Tag: burnout

Some Thoughts on Leaving Academia

Possibilities on The Other Side

I get a lot of questions from folks considering leaving academia about what work will be like on The Other Side.  The crux of what they seem to be asking is: “Will I continue to be independent?  Will I have agency?”

When I was contemplating leaving, these were some of my biggest fears too.  

Academia was actually the second stage of my career.  I had worked as an independent artist and creative entrepreneur before turning to academia, so I had an inkling that my skills and contributions from that part of my life would likely be of use.  But my sovereignty as a creative and a thinker was important to me, and imagining what work might be like on the outside left me worried that I would be constrained by the 9-5 life.  

For some perspective, I was burning out in academia.  

You’ve likely heard it before: 

  • Very mixed past academic work experiences that were peppered with great colleagues, a good deal of meaningful research and teaching, and some truly exploitive and demoralizing experiences fueled by gaslighting that overtook the good stuff
  • Unsustainable and fluctuating income and employment (by the time I left I had landed a contract, part-time non-tenure track role, that I bolstered with additional research and writing contracts – these contracts followed a pandemic-induced 18-month period of unemployment after a dismaying postdoc)
  • And a professional future which looked even more bleak given the state of higher education at the time (which is now, in 2025, looking even worse), despite accolades, accomplishments, and very hard work over most of my professional career. 

I won’t dwell on the decision-making other than to say that, practically speaking, I knew I had to leave.  

Yes, it felt existential – cue Billie Eilish “What was I made for?”

Once I was resolved, I had to find my path out.  I reflected not just on what I could do and where I could go, but what work would look like and what that would mean for my life.  In academia, I was used to having a fair amount of agency in terms of how I structured my days, my comings and goings, how I formulated my research and designed my teaching.  Wouldn’t a “regular job” be confining?  I’d just be doing someone else’s bidding, wouldn’t I?  Wouldn’t it be… boring?

Now that I’m on The Other Side, I’ve found that the answer is “kinda,” but also “not really.”  I also now reflect that academia wasn’t nearly as independent as I perceived.

Teaching/work schedules, funding body priorities, institutional values/priorities, organizational expectations about in-person or hybrid work, the particular contract shaping your role – these and more affect the kind of agency you as an individual worker have in your workplace.  This is true in academia as much as it is outside.

At the time of writing this post, I have been working for my current employer for approximately 17 months – my provincial government in Canada.  In my role, I have both some agency and also some limitations (as to be expected).  

Sure, I work approximately 9-5, but I’ll emphasize the word “approximately.”  I have the flexibility to start a little later or earlier depending on what’s going on in my life.  As long as I’m putting in the time, attending all my meetings, available when my manager needs me, and getting the work done, my manager generally doesn’t hover.  My employer requires that I be in the office three days a week, but I can choose which days I’m in or not.  Plus, when my laptop shuts at the end of the day, I don’t touch it until morning.

Of course, not all workplaces on the outside are like this, but this has been my experience so far.

Is the work deeply meaningful and fulfilling all the time?  Nope.  Is it sometimes meaningful, do I work with excellent colleagues, have a steady income, and feel like I’m contributing to something decent in a way that is sustainable for my life?  Very much so.

All of this to say, I am finding my way.  

My current full-time job has offered me an important step to a more sustainable life.  It’s opened up space in different ways: I worked with a therapist to help me process my grief and career transition, I’ve picked up hobbies, I workout 5 days a week, I have started a newsletter which is fueled by my program of research and teaching, specifically about building creative and humanity-centred lives and workplaces, and I’ve started to take on some writing and thought leadership strategy clients.  

To return to my colleagues’ initial query, “Will I have agency?”  My answer is Yes. 

Why writing in one sitting can overwhelm you

(but you have options!)

Imagine trying to cook a full-course meal in one go—without prepping ingredients, measuring anything, or even turning on the stove first. Overwhelming, right?

The same can be said for writing.   

Maybe you know that writing is an awesome and powerful thing, but you also kind of dread it.  And maybe you think sitting down in one go and writing as much as you can all at once will lessen the pain… (believe me, I’ve done it!)

But this approach can backfire.  It usually makes things harder.

Why?

It’s relying on sheer will to get the project done.  In reality, writing takes several interrelated stages.  Not planning for those stages, or at minimum not being aware of them, can leave you feeling like you have to hunker down, power through, and hope that words will fly out of your fingers on the keyboard. Not an effective strategy!

You can improve your writing! Understanding the three-stages of writing can help you organize yourself: your process, your time, your energy, and your technique. 

These three-stages can be applied to any writing process – from writing a professional email, to writing your newest opus.  Each stage will look different depending on the form, but the same overarching stages still apply.

Stage 1 – Information Gathering / Research

What are you writing about?  Take time to collect some information to include in your writing.  

The type information you collect is going to look different depending on the form of your project.  Collecting data that you will publish in a peer-reviewed scientific journal is going to look very different from noticing and documenting personal experiences that will inform your poetry.  But ultimately these different approaches are all types of “research.”

Stage 2 – Writing / Analysis

This is the stage most of us associate with writing (aka “sitting down and plunking words into the keyboard”).  I like to think of this stage more broadly as “analysis”.

Why?

Writing is analysis. This means you are making sense of the information you’ve gathered and shaping it into your writing project so others will engage with the ideas.  Selecting language, or putting words to the information, is one part of the work. But you also need to consider how the ideas will be organized, how the project will be structured so the ideas and material will be received by your reader/audience.

