Why Ratio - Based Jobs Burn Out Trauma Survivors | Your Trauma Wise Career Guide Ep 23

Why Ratio-Based Jobs Burn Out Trauma Survivors | Trauma-Informed Career Advice

If you're a trauma survivor working in childcare, healthcare, social services, or other ratio-based roles, this episode is for you. Discover why these essential jobs can be especially challenging for trauma survivors and learn practical strategies to build a sustainable, fulfilling career.

What You'll Learn:
✨ What ratio-based work is and why it affects trauma survivors differently
✨ How to transform your trauma responses into professional superpowers
✨ The hidden impact of secondary trauma in helping professions
✨ Practical nervous system regulation techniques for high-stress work
✨ How to implement trauma-informed boundaries while caring for others
✨ Ways to advocate for systemic change in your workplace

Topics Covered:
* Ratio-based jobs in childcare, healthcare, and social services
* Trauma responses as professional assets (hypervigilance, emotional sensitivity, crisis experience)
* Secondary trauma and vicarious trauma in helping professions
* Energy management and nervous system regulation at work
* Trauma-informed workplace boundaries
* Career development for trauma survivors
* Workplace advocacy and systemic change

Timestamps:
0:00 - Hook: The crushing reality of ratio-based work
1:00 - What are ratio-based roles?
2:00 - Hidden challenges for trauma survivors
3:00 - Trauma responses as professional superpowers
4:00 - Secondary trauma factor
5:00 - Practical strategies that work
6:00 - Call to action

Resources Mentioned:
Book a discovery session: cyndibennettconsulting.com/contact

About This Podcast:
Your Trauma Wise Career Guide reimagines career development for trauma survivors. Host Cyndi Bennett, trauma survivor turned trauma-informed career coach and founder of Resilient Career Academy, provides practical advice for building careers that honor your healing journey.

Connect With Cyndi:
Website: http://cyndibennettconsulting.com

When you're ready, here are 3 ways I can help you grow your career journey:

1. Free trauma-informed career development resources from my website! Visit https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com for always up-to-date tips.
2. Ready to build a fulfilling career with trauma-informed support? Join The Resilient Career Academy Learning Community, where trauma survivors support each other, share resources, and develop career resilience in a safe, understanding environment
3. Ready for personalized trauma-informed career coaching? Explore my range of virtual coaching packages designed for different stages of your career journey. Visit my website to find the right support for where you are now. [Visit my website: https://www.cyndibennettconsulting.com/1-on-1-coaching]

DISCLOSURE: Some links I share might contain resources that you might find helpful. Whenever possible I use referral links, which means if you click any of the links in this video or description and make a purchase we may receive a small commission or other compensation at no cost to you.

Transcript

Why Ratio-Based Jobs Burn Out Trauma Survivors | Your Trauma Wise Career Guide Ep 23

Cyndi: [00:00:00] If you've ever worked in childcare, healthcare, or social services, you know that crushing feeling when you're responsible for more people than you can truly care for. But here's what nobody talks about. When you're a trauma survivor doing ratio based work, that feeling isn't just stress. It's your nervous system screaming that something is fundamentally wrong.

Did you know that trauma impacts how we navigate our careers, but most career advice ignores this reality? Imagine feeling confident and safe at work while honoring your healing journey. Welcome to Your Trauma-Wise Career Guide, the podcast that reimagines career development for trauma survivors. I'm your host, Cyndi Bennett, a trauma survivor, turned trauma informed, career coach and founder of the Resilient Career Academy. If you're navigating your career while honoring your healing journey, you are in the right [00:01:00] place.

Welcome to your Trauma-Wise Career Guide, the podcast for trauma survivors ready to transform their career journey. I'm Cyndi Bennett, and today we're diving into why ratio based work, those jobs where regulations dictate exactly how many vulnerable people you must serve, can be especially challenging for trauma survivors and how to build sustainable, fulfilling careers in these essential roles.

What are ratio based roles? Let me start by explaining what I mean by ratio based work. These are positions where regulations or policies dictate the specific number of people you can serve at once. Think childcare workers with 12 toddlers in one room. ICU nurses managing two to three critical patients, special education teachers with mandated class [00:02:00] sizes, group home staff responsible for 15 plus residents.

The defining characteristic, your workload isn't determined by your capacity or energy. It's determined by a number someone else decided represents adequate care.

Here's what traditional workplace discussions miss these ratios. Assume all humans have identical capacity on any given day. They don't account for your energy levels, emotional bandwidth, or crucially for trauma survivors. How your nervous system responds to high stakes environments.

When you're responsible for multiple vulnerable people simultaneously, every decision carries exponential weight. And if you're a trauma survivor, your heightened awareness and deep empathy, the very things that make you excellent at this work, can overwhelm [00:03:00] your system when multiplied across so many people.

But here's what changes everything. When we understand how trauma responses show up in ratio based work, we can transform them from sources of overwhelm into professional superpowers.

Your hyper vigilance, that's safety awareness, that catches things, others miss. Your emotional sensitivity isn't too much, it's attunement that helps you notice subtle changes. Your crisis experience isn't baggage, it's why you stay calm when others feel overwhelmed.

There's another layer that we need to talk about, the secondary trauma factor. Ratio based work exposes you to constant secondary trauma. You're hearing trauma stories, witnessing crises, and seeing system failures, all while caring for multiple people simultaneously.

For [00:04:00] trauma survivors, this exposure can activate your own responses or create new traumatic stress. The very empathy that draws us to helping professions also makes us more vulnerable to absorbing others' pain.

So what can you do? First, work with your nervous system, not against it. You can take micro breaks for regulation, even 30 seconds of intentional breathing between tasks. You can practice energy budgeting, plan your emotional and physical energy, like the finite resource it is. You can reframe your responses as professional assets, not personal flaws, and you can work with supervisors to define realistic "good enough" standards. ​

Second, implement trauma-informed boundaries. You can care deeply while [00:05:00] protecting your energy. Document everything to protect both yourself and those you serve.

There is a bigger picture here. Even with individual strategies, there's a systemic problem. Ratio based work involves caring for our most vulnerable community members. Yet these roles are often undervalued and structurally unsustainable.

This is where your voice matters. Your experience gives you credibility to advocate for better compensation, trauma-informed workplace practices, and public education about the complexity of this work.

When we implement trauma informed approaches, everyone benefits. Workers experience less burnout, those served, received better care and organizations see improved outcomes.

If you're ready to move beyond just getting by in ratio [00:06:00] based work and start building a sustainable career that honors your healing journey, I'd love to explore ways I can help you navigate your career growth.

I invite you to schedule a discovery session with me where we can talk about your specific challenges as a trauma survivor in the workplace And explore what support might be most helpful for your next steps. You can book your session at cyndibennettconsulting.com/contact. That's cyndibennettconsulting.com/contact.

Remember, you're not just doing a job. You are providing essential care that keeps our society functioning. You deserve to build fulfilling work in these roles, not just endure them.

Thanks for listening to your Trauma-Wise Career Guide. If this episode resonated with you, please share it with another trauma survivor who might need to hear this message. Until next time, [00:07:00] keep honoring your journey.

You're not walking this path alone. Every step you take toward a trauma-wise career is an act of courage, and I'm here cheering you on. If today's episode resonated with you, share it with another survivor who needs to hear this message. Together we're rewriting the rules of career success. Keep rising, keep healing, keep building.