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Internal communications practitioners play a crucial role within organizations, but what are the implications on you as an individual?
The State of the Sector 2024 report told us that 44% of respondents loved working in communications but could see themselves happy elsewhere – a belief that’s likely influenced by the deterioration in health reported by 38% of respondents.
The demands of the role, especially at a senior level, can have a negative impact on wellbeing and lead to burnout and other health issues and implications – understanding the impact of this is a necessary first step toward finding solutions.
There’s a tendency for communicators to be ‘always on’ – especially those working in global organizations who need to accommodate different time zones. This can be detrimental to individual wellbeing, job satisfaction, productivity and performance. So, what can you do to face the challenge?
Here are 5 actionable steps to help you navigate work burnout
1. Be strategic with your workload management
Managing workloads requires a strategic approach – in fact, the State of the Sector 2024 report indicated a correlation between strategic communicators and improved well-being. The below indicates the greater your sense of flexibility and control, the greater your sense of personal wellbeing. A vital part of this is establishing clear boundaries around working hours and prioritizing regular breaks.
2. Communicating your boundaries
Clearly communicating your boundaries can also cultivate mutual understanding and respect with your colleagues. It allows you to lead by example and demonstrate to your teams the importance of a work-life balance. Be sure to monitor workloads across your teams too, ensuring a fair distribution of responsibilities – and open the channels of communication for colleagues to share their struggles.
3. Engage with peers
Peer-to-peer engagement can bring huge benefits. Industry events and roundtables provide a great circle of support, and networking can offer renewed energy and perspective. As the adage goes; ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’. This is something that’s clearly needed when we consider less than a third (32%) of State of the Sector 2024 respondents told us they felt passionate about internal communications as a vocation. Sharing and discussing common challenges could very well help to increase this number.
4. Building resilience
Talking openly about the pressures of your role can help you to cultivate resilience. It provides an opportunity to reframe challenges as opportunities for learning and growth. If you’re able to develop adaptive coping strategies in this way, engaging with peers could even engender professional development and job satisfaction.
Prioritizing mental and emotional wellbeing is an integral component of your role and paramount to your effectiveness as a communicator – so take advantage of resources available through your organization, such as mental health services and employee assistance programs.
5. Know that you’re not alone
Most of all, know that you’re not alone. Together we can create a culture of support and resilience within the internal communications community.
You can also delve deeper into our research from the State of the Sector 2024 report here.
See how our internal communications consultants can help you today, and contact us to discuss the tangible differences we could make to your organization.