But more than that, this stage takes place beyond sitting at your computer and typing – and this is why I like to think of this stage more broadly as “analysis.”  You’ll make connections between ideas in the strangest of places, away from your keyboard. Like in the grocery line, walking your kids to school, making dinner, etc.  Suddenly you have an idea, or you see a link!  This kind of thinking or processing “counts” as analysis.  

When this happens, jot the idea in your notebook, or take a voice note.  You can come back to it when you’re sitting at your computer, and the analysis will continue, as you continue to put words to the ideas.

Stage 3 – Feedback

The last stage is feedback. Is this resonating with people? Is it making sense to them? Is it engaging them in the ways that you’re hoping it’s going to engage? 

You can act as your own “feedback provider” – meaning that you can step away from your writing, and return to it with fresh eyes.  This way you can try to read your draft as someone new would read it (and adapt your writing based on what you are seeing/reading).  But for some projects, particularly longer ones, you will likely want to get feedback from another person at different stages of your process.  

You want to think carefully about who you ask for feedback.  You’ll need someone who can provide good, rich feedback and help your work become stronger. But you also want to think about how they provide that feedback.  Lots of people, frankly, aren’t that great at the “how” part.  They might know about their own response.  But they may not be strong at crafting their thoughts in ways that will help you learn and grow, and that will help you apply those ideas to your project. 

Some additional thoughts

Of course, these three stages are not quite so linear in practice.  You don’t do all of your research at once, put a little bow around it when the stage is done, and move on to your writing stage. 

But even though the process isn’t that neat, it’s still helpful to think about these overarching stages as a reference point.  So when you’re in the middle of your writing and you do become overwhelmed or tired, you’ve have a framework to help guide you. 

For example, maybe you’ve been working on a particular section for a long time and it’s starting to feel frustrating and overwhelming.  You can take a step back, and look at these stages to help orient yourself.  You can ask: “Where am I in these three stages?” 

Maybe you’re feeling overwhelmed because you feel too close to what you’ve been writing. It would be helpful to revisit the research that you did, and dive into that material again, to see it in a new way.

Or maybe you realize that you don’t have enough information to proceed, and you’re frustrated because you don’t have enough “fuel.”  You decide to go back to that research stage to collect more information, do a little bit more digging and exploring. 

Or maybe you’re feeling frustrated and tired because you’ve taken your writing as far as you can, but you also know it’s not done.  You decide you need some feedback, so that you can return to writing with some different perspectives. 

Hopefully this gives you a sense that, while the process isn’t linear, understanding these different stages can help you improve your writing by planning and orienting yourself in the midst of your writing.  

Was this useful?  You might like my freebie ‘The Writing Roadmap: A Simple 3-Stage Guide to Clarify Your Process’. 

Also, check out my YouTube video: Overwhelmed by Writing? Try This Instead!

Burnout is not an individual problem: it’s cultural

The way we think and talk about burnout needs to change. 

As individuals we feel it.  And we often think the solutions need to be individual too (more resilience training, anyone?).  But it will take a cultural shift to really address burnout, and create sustainable workplaces that are integrated and even connected parts within our lives.

I have been reading ‘The End of Burnout’ by Jonathan Malesic.  Part of what I am appreciating is how Malesic defines burnout as a disconnect between expectations of work (your own, or broader expectations of what you ‘should’ be getting out of working as your life’s purpose), and what the work is actually like.  He says this disconnect can lead to feelings of cynicism, disengagement, and general uselessness and disconnection.  He is a former academic, and left his job because of burnout. 

But a big part of what Malesic emphasizes is how the solution for burnout is usually discussed as taking place within individuals. 

Things like: how you need to reconnect with your passion for work, or the values of your work, or how you need to develop tools for resilience, or how you can practice self-care.  And, please don’t get me wrong here: when done for your personhood, not because you will be more “productive,” self-care can be a political act.  But what Malesic is saying is that this focus on individuals is mis-placed.  The solution needs to be collective.

Burnout is a cultural problem. 

Here’s an example. 

One of my besties sent me a text.  It reads: “I was commenting to a coworker this week “ok, so I’ve identified how I feel as burnout… now what? All the stuff I read is not helpful.  I can’t just “cut back on work” and “carve out more quiet time”… I feel like I need to just not do anything for like a year!” 

And then another: “I feel like I need something that’s “just a job” so I don’t care about it… but then how do I find the motivation to DO it for the majority of my waking life… ugh.”

My friend has identified 2 things. 

  • Most burnout rhetoric is telling them they need to change themselves to avoid and navigate burnout.  Stuff like saying no to certain things at work, or carving out more personal “me” time.  But this isn’t helpful nor what they need.  What my friend suggests is that they need a complete break in order to recalibrate.  The current ways of doing things are just too much – they need a really, really long time away to even begin to feel balanced.
  • A possible solution could be getting “just a job” that they don’t care about.  Something they can go to and be paid for, but don’t have much investment in.  But this leaves them wondering how this will be sustainable in the long run, given work is where they spend the majority of their waking life.  With the “just a job” scenario, it’s possible there would be no connection.

But here’s the crux of the issue: we are assuming the solution needs to be individual. 

The problems are 1) the structures of work are not sustainable (granted my friend didn’t go into the details of what those structures are in their text), and all the suggested individual adaptations like carving out more “me time” or working to be resilient are not helpful, and 2) they seek some kind of meaning where they spend the greatest part of their day, even, or especially, if it’s not a grand life purpose.

An individual shouldn’t be changing their expectations around aspiring to have some kind of meaning or connection in their work, and to work in a sustainable way.  It should not be a radical thought to aspire for dignity. 

The problem is cultural, and so the solution needs to be collective. 

We need to re-think the place and meaning of work in our lives, and then we need to build different structures to reflect those values.

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