Best Practices
4 Ways Arts Ed Organizations Can Defend Against Nonprofit Burnout
Does your staff regularly work through lunch and answer emails on weekends? This might seem like the norm for understaffed nonprofits. And besides, most people working in the arts are there because they love it, right? But perhaps you’re noticing in your staff what you may have experienced yourself: the moment when work you used to love becomes an impossible burden.
If your previously cheerful employees are snapping at coworkers and missing meetings, if they’re taking more sick days and productivity is slipping, if you’re seeing a negative impact on how staff interact with your customers and community … nonprofit burnout could be the culprit.
“Burnout is about your workplace, not your people.” – Jennifer Moss, author of Unlocking Happiness at Work
The Chronicle of Philanthropy reports that 69% of nonprofit leaders are concerned about employee burnout. According to a Council of Nonprofits survey, more than 50% of respondents said stress and burnout were causing workforce shortages. But it doesn’t have to be this way: leaders in nonprofit organizations can develop a strategy to detect, prevent, and deal with nonprofit burnout—both for themselves and their teams. Here’s how.
Where Nonprofit Burnout Comes From
According to the World Health Organization, burnout is a syndrome that results from chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed. It is characterized by:
- feelings of energy depletion or exhaustion;
- feelings of negativity or cynicism related to one’s job; and
- reduced job performance.
In some ways, people working in arts nonprofits are especially susceptible to burnout. They care deeply about the work they do and tend to selflessly go beyond the call of duty to keep serving their stakeholders. Being deeply invested means they may not feel like they can say no or take time off when they need it.
Many nonprofits are chronically understaffed and constantly scrambling to secure next year’s funding. At the same time, they may be working on intense projects with hard deadlines. And they’re doing all this with a small team of volunteers, part-time employees, and no real HR oversight to speak of.
According to the American Psychological Association, burnout is most often observed in professionals who work in service-oriented vocations; nonprofit arts education certainly qualifies. Experts have written whole books about how to identify and fix burnout, but we’ll summarize the essentials for you.
How to Spot Nonprofit Burnout Before it Consumes Your Staff
The best time to get rid of burnout is before it happens, but you may already suspect your team is suffering from burnout.
It might seem like common sense to just ask if people are burned out, but that doesn’t always work. Some employees will feel shame or discomfort if they are burned out—that they should be able to power through to keep serving your community. On top of the stigma, people don’t always know they’re burned out. Often, they need an outside observer to point out the problem.
Signs of burnout include being available 24/7, skipping lunch, taking more sick days, and having a short temper.
Look around and see if you spot any of these common signs of nonprofit burnout among your team.
Signs of nonprofit burnout:
- Working more to do less
- Skipping lunch, breaks, or social events
- Available at all hours
- More sick days
- Short tempers or tears
Any of these signs on their own could be a personal quirk or the result of a bad day. Taken together, they point to just one thing—burnout.
What Nonprofit Organizations Can Do to Prevent Burnout
The good news is that since burnout is often an organization-level problem, you have the power to help your team avoid it. The following systemic changes can help shield your team from some of the stressors that can lead to burnout.
1. Encourage restful time off.
Time off is more than a benefit, it’s essential to avoiding burnout. People need time to rest and rejuvenate their mind and body. Studies show that productivity falls off sharply when people hit about 50 hours of work per week. So while some nonprofit team members wear overwork as a badge of honor, your most valuable employee is one who is well-rested and burnout free.
Some subtle changes can help give employees permission to fully unplug. For example, you can use the scheduling feature in your email if you need to send a message after hours to avoid accidentally triggering after-hours work. Also, pay attention to how you talk about time off. Comments like “I hope you had a good time while the rest of us worked” or “I wish I could afford to take the afternoon off” leave employees feeling judged and guilty. If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, that may be an indicator that you, yourself, are on the verge of burnout.
Encourage restful time off by:
- Limiting off-hours messages and emails
- Reminding people to use their vacation benefits
- Avoiding statements that make time off sound like a luxury
2. Offer as much flexibility as possible.
Flexible schedules allow people to shift their work time to match the demands of their life. Giving people the power to control their own schedule helps them avoid burnout by managing their tasks and energy.
Of course, there are some times when you need staff and volunteer coverage. An instructor can’t just not show up to teach a class. But wherever and whenever possible, make it okay for employees to flex their schedules, work from wherever they want, and come and go as needed.
Offer flexibility by:
- Allowing remote work
- Letting employees flex schedules
- Crosstrain so no one person is carrying too much responsibility
- Offering mobile-friendly work tools
3. Model self care as a leader.
As a leader in your organization, you set the tone for the workplace. If your team sees you always working late, never taking vacation, and working through lunch, they may feel pressured to do the same. On the other hand, if you regularly unplug and take a walk during lunch, they’re more likely to feel free to care for themselves as well.
Model self care by:
- Leaving work on time
- Taking your vacation days
- Pausing to eat lunch
- Flexing your time for family events
4. Praise and thank your people.
In nonprofit work, it’s easy to run from one major project or challenge to another. Often, we forget to stop and appreciate what we’ve accomplished. Endless work with no reward is a fast track to burnout. Put the brakes on by stopping to thank your employees and volunteers and find ways to reward them for good work.
You can get as creative with this as you want to. Sometimes an old-fashioned thank-you note strikes the right chord. Other times you might want to make a special trophy or entrust someone with The Team Plant.
Acknowledge success by:
- Publicly thanking staff and volunteers
- Building in a rest day after a major project closes
- Celebrate birthdays and life milestones
- Handwrite a thank-you note
5. Evaluate your systems.
Nonprofits often operate on tight budgets. Your organization may be using free tools, software or programs designed for larger or for-profit businesses, or cobbling together some combination of solutions. It may be the way things have always been done, but it’s important to recognize that these hacks and workarounds take a toll. The first step in affecting change is taking inventory.
Identify areas for improvement by:
- Survey your employees on what’s working and what’s not
- For more detail, have staff track a typical day — how many steps does it take them to do certain tasks? Are there any blockers that prevent them from completing things?
- Talk to other organizations like yours to learn how their systems work and what solutions they use
Awareness and praise alone won’t solve the nonprofit burnout problem, but a culture of gratitude and self-care can go a long way. For more tips on reducing the administrative burden on your staff, subscribe to our blog.
Abigail Green
Abby has overseen content development for higher education degree programs related to education, technology, business, and healthcare. One of her first jobs after college was working with children’s programs for the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, Maryland. She is an experienced and versatile writer and editor whose work has been published by Johns Hopkins, the University of Baltimore Alumni Magazine, and The Chicago Tribune.