#53. Navigating Burnout: Should You Leave Your SLP Job?
Episode Shownotes:
Ever wonder if you should change settings to have better work-life balance? Or maybe you've tried switching settings, only to find yourself just as overwhelmed and stressed as your last job. Maybe you're convinced there's no setting that would allow for balance and you need to leave the field altogether? In today's episode, I'm sharing a hot take on the common issue of burnout among speech-language pathologists. Join me as I share my response to a post asking about the best setting for work-life balance. My answer might be just the tough love you need.
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp and, as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hello, SLPs. Welcome back to the podcast. This is episode 53 and this is completely unscripted, sort of off the cuff, going to be short and sweet because I have to get the kids somewhere this afternoon. So it's going to be a quick episode, but it's one that I really think is going to be incredibly useful for so many of you because I see this, it's about a topic that I see so many times in Facebook groups for fellow SLPs. And it's this topic of burnout, but to be more specific than just burnout. What I'm talking about today is specifically regarding the sort of question that's running through so many of your minds as SLPs who are incredibly overwhelmed. And that question is, should I leave my job? Should I leave the field altogether? What should I do to have better work-life balance? So many different flavors of this, versions of this. I've seen it wrapped in lots of different packaging. But that is the topic that I want to address, and I'm going to do it short and sweet.
I was reading--just a little back story--I was reading in one of the Facebook groups, one of the many Facebook groups for SLPs, I don't remember which one it was, but the post essentially was asking for advice because this particular person who posted anonymously was feeling so burnout and frustrated that they were wondering if anyone else had ever considered taking a break. Like just pushing pause on being an SLP and doing something else. and then maybe come back to it or not, I don't know. She also wanted, he or she or they, also wanted to find out from others if anyone had left the field altogether and how that worked out, what did you choose, so on and so forth. Now, as I'm sure most of you know, there's the alternative careers, you know, there's many different Facebook groups for alternative careers and non-clinical SLP or PT or OT roles, so on and so forth, right? This is not necessarily a new topic, but what I want to say about it might be something you haven't heard before. It actually might be something you don't want to hear. So take what I say with a grain of salt, take what serves you, leave what doesn't, and you know you best, right? So this is just my perspective, okay?
My answer to this is you need to get incredibly clear on what is causing the burnout. And most of the time, it's not just one thing, okay? So I'm not suggesting that you identify one thing, but you need to explore what is causing the burnout. What is specifically, what is the, you know, what are the pieces that are stressing you out, that are causing you to feel unhappy, that if you could wave a magic wand and change them, you would? And so many people think that the answer to this question is about the setting. So many people, I'll hear, I mean, so many responses are, "Oh, well, in EI, you know, you get to set your own schedule and there's flexibility. And in school setting, you get to, you know, work hours that are the same hours as your kids if you have school age kids. So that's the best role to be in or that's the best setting to work in." And then you'll have others who will say, "Oh, it's home health or it's, it's, you know, in the hospitals, it's 15-minute sessions, and, you know, you do your session notes, they're very systematic, and it's bing, bang, boom, you're done, right?"
So, clearly, the answer to this question is not about the setting. It's not, "Oh, go to this setting. or go to that setting and things will improve." Now, I'm not suggesting that there aren't advantages in terms of workload and work-life balance and all of that from setting to setting, but in my experience and from my perspective, There is no blanket sort of trend, if you will. I told you this is off the cuff. There's no sort of systematic answer that, yes, this one setting is better than this setting across the board because of X, Y, Z. Because what you value is different from what somebody else values, okay?
Now, if somebody has, you know, to kind of go back to this example, if somebody has kids who are school age, then for that particular person, perhaps a school setting would be better. Because, like many people have pointed out, You would then, in theory, work the same schedule as your children, right? But what if you don't have kids who are in the school setting? Or what if you're not necessarily looking to have the same hours as your children? Right? So you have to really think about what are your individual circumstances, what are your individual needs, and what are your individual values? And that is what you need to look at in order to answer this question for yourself.
So when I said what is causing the burnout, what I would encourage you to do is to sit down and if you've listened to this podcast enough or if you know me, maybe you know what I'm about to say. Sit down and do a brain dump. Just get it out on paper, all of the thoughts that are floating through your head that are causing you to feel burnout. Is it the size of your caseload? Is the types of clients and populations that you're serving causing you stress? Is your team, your supervisor, or your boss, your admin, is that contributing to the burnout? You know, getting incredibly clear on what about it, what parts about it, because again, it's not usually just one part, but what parts about it are causing you to feel stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out, okay? Sometimes it could be travel. I know for me, when I worked in early intervention, in the very beginning of my career, I did a lot of traveling, but I didn't have four kids at the time. And I was fine with that, it didn't bother me. I, in many ways, enjoyed it, until I didn't. And that's okay, right? So really being able to recognize that this answer or these answers are likely going to be different depending upon what season of life you're in and what your values are at that particular time.
I also want to offer what I am going to imagine is a very unpopular opinion, but what I want to sort of suggest is what if you explore the possibility that the cause of your burnout is not any of those circumstances that I just mentioned? Not a high caseload. Not the type of clients or populations that you're serving. Not the travel. Not the co-workers or the admin or the boss or supervisor. What if the cause of the burnout is the way that you think about your job and your role as an SLP? What if what's causing the burnout are thoughts like these: "This report needs to be perfect. I need to make sure that these clients are meeting their goals. This session was crappy. It fell short. I don't know how to serve this child. I don't know how to work with this family. Oh my gosh, I'm never going to get all of this done. Oh gosh, I don't know if I have what it takes to be able to work in this setting. I don't know if I'm writing my session notes correctly. I don't know if I'm writing enough or I'm writing the right things. Who's going to be reading this report and what are they going to be thinking? Oh my gosh, I didn't comment on XYZ. I need to go back and I need to edit the report. Oh my gosh, the deadline is coming up and there's no way I'm going to be able to write as thorough and detailed of a report as this client needs. in order to meet, you know, before the deadline," right? Think about, think about your thoughts. Look at what thoughts are circling through your mind because I would venture to say that there are many of you who are out there listening who have thoughts like these, and what feelings do those thoughts create? As you're putting this immense amount of pressure on yourself to meet these incredibly unrealistic expectations, what is that, how does that leave you feeling? And is a caseload size going to change that? For some of you, it might. But for others, it will not. Trust me. Trust me. Because I know that for me and my brain, regardless of whether my caseload is a size of 10 or 100, I'm still going to put that immense amount of pressure on myself that is unrealistic, unattainable, unsustainable. no matter what, no matter if I'm working with one client or a million, no matter if I'm working with the dream population or the most challenging population. I will create that stress. I will create that pressure in my brain, or at least I used to. And I still do, actually, just not as much as I used to. And when it happens now, thanks to coaching and all of the work that I've been doing over the past years, I know how to handle it. I know how to address it. I know how to work my way through it. Now, does that mean that I'm never stressed, that I never put pressure on myself, that I never set high expectations? Absolutely not. That's not the goal. That is not at all the goal. That's not realistic. That's not sustainable. That's not what I'm going for. What I am going for and what I'm offering that's possible for you is for you to slowly begin to shift the way that you're thinking about your role and your responsibilities as a service provider, as a private practice owner, as a mom, as whatever role or roles you see yourself filling, because when you look at those thoughts and you start changing them little by little, the burnout, the stress, the overwhelm will subside. It will decrease.
And in the moments and periods where it flares up and you feel like, "Oh my gosh, wait a second. I thought I left this role. I left this setting because I wanted to feel better, I wanted to have better work-life balance, and yet here I am working fewer hours and still incredibly burnt out." It's your thoughts. It is your thoughts. At least acknowledge the possibility that it could be your thoughts and start looking at what they are. Start paying attