People working in service/helping professions while dealing with low-morale experiences often oscillate between disengagement and perfectionism/overwork behaviors. The resulting emotional conflict often includes feelings of shame and guilt, and these behaviors also result in mental and emotional exhaustion via burnout or compassion fatigue. Ettarh’s concept of vocational awe also highlights how ideas/feelings about the librarian jobs or cultural roles can lead to overidentification with work, and Hersey’s manifesto on rest places overwork squarely in the realm of our society’s investment in capitalism and individualism. Berg, Galvan and Tewell’s discussion of resilience narratives, reveal how employees are urged to take on more work at the expense of their own well-being. In practice, this is often under the weaponized usage of employee, departmental, or organizational comparisons or “team player,”/ workplace-as-family messaging.
Considering these areas of research, inquiry, theory, and observation, here are some reasons you may be overworking, what it tells your organization, and how you can reset:
Passion: You know your skills are valuable to your organization, BUT: offering too much of your good thing all the time tells your organization that they can exploit your excitement to the same lengths you’re willing to go for their bottom line. Your organization won’t intervene if your engagement negatively impacts your mental health, physical health, or personal relationships. Reset: Identify or return to non-work related interests and activities, and intentionally connect with communities and people outside of your department, organization, or industry or organization. Remember: work is not family.
Perception: When you’re not sure what role or impact you have in your organization, you’ll Do All the Things in a thinly-distributed attempt to show value. Ironically, doing the Doing All the Things approach increases uncertainty and can lead to resentment, apathy, and burnout. Reset: Focus on core duties and assessment – this will help highlight value and clarify areas of impact. If you want to do more, this will also help identify why and what you should do next (don’t forget to ask for associated benefits when doing more).
Power: Does your company need more [people, funding, materials]? If you’re overworking to fill in organizational gaps, how does your company really know they need more? Hiding the impact of resource provision shortfalls from your organization will reduce your chances of getting the resources you need. Reset: Center people within processes: let gaps show to reframe advocacy and show value and impact of affected services.
How have you moved away from overwork? Share in the comments here, or join our communities on Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky to hear from others and gain support and insight. Need focused support with your reset(s)? Contact me for a coaching consultation!
P.S. – want to view these points in audiovideo form? See here, here, and here.
Works Cited
Berg, J., Galvan, A. & Tewell, E. (2018). Responding to and reimagining resilience in academic libraries. Journal of New Librarianship, 3(1):
Ettarh, F. (2018, January 10). Vocational awe and librarianship: The lies we tell ourselves. In the Library with the Lead Pipe.
Hersey, T. (2022). Rest is Resistance: A Manifesto. Little, Brown, Spark.
