Flicking idly through a glossy, fashion magazine a headline grabs my attention: “A band-aid for bullet wounds: is the...
Stress and Burnout
Retreating from the world.
I can't leave the garden this evening. It's not a large garden – the size of some people’s kitchens, where they...
Re-evaluating: limbo or life?
My husband is 53 today; I will soon join him in the same age. We have been married for 21 years. It is a hot day so we...
Remembering examples of humility
Many years ago when I was new to working with doctors, I met a professor of cardiac surgery. He was approaching retirement, white hair, half moon spectacles, and was the most gentle, enquiring, curious participant on the courses we were running about Supervision. So...
Respecting the self
“One runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.” Joan Didion. Stress, burnout, moral injury. These are words that occupy time and space in much of what we read at the moment. Whilst there appears to be an epidemic of workplace distress in every...
Revitalisation – squeezing the juice.
What do you do after a magical day? I am like a little squirrel with a nut, cocooning myself away from reality and holding tight to my nut, polishing it and guarding it, treasuring the memories, reliving them. If anticipation is half the journey, then reflecting back...
Re-building: the bridge out of the swamp
In a recent twitter exchange two professors discussed ways of dealing with negative workplace attitudes. Professor Alison Leary said: “I…have learned to walk away….from disrespect… tokenism… aggression… wasting energy and time.” Professor Trish Greenhalgh referred to...
Revisiting: the burnout debate
In the furthest corner of the darkest café I could find, I holed up. Put my hands round my cup, pretending it was me and they would shield me from the outside, keep me warm for as long as it would take before I could get up the courage to leave here and head home....
Re-vealing:what really causes burnout?
Recent tweets by the police have been interesting, claiming that it is PTSD – recognised or not – following the witnessing of some pretty horrendous scenes that causes burnout over a period of time. Similarly in medicine some people believe that being party to...
Re-haunting: The day the bikes came
The first pre-alert of the day probably had nothing to do with the annual bank holiday biker jaunt to the coast. A car carrying three young men had crashed. I can't remember the detail, but I do remember a sense of anticipation; possibly even excitement. I...
Re-examining the drive for perfection: what’s your organisational mindset?
This is the first of a series of stories about workplace culture, and how individuals and organisations engage, often unwittingly in a macabre dance of collusion which, it is suggested, is the real reason for burnout. How does your organisation affect you? What...
Reminding myself: what really matters.
The sky is huge here. It stretches, dome-like, as far as I can see, protective yet offering escape to I know not what. Where it meets the sea I have to focus on the horizon, straining to tell which is sky, which is sea. Both a pale blue today, both far out...