Preventing and Reacting to Burnout: A Guide for Integrity, Trust & Safety Workers and Managers
By Alice Hunsberger and Kristen Murdock, Integrity Institute Members and Jen Weedon, Integrity Institute Founding Fellow. They are featured in Episode 4 of the Trust in Tech podcast. Their discussion on preventing and reacting to burnout contains such a wealth of actionable information for community members. With support from the Integrity Institute, they have kindly distilled the episode into a guide on our blog!
Burnout isn’t stress. It is debilitating but feels different for everyone.
It could look like crying at the drop of a hat, panic attacks, hyperventilating.
It can feel like anger, persistent dread, futility.
It is all-consuming, and comes out of nowhere from very minor triggers.
It doesn’t go away after a few deep breaths.
Burnout isn’t necessarily caused by big moments. It can also be (and often is) death by a thousand cuts. This is a complex topic. Burnout usually isn’t just from one thing.
Burnout is normal. If you feel like you’re stressed, or are getting burned out, or have been burned out, know that it’s ok. It’s not something to be ashamed of.
Change is possible. Making a shift can help. Make sure you give yourself the same grace and kindness that you give to others.
It’s not your fault. If you’re feeling burned out, it might be because Trust & Safety and Integrity work just fundamentally is not a good fit for you.
The work we do never ever ends, you need to be ok with not having a happy ending.
You should be energized (not drained) by helping people.
If you need a break from the bad news in the world, working in integrity won’t give you that break.
You need to be able to compartmentalize your work and your personal life, and not take work personally.
Advice to prevent burnout
Find something that brings you joy (reading, working out, etc) and make space for it in your day.
Find Your Personal Minimum Viable Habit - what is the smallest thing you can do to help you feel like you’re making progress? (for example, meditate for 3 minutes instead of 30 minutes).
Try journaling - revisit core values that you have, wins and celebrations, work through work frustrations but choose not to let it touch you.
Put a post-it on your desk with reminders of what you want your life to be like - a visual reminder not to get caught up in negativity.
Be honest with yourself that you can’t be everything to everyone all the time - there are times in your life when you can focus on family, or work, or your own personal time/ friends/ self care- but you can’t do all three at the same time.
Remember that the person you look up to who is kicking ass at work may well be sacrificing many things behind the scenes to make that happen.
How to build up your confidence and self worth, and get the feedback that you need
You can trick yourself into thinking that you’re useless as a person when you don’t feel useful at work any more. This becomes most acute when you’re not excelling at work, after doing well for so long.
You can be the biggest, juiciest, ripest peach in the basket and there will still be somebody who doesn’t like peaches. You can be good at your job and not everyone has to like you. You don’t need constant validation from absolutely everybody.
Choose the people you DO need validation from and whose voice matters the most to you. You can create a safe space of people who will give you good advice and help you recognize when you’re doing well and when you’re not. This can be people you currently work with, or people who do similar work elsewhere.
It can be really lonely when you’re the only person at your company who does what you do. But there are other people out there who do the same thing. Networking and reaching out to other people who do the same work can be really helpful.
Places to find peers in Integrity/ Trust & Safety: Integrity Institute, TSPA, TSCollective, LinkedIn, All Tech is Human
If you’re not getting feedback, it can lead to self doubt, lack of confidence, working super hard to try and prove yourself with no end in sight. It’s ok to have an intentional contract/ conversation with your manager - ask what can we do together, intentionally, to get on the same page/ trust each other. Don’t be too afraid to ask for direct feedback.
Be clear about what success looks like for you and your role. Make sure that success relies on things that you can solve and have control over yourself, vs. things that are completely outside of your control.
Things that can help, post-burnout
Being intentional about setting up systems and crafting a life that is full outside of just work identity, and have people in your life who can reinforce those systems, and reinforce the multidimensionality of your personality outside of work.
Quitting! It can be scary but also empowering and relieving.
Therapy.
We tend to be selfless in this field (putting users first, community first, team first) but sometimes you need to do what is right for you and put yourself first.
Systemic challenges specifically for Integrity and Trust & Safety teams
Some integrity/ trust & safety teams are set up to spot issues, but aren’t the ones to ultimately solve them. When success relies on getting buy-in from other teams, it can feel a bit out of your own control, which is a big driver of stress.
You don’t get celebrated for the things that you prevent. Tech companies are very metrics driven, so when your improvements don’t move the needle immediately on these metrics, it can be difficult to get recognition and resources.
The “Move fast and break things” philosophy isn’t good for integrity.
There can be a disconnect when senior leadership believes that trust & safety is a cost center, rather than a long-term growth lever. When this happens, integrity and trust & safety teams don’t get the resources that they need.
Things work best when integrity issues are considered as an integral part of overall company strategy.
Tips for managers, keeping these structural issues in mind
If you’re a middle manager you can get stuck between a rock and a hard place- you need to protect your team from burnout, but you may not necessarily be getting the structural support that you need to make sure your team can thrive.
If you’re looking for a new job in this field, it’s really important to talk to the most senior person you can and grill them on company values to see if it’s just lip service or if they really prioritize integrity work and resource it properly.
It can be really lonely when you’re a manager, so have conversations with people across the org and with peers at other companies so you don’t feel isolated.
How managers and team leads should talk about burnout with their teams
Recognize the structural aspects of burnout and your own role in that system: look for the areas that you as a manager can change in the way your team operates to make things easier for your team.
Be authentic about the fact that burnout is a real problem. Don’t just focus on superficial/ small benefits (like a day off here and there, or a subscription to a meditation app).
Share your own struggles with burnout openly with your team. It helps normalize the discussion and create a level of psychological safety for your team.
One of the biggest pitfalls for managers is not recognizing that burnout looks different for different people, and can be caused by different types of work. One burnout isn’t “worse” than the other.
Managers have to lead people and manage things - be aware of the effect of your words.
Build psychological safety on your team where it’s ok for your team to give you constructive feedback.
Concrete tips for preventing burnout on teams, and recognizing when it might be an issue on your team
Employee health surveys can be a good signal.
Having structured 1:1 conversations to get feedback out of people.
Do an “energy audit” exercise (The Energy Audit: Overview, Energy Audit Quiz) that walks through questions and dimensions of what people find energizing vs. draining, which gives a framework to people who may not have thought about these things before.
If you haven’t literally done the work that your team is doing now, take some time to shadow them and do the work yourself so you understand what it feels like for them and how intense it is.
Make sure that your team has the ability to pass off difficult work to someone else (often their manager/ team lead) if they’re having a bad day - no questions asked.
Offer therapy + Calm + Headspace. Just offering access to apps isn’t enough.
Be flexible with solutions. One burned out person might need a whole month off work, others might need support moving to an entirely different kind of job in a different department.
Places to find peers:
Resources: