Work Life Balance for Speech Pathologists: Mindful Time Management Tips for Therapists, Clinicians, & Private Practice Owners

103. Burnout or Bad Fit? The Question That Could Change Your Career

• Theresa Harp

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You’re tired, snappy, and counting down the hours until the weekend. But is it really burnout, or is your job just out of alignment with your actual life?

In this powerful second episode of the burnout series, I'm breaking down what burnout actually is (with definitions from WHO + SLP research) and how to figure out if your stress is coming from exhaustion, unmet needs, or the wrong job altogether.

You’ll Learn:

  • The 3 signs of burnout that go beyond “being tired”
  • What it means to be misaligned at work (and how it shows up in your body + thoughts)
  • Why switching jobs might not fix the real problem
  • Key questions to ask before you quit, change settings, or switch careers
“We think we’re burned out, but sometimes we’re just stuck in a pattern that doesn’t match our values. And no new job can fix that.”


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To find out how I can help you improve your work-life balance, click here.

Come join the SLP Support Group on Facebook for more tips and tricks!

Follow me on Instagram! @theresamharp

Learn more about Theresa Harp Coaching here.

[00:00:00] Welcome to Work-Life Balance for Speech Pathologists. I'm Theresa Harp, an SLP and Productivity Coach, and this podcast is all about how to build a successful career as an SLP and still have time for yourself and the people and things you love. So if you're ready to ditch stress and burnout for a more balanced and fulfilling life than you are in the right place. Let's dive in. 

Hey, podcast listeners. Welcome back. This is episode one. 103, and I am talking about burnout. So I haven't figured out the logistics yet at the time that I'm recording this episode. So I'm not sure where this is gonna fall, this episode in terms of the burnout series, but. It's a work in progress.

I mean, by the time you're listening to this, it's all been decided. But what I believe as I'm recording this episode, I believe that this is episode two of a [00:01:00] five part series on burnout, essentially. And last week's episode, in case you missed it, was about how your identity at work. Impacts your work life balance and how it relates to or compares to your identity outside of work.

So if you've ever felt like work is all consuming and you really have maybe lost sight of yourself outside of your role as an SLP or PT or OT or whatever, go back and listen to episode 102. That episode will be absolutely helpful for you. But today's episode is. Going to address this question that I see a lot in different Facebook communities for our field, for speech pathologists, and that's this question of is there something wrong with me?

Is there something wrong with my job and where I work? [00:02:00] Or am I just completely exhausted? Is this burnout? Right. This is, these are the sorts of things that come up so many times in different Facebook groups, and I've got a lot of thoughts about this topic, but really what I want you to do, what I want you to be able to do as a result of listening to this episode is to walk away with some clarity about, number one, what burnout is.

Because we throw that word around a lot over, we overuse it for sure, myself included. So we're gonna talk about what burnout actually is and how your challenges, your exhaustion, your stress, your experiences at work may or may not be burnout. Or may or may not be related to your job. So if you've been [00:03:00] asking yourself or you've ever asked yourself, am I just exhausted?

Like what's wrong with me is why am I always so tired? Or is this. Setting that I'm working in completely wrong for me and completely wrong for where I'm at in my life. Is this job killing my, any chance that I have of work life balance or maybe this whole field is wrong for me, I. If any of those thoughts have crossed your mind, then this episode is for you.

If you have found yourself fantasizing about just walking into work and quitting as you're on your way to work in the morning, and you are daydreaming about just going in there and saying, I quit. This episode is for you. If you've ever woken up in the middle of the night. 2:00 AM just questioning every decision you've made, questioning your entire career.

This episode is for you. [00:04:00] If you've ever gotten home after a really long day at work and found yourself completely spent snapping at your spouse or your kids after a really long day and wondering why am I always so cranky? This episode is for you. If you found yourself with the Sunday scaries, as I've, I've recorded an episode all about that, or if you feel that that sense of dread as the weekend is ending and Monday is looming, or you've felt this guilt about not doing enough at work over the week or during the week, or not doing enough over the weekend for work, this episode is for you.

So. The good news is that you're not alone. I guess that's good news, right? But the bad news is that a lot of us are feeling like this in our field. You are not broken. There isn't [00:05:00] anything wrong with you, but you're certainly not alone. You're overloaded. You are. You've got stuff coming at you from all different directions every minute of the day, and in some cases, some of you are misaligned.

So I'm gonna talk about. What I mean by that and what that is. But I want first to share with you a little story about how this has shown up for me. So maybe if you've been here for a while, maybe you've heard some version of this before, but either way, I'm sure that this is something that you all can relate to.

So when I was in my private practice, when I had my private practice. And I was treating, I had set up my private practice for a number of reasons, but one big reason was because it allowed me to create my own schedule and to be my own boss. So work when I wanted to work and not work when I didn't want to [00:06:00] work, and I loved that.

But what I found pretty early on was that there's no off switch. You always could be doing something for your private practice, and I guess really, you always could be doing something for your job, even if it's, even if you're not a private practice owner, there's always work that you could be doing, right?

But for me, I felt like, oh my gosh, this practice, I need it to be successful. I want it to be successful so that I can serve families and support them so that I can. Be there for my family and provide for my family and serve my family. And so, you know, for myself as well, because I love what I do and I really want to be good at what I do.

But the problem with that is that there's no end in sight. There's no finish line, there's no punch out. You have to do that yourself. You have to turn that off [00:07:00] mentally. And if you don't, it's just you're constantly thinking about your practice or you're constantly thinking about your career and the families that you serve.

And I felt like when I would try to focus on work and building the practice and, you know, getting more clients and really helping those clients to learn how to listen and talk, I worked with kids with hearing loss. I would be pulled from home and I would both physically, literally pulled, you know, I'd be, I'd be out of the house, but also mentally, and then I would be focused.

Energetically and mentally and emotionally on work, and I would be leaving things at home behind. I felt like I was dropping the ball at home and I wasn't showing up for my kids in the way that I wanted to. So then I would sort of shift my focus and say, okay, home life hasn't gotten the best of me lately, so.

Let me direct my attention and energy there, and I could never figure out how to feel [00:08:00] like I was showing up in a way that felt good and that I felt proud of in both areas, work and home at the same time. It was always one or the other and not both. And it led to this constant like hamster wheel, this just never ending.

Go, go, go, do, do, do. Is it enough? And. It's never enough. It's never enough. 'cause there's always more you could be doing, so you have to decide it is enough. You have to make these changes for yourself. It really led to such exhaustion, and I would push myself, and I still do this, I have to catch myself, but I would push myself to the point of complete and utter exhaustion and just burnout where I couldn't even.

Like on a work day, I would just be home on the couch. 'cause I, you know, I worked from home eventually and did telepractice and when I would be working normally would be working on the [00:09:00] business. I couldn't, I was just exhausted and needed to be on the couch, checked out and it was this cycle and it was not healthy.

It was incredibly unhealthy and also very unproductive. And I don't mean that like I should have been getting stuff done, productive, I mean like productive as in fulfilling as in spending my time the way that I wanna spend my time. So all that to say that there is a better way that it, you don't have to be in that pattern, but if you are in that pattern, then make sure you listen to what I'm about to tell you.

I first want to. Give you a definition for burnout because like I said earlier, we toss that word around a lot, and in some cases we're using it appropriately, and in [00:10:00] other cases we're really not. And also, I think so many of us kind of question is this burnout? Am I burnt out or am I in the wrong job, or am I working with the wrong people or am I in the wrong setting?

Right? So. I want to make sure we're really clear on what we mean when we say burnout. So it's interesting because when I was sort of researching for this episode, I wanted to get a clinical definition of burnout. So in my searches, what I found was the World Health Organization. Has the ICD, I'm sure you're familiar, right?

And in ICD 11, the World Health Organization defines burnout, specifically in regards to problems related to employment or unemployment. And I've got some thoughts about that, so [00:11:00] hang on. Okay. But they also go on to say that burnout is. It consists of feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion, increased mental distance or feelings of negativity or cynicism related to your job, and reduced professional efficacy.

So that's how the World Health Organization characterizes burnout, and they do have burnout. As a condition in the ICD 10, no, ICD 11 actually, so I wanted to share that for your own information. Right? I also wanted to share two things. Number one, um, my thoughts about. That employment piece, that employment aspect of this, I don't entirely agree.

