is leading too, as Nelson Mandela said. Why the pope’s decision to step down should bean inspiring lesson for leaders, change-makers, and for all those with a ‘meaningful career’. Continue reading
Burnout: beyond the myth of work-life balance
Are you Wallander or Blomkvist? Reading psychological thrillers is one of my ways to chill out. So it should come as no surprise that Scandinavian sagas such as the Millennium Trilogy and Wallander have provided inspiration for some of the … Continue reading
Burnout, guilt and shame
‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. (Leonard Cohen) The title of this post was inspired by Brené Brown’s book on shame resilience: I thought it was just me (but it isn’t). Telling the Truth About Perfectionism, … Continue reading
Mindfulness in Ramallah
Friday April 15th, 2011: a very sad day for many following the murder of the Italian volunteer Vittorio Arrigoni in Gaza. On that very same day I had scheduled a mindfulness session for humanitarian aid workers in Ramallah (West Bank). … Continue reading