What Can We Do to End Burnout in the Arts?

Ending burnout in the arts is possible - but how can we do it? 

I take a look at actions we can take to make positive change for arts workers and organisations. 

Together, we can create a sector where burnout isn’t the norm, and which doesn’t harm its workers through toxic cultures and overwork. Change will take time, but through small, everyday actions, and compassionate, intentional practice, we can create a sector which enables people and organisations to thrive. 

Useful Stuff 

Laura: www.weareculturebloom.com 

Laura on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/laurafcrossley/ 

School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds: https://ahc.leeds.ac.uk/performance 

Centre for Cultural Value: https://www.culturalvalue.org.uk/ 

Mental health at work

Mind: https://www.mind.org.uk/workplace/mental-health-at-work 

Funders

Clore Leadership: https://www.cloreleadership.org/ 

Arts and Humanities Research Council: https://www.ukri.org/councils/ahrc/

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hi, I'm Laura and welcome to Joyful Work, Ending Burnout in the Arts. The podcast that helps you beat burnout in the cultural and creative sectors. Burnout amongst cultural and creative professionals is a crisis. If you work in the sector, chances are you've experienced burnout or know someone who's been through it. Burnout is making us ill, destroying our confidence, and impacting our careers. It's also leading to burnt-out organizations with less motivated, less focused staff who are desperately trying to stay afloat amongst hundreds of daily pressures. I'm an Arts and Workplace Culture Consultant from Manchester UK and an expert in creating joyful work cultures that prevent burnout. I want everyone to know that burnout in the cultural and creative sectors is not inevitable. It doesn't have to be this way. By making small changes, we can create a sector that cares for its people and organizations and where burnout isn't an inevitability. In this podcast, you'll find out about causes of burnout and what we can do to address the burnout epidemic. You'll hear from brilliant people who'll bring ideas for beating burnout, and you'll be encouraged to think about what you and your organization can do to make burnout a thing of the past. Hope you enjoy. In this episode, the final one of the series, I'm going to talk about what we can do individually and collectively to prevent burnout. It was a real privilege to chat with Andrea, Chris, and Kate. They are all amazing people doing vital work, and I'm sure that you'll have learned lots from them, and I'm sure been very inspired by them. And do check out their work. I've been reflecting on my conversations with Andrea, Chris, and Kate, and I wanted to start this episode by just giving my reflections about those conversations, and then later in the episode, using the research that I've done to give hints, tips, recommendations for what we can do as individuals and as a whole sector to make change and create a sector where burnout isn't the norm, and actually where we are in joyful workplaces, creating joyful work for audiences, and where staff well-being is valued just as much as visitor well-being. Firstly, I've been reflecting on what a huge issue burnout is. The interviews and the surveys that I did had really affected me. It was very, very difficult to listen to lots and lots of heartbreaking stories about the great personal costs that come to people as a result of working in this sector. This silenced epidemic needs to be unsilenced. We need to do something about this. So, following my conversations with Andrew, Chris, and Kate, I've been thinking this is a huge issue, of course. But we do have the power to make change. And all of us have the power to do something. Whether we are a trustee, whether we are the leader of an organization, whether we are a line manager, or whether we don't have any management responsibilities, every single one of us has the power to make change. And actually, in all of us taking that collective action and doing what we can to make change, then I feel like we can change the sector and we can change those norms of the sector. And I'd say at the moment, the norm of the sector is that organizations are burnt out and people are burnt out. Together, I think we can create a sector where that is not the norm anymore. All of us can play our part. I know you might be listening to this podcast feeling really burnt out yourself at the moment, feeling like things are hopeless, and that's an incredibly difficult place to be in. And I want to know that your experiences are completely valid. I've been there myself, and I'm sure lots and lots of people can empathize with the position you're in. But I want to say that it is not hopeless. There's things that we can do to make a change. I think it is actually really important when we want to make big changes in the world, that we bring an optimistic outlook and we do have hope. When we're not hopeful, that can lead to inertia and it can lead to thinking, what's the point? Nothing's ever going to change. So bringing that hope is really important. But we do need to do that together. Individuals, leaders of organizations, trustees or governing bodies, funders, policy makers, and sector support organizations all working together to change things. We're in this together, and that's the way it needs to be. That's the way it needs to be to change. I think it starts with talking, starts with making visible the fact that many, many of us have been burnt out or are burnt out now. I really like what Kate said about celebrating rest and making that visible and talking about it. If we don't acknowledge this is a crisis, which it is, if we don't acknowledge this is an epidemic, which it is, it's much less likely that we'll make the change. We then need to identify causes of burnout in ourselves and others. So we can do that exercise on our own. We can also talk to colleagues in our organizations, or if we're in an organization, talk to freelancers we work with as well to understand what it is, what everyone's particular circumstances are. Because I've talked about causes of burnout in a very broad way. Of course, not all of them are going to affect everyone. So thinking about what's causing our burnout is really important. And then identifying the small steps that lead to change and taking them. I think there's something really important in helping each other to find courage to make change. And those of us with more privilege stepping up to do that and model that behaviour. I was really inspired by what Chris said about having a strong sense of our values and making sure that we're acting in values-based ways and where we can, calling out bad practice and demanding a better sector. I was also very inspired by Andrea's work in terms of joy in experimentation and embracing the messy creative process. Surely that's what a lot of us are in the sector for. And I think there's something really important about embracing that and rethinking outputs, we often reduce ourselves to endless deliverables and KPIs. And although I do understand they're important, it means that sometimes we completely forget the joy of the process and we forget that actually outputs might not work out as we expected, and they might not even be the right outputs. So let's not just reduce ourselves to deliverables. Let's think about what our main goals and ambitions are and do work that helps us get to them and think about what really matters. I think there's something also very, very important about making sure our diaries reflect what we value. If your diary is full of pointless meetings and then you're not spending time, for example, having one-to-ones with your team, or you're not giving yourself time to rest or strategize or move forward on the overall mission and vision and strategy of your organization, then I'd say that it's really important to rethink that and make sure your diary reflects what you and your organization values. Working with compassion is really important. So having empathy for people but also supporting people to take action. Talking to Andrew, Chris, and Kate made me think a lot. If we don't do something, then where are we heading? If we don't make a change, then surely that just means less headspace, less innovation, creative thinking, collaboration, all of which are increasingly vital for navigating the world and for creating healthy organizations where staff are thriving. It is a matter of dire importance that we save time to rest and we save time for strategy, and we're not packing our diaries full because we need that time to support our organizations and support ourselves, be the best that we can. I also have reflected that work can be fun. I'm sure work is fun a lot of the time when we're producing really cool stuff and doing great stuff for audiences, but it can end up feeling like a real drudge. And sometimes, even though you know you're producing good stuff, it just feels completely hopeless and not fun at all. And I want to remind everyone that work can be fun and it's within our power to create that. I'm going to end with just some recommendations for what you might do to prevent burnout for your organizations and in the sector in general. This is not an exhaustive list. We could be here for days if I went through an exhaustive list, but hopefully it gives a few hints and tips. I would really, really love to hear your ideas too, so do get in touch. So, firstly, there's no one solution or silver bullet that's going to change the entirety of burnout. It is about structural, organizational, individual, and leadership change. Structural change is needed. And I know this is a big one to think about, and I'm not saying that tomorrow we enact major structural change, but we really need to work towards creating business models around doing less and working within our resources, pushing back on hyper competition, hierarchies, and a workload that produces seemingly inevitable stress. We need to move towards collaboration, co-creativity, contribution, and all of us working together to create a system that prioritizes rest, prioritizes uh working within our resources, and prioritizes slow, intentional, compassionate practice. And I know that sounds really big, but it is really, really important that we all ultimately aim to achieve that people-first practice that really values people. And that might look like, for example, when we do a project, thinking about what the impacts are going to be on staff. So it could be a project that sounds fantastic, but if that project means that your staff are going to be burnt out, your freelancers are not going to be paid, and you're going to lead to mass burnout, then is it really worth it? Making sure that we put staff well-being and burnout on our risk registers, because actually burnout will impact individuals. That's a major risk to the organization. They might take sick days, and you know, you've got a group of people who are less motivated, less focused. It's a massive business risk to have people who are hugely burnt out. So putting burnout on risk registers and making sure that we're working in ways that are slower, more intentional, we don't try to do more than we can do. And I know that is really difficult, especially as so many of us are passionate and we want to do everything we can do. But I would say, is it worth working at that speed and burning ourselves and our organizations out? Are we actually going to do better for audiences and our organizations and ourselves if we slow down, do less, but do really, really good quality, slower work? I think there's something around the idea of collective abundance. And for me, that is collaborating within our sector and believing there is enough to go around. Now, that is not saying that I agree with funding cuts, I absolutely don't. I think that our sector does incredible things and should have much, much more investment from local and national government and from funders and from donors. However, by overstretching and going beyond our resources, we are burning people out and we are burning organizations out. So what if we shared? What if we collaborated more and made intentional decisions to work within our resources, not take on projects that we can't manage, share funding out more so a large amount of money doesn't end up with a small amount of organizations. How can we spend money really wisely and make thoughtful decisions, like paying people well and making sure that there's enough money for freelancers and that there's enough budget to do projects in a really caring, compassionate way? And that might mean just doing one project rather than five projects, but that one project will have such better impacts than five projects that are totally under-resourced. I think there is something about being really kind to ourselves and to others. We are working in a system, I said, where burnout can feel absolutely inevitable. We are working in a sector that has seemingly been designed to induce burnout. So treating ourselves with kindness and treating other people with kindness and compassion, and making decisions from that place of kindness and thinking about the decisions we make and the impact that they might have on other people. Also embedding equity and inclusion into our work, making this sector a more inclusive and exitable place for everyone working in it. One of the provocations I've been thinking about is that we do have too much work to do. It is a norm of the cultural sector to have too much work to do. And that will continue. If we continue to understaff, underfund, overstretch, that will never stop, we'll always have too much work to do. So what if everyone slowed down? What if slow practice became the norm? If we shape and adopt those new norms, so not working long hours, not expecting one person to do two or three or four people's jobs, normalizing well-run organizations that work within their resources with good leadership and happy staff. And I'm not saying that's easy to achieve, but it is possible to achieve. And also setting realistic expectation for what good looks like. So, yes, let's celebrate the brilliant, shiny, great, interesting, innovative projects, but let's also celebrate organizations that are doing brilliant things within their resources. That's not about losing ambition and innovation. That is about celebrating work that isn't burning people out, but still doing great stuff for audiences. Some specific things that um have come out of my research for funders and sector support organizations and policymakers. I think it'd be great to have a leadership and management competency framework that sets out skills and qualities that are expected of leaders and managers in the cultural sector. There are some brilliant leaders and managers in this sector, and everyone is absolutely doing their best. But leadership and management training is underfunded, and I think there's a huge case to put more money into funding leadership and management training. So we have leaders and managers who are people first, who are creating organizations that support and nourish their staff, who are able to give time and support to their staff, help them prioritize and make organizations where staff are happy and motivated and not micromanaged and able to do the brilliant work that they are capable of doing and want to do. I think we need to really support leaders who are burnt out and out of ideas. There were some really difficult stories from leaders who said they've tried everything, they are just completely burnt out. And I think we need to give a lot more support to leaders through things like coaching, mentoring, counseling, and even things like paid sabbaticals. I would love funders to fund paid sabbaticals where you don't actually have to do anything. Let's have funding that's not linked to any deliverables whatsoever, apart from giving people space and time to think and do whatever they need to do to rest and get what they need. It'd be great if organizations that are applying for funding could attend training on burnout and how to reduce burnout for the staff and freelancers. And as I said before, a lot of awards are linked to big, shiny projects. Please, I'd love to see awards that recognise really good slow practice and work cultures that are brilliant. Let's stop the culture of just kind of celebrating the big projects. Let's celebrate the tiny projects. Let's celebrate the everyday practice that make people's lives a joy. We should also enable encourage people to raise concerns about burnout to help end the culture of silence. Raising issues and being able to talk about your experience of burnout shouldn't signal the end of someone's career. Like it's something that should be out in the open. We should be talking about this. We should also, I feel very strongly, there should be counseling in place for staff, there should be coaching and support for staff at all levels, because all of us need a sounding board and all of us need support to navigate our working lives. And investing in that, I think, would be really transformational. And really simple, but when projects are funded, ensuring that funding covers adequate staffing and freelancing rates and pay at appropriate levels. Like we far too often see contracted work in particular and in-house work where the pay is way too low for the expectations. So we we just need to stop that. We need to demand more. We shouldn't have a culture where we're all trying to do as much as we can for as little pay as possible. Let's have a culture where we really value what we do and pay people fairly. A few things that I think organizations can do is firstly having a really strong vision, mission, and strategy that sets like what really, really matters to you. What are the three to five things that really matter to your organization, the change you want to make in the world, and then planning work that relates to those ambitions and changes that you want to make? Not trying to overstretch, not trying to do everything, trying to work in really intentional, slow ways, setting realistic workloads. One thing that came up in the interviews I did a lot was that could you just culture. So, you know, it's like four o'clock on a Friday, and it's like, oh, could you just do that before you go home? Could you just do that? Could you just have a phone call? Could we just have a meeting? And that I appreciate that can't be eradicated. Sometimes like emergencies come in, sometimes we have to work in that way. I do think it's really important that we try to think a bit more intentionally about those requests we're asking of people. Like, is it reasonable and does it have to be done now? Because those could you just moments sometimes stop people working strategically. Giving mental health days and time off is really important. Having transparency. Several people said to me it was really difficult that our organization might have been in a really difficult position financially. But actually, they'd have much preferred knowing that rather than just feeling the effects of that. So while you can't share every single thing with every single member of staff, being as transparent as possible and creating organizations that are open and transparent is important. I do think there's something about working environment. I loved what Andrea said about doing meetings on the roof and in galleries. Sometimes the difference between the back of house spaces and the front of house spaces and cultural organizations is stark. We work in creative organisations and then you'll go back of house and it's this awful, horrible space, people working in bunkers with no windows or freezing cold temperatures. How can we possibly have a really happy creative work environment when we're working in those conditions? And I'd love to see funding to help create much more joyful working environments and also environments where there's space to collaborate, where the space to do deep work on your own, where you know you're not going to get interrupted, where there's space to be creative. Thinking about zoning workplaces so they work for different work modes, I think is really important. Finally, we really do need to acknowledge that burnout is happening and it is a crisis. It's really important for us to acknowledge and recognise that crisis and act accordingly and with urgency. Burnout does affect people on a personal level, but it is not just a personal issue and it can't just be resolved by individual behaviours. It can't just be people's personal boundaries. Yes, you can say I'm going to start working at five, or you know, I'm not going to take that call. But if your organization makes you feel like you have to work past five, then that boundary can easily be broken. It is us all acting together intentionally to make places that prevent burnout. I really want to use this podcast. I said I think it is important to make burnout visible, and I want this podcast to be a tool for that. So hopefully, by listening to this podcast, you'll have learned more about burnout. You'll have realized it's not just you if you were thinking that. And I'm really hoping it's provided some optimism for the future. And to end that podcast, I'm gonna do something that might not be the best idea when working with audio, but I'm gonna pause for 30 seconds to give you a little bit of space to reflect on how you're feeling.

SPEAKER_01 20:54

So, are you burnt out?

SPEAKER_00 20:55

Do you feel you're heading into burnout? Are others around you burn out? And I'd ask you to think about one thing you can do today or in the short term to make a change. So, can you close your laptop at 5 pm tonight? Can you take your whole lunch break? Can you say no to an impossible task that's just come in? Thank you for listening to Joyful Work Ending Burnout in the Arts podcast. I'd love to hear from you if you have an experience of burnout or if you'd like a chat about my work. You can find more about my research and more tips for beating burnout on my LinkedIn profile and my website, both of which are linked to in the show notes. Thank you to Fundus Claw and the Arts and Humanities Research Council for funding this podcast and my research into burnout in the cultural sector. And to Professor Ben Wormsley of the University of Leeds for supervising the research. You can find a link to the School of Performance and Cultural Industries at the University of Leeds and the Centre for Cultural Value in You've Guessed It, the show notes. And remember, if you've enjoyed the podcast today, please like and subscribe. And if you're listening on Apple Podcasts, give it a review to encourage more people to listen.