Now, again, [00:12:00] I, not, again, I haven't said this, but I am not, I should probably say this disclaimer, I'm not a licensed therapist. I'm not a mental health professional. I am a certified productivity coach and a certified SLP, but this is not medical advice or psychological advice in any way. Okay? These everything in this podcast, my own thoughts, my own opinions, my own feelings, all of that, but.

I think that burnout can be, can exist outside of employment. And here's how I know this to be true. As a mother, I have 100% faced burnout multiple times because of, or I shouldn't say because of, but. As a result of the lifestyle that I was living and the way that I was showing up and, and scheduling my days in my role as a mom, and that's on me.

That's my responsibility, [00:13:00] that's my control. Like that's, I believe all of that, and that's good news, but I believe that burnout doesn't necessarily have to be specific to our professional life. That it can also be relevant and, uh, very true in our personal life as well. Just wanted to share that. And also, I wanted to share a definition of burnout from another article that I had read that.

Is, and maybe I'll link to it in the show notes of this episode, but there was a research article about burnout syndrome, specifically in SLPs and audiologists. Um, and so in that article, they talk about burnout as a well-defined condition with three main dimensions, emotional [00:14:00] exhaustion.

Depersonalization and low personal accomplishment. And I will try and link to that again in the, um, in the show notes in case you wanna read about it. But the article is called Burnout Syndrome and Speech Language Pathologists and Audiologists, A Review. Okay. And so. I think that this is important, that we really look at what is the definition of burnout so that we can be really clear on when, when we are experiencing it, how we can avoid it, and what we can do about it when it happens.

Okay. And I'm not necessarily covering all of those things here in this episode, but. I think this, these are the I importing, the importing the important starting points for this conversation. Okay. So if you relate to any of those things or all of those things, really emotional exhaustion, [00:15:00] depersonalization, and low personal accomplishment, it's probably burnout, right?

So. Here's what I know to be true. We as SLPs have demanding jobs that require us to give and serve at incredibly high levels. And I also know that in general, I'm generalizing here, but as a field collectively, we tend to be. Overachievers, givers, doers, people pleasers who don't know how to or don't like to say no, and we wanna help people.

It comes from a good place. We really, we want to help people. We wanna be helpful, but what happens [00:16:00] is we often get stuck in this loop, this sort of dopamine loop of we do something to be helpful and we're praised for it. It, and then it creates these feelings of validation like, oh yeah, this is right.

This is good. Good job. Thank you. This is so helpful. Oh my gosh, I'm so happy you're able to see me. I'm so happy you're able to take this client on. Right? And then it, it gets, it, it sort of creates that pattern that we get stuck in and we don't necessarily realize the cost of that pattern. Until it's too late, and I talk about that pattern in last week's episode.

So you can go listen to that one again, a hundred episode 102. But what happens is we start to lose sight of the parts of the work that we love. We start to lose sight of the things that drew us to this field to begin with. And what happens is we start questioning our life [00:17:00] choices. We start questioning whether we went into massive amounts of debt.

And it was a total mistake. It was the wrong field. Or we get resentful because we feel like we're not being fairly compensated. And I'm not, I'm not arguing with you on that one. I think in most cases we are not fairly compensated, but we think that this is what we signed up for. And so we keep showing up, but we're showing up.

Resentful. We're showing up anxious, we're showing up unhappy. We're showing up bitter. We're showing up frustrated. We're showing up angry, we're showing up detached, we're showing up exhausted, and then we feel guilty and shame ourselves for feeling that way. Right. Gosh, what's wrong with me? Why can't I just do my job like everybody else?

No one else seems to be having a problem. [00:18:00] Everyone else can write their session notes quickly and everyone else can hand in their work on time. So what's wrong with me? So here's what we need to do to help you figure out if what you are experiencing is true burnout. And again, I'm not a clinical psychologist, not a licensed professional here in terms of mental health and social work.

So take this or leave this. But some questions that I think will help you get some clarity here. Do you notice that you're dreading things, activities, and tasks that you used to love and now that, and now you don't. Now you dread them. Things that you used to really enjoy about the job you now hate, you dread.

Do you find yourself daydreaming and fantasizing about another path, but you feel like you're stuck and you just can't do it? You can't [00:19:00] choose something different. Do you feel like you're the only SLP who hasn't figured it out yet, who isn't thriving, who isn't happy and loving their job? You have to get.

Answers to those questions, honest answers so that you can start figuring out how to move forward. Because sometimes what happens is we think that we can, how do I say this? We think that we can, I. Explan ourselves or transplant ourselves. We think we can take ourselves out of a situation and put ourselves in a new situation, and that will solve all our problems.

We think that we can step away from this setting or this team, this supervisor, this schedule. And go choose that over [00:20:00] there where the grass is greener and on paper that's gonna meet all of our needs. That's gonna work better with our family dynamics and our, our season of life that we're in. And that's gonna create the work life balance.

And then. When we take that leap, for those of us who do take that leap and move over to that new place where we think the grass is greener, we realize in many cases, oh wait, nothing has changed. Everything that I still think, everything that I still believe, everything that I still tell myself inside.

Still shows up in this new setting. And so even if the schedule is better, I'm still gonna overwork, I'm still going to, you know, push my limits and give, give, give, because that's what I [00:21:00] think I signed up for, or because that's what I think is expected of me or because that's what I think. Is the only way to be, or because that's what I think is familiar and safe.

That's what I think is successful. That's if it's not hard, it doesn't feel right, it doesn't feel successful, it doesn't feel good. But what if it could be easy? What if you could be in that job and have it be. Light and easy and still feel challenged, still feel successful, still feel fulfilled in your career.

What if that was possible? So before you make a change, before you jump ship, whether it's from one location to another, one setting to another, or maybe even one career to another first. [00:22:00] Ask yourself and answer with honesty the questions that I have shared, and I'm gonna give you some additional questions to help you figure out the next right step.

One question is this one, what do I need? What do I need? Ask yourself, what do I need, whether it's in this moment, what do I need right now in this moment? What do I need overall in my life? What do I need in my day to day? Reality, my day-to-day schedule, what do I need from myself? What do I need from the people around me?

What is it that you need? And speaking of needs, what are my core needs and my core values? I'm gonna be talking about that next week. Next week's episode of the series is about values [00:23:00] and needs. You do not wanna miss that one, trust me, 'cause I'm gonna be digging into this more, but. What are my values and needs and how are they aligning or not aligning with my current job and how are they aligning or not aligning with my current personal life and personal tasks and responsibilities?

But you've got to ask yourself, the yourself, those questions, and you've got to answer with honesty because in some cases it's an unmet need. Or maybe a value that's out of alignment. And if you want to fix that, you might be able to do that yourself internally without changing your external circumstances.

Or you may want or need or choose to choose to fix that by going somewhere else and working somewhere else. But if you don't know the [00:24:00] answers to these questions. What's to prevent you from landing in another position that's going to be exactly like what you are experiencing right now. Because here's the truth, I don't know if you're burned out.

I don't know that. I don't know if you're burned out. I don't know if you are just in the wrong setting. I don't know if you are just making choices that are not in alignment with your needs or your values, but I do know how to help you figure it out. I know how to help you figure it out without spiraling, without giving up, without quitting, without signing on for some impossible system, productivity system, or work-life balance system, that's going to be absolutely impossible to maintain and sustain.

And if you want help with that, book a call. The link for a consult is always in the show notes, so book a call, help you figure out how to untangle it, [00:25:00] whether you untangle it on your own or untangle it with me. Either way, I just want you to be able to get clarity and know what next steps you need to take to create the work-life balance that you need, the work-life balance that you want, but that you just don't know how to create.

Okay, so you don't have to figure all of this out in a day. These are just things for you to consider over time. Okay? To help you gauge when it is true burnout, when it's a challenge or a misalignment with your schedule and how you're spending your time. That's really what I mean when I say your schedule, what you're spending your time on.

Or when it is because of the placement that you are in, the setting, the position that you are holding, right? It could be any of those things. It could be all of those things. It could be a [00:26:00] combination. But these are the questions that you need to ask yourself and answer with honesty in order to get to the bottom of this.

And if you want my help, book a call and I'll tell you how I can do it. All right? Remember, progress over perfection, always. Always, always, always go ahead and listen to last week's episode if you missed it. And like I said, next week's episode, values and needs. This is one of the biggest things I do with my coaching clients, so make sure that you are back here for next week's episode.

I will see you then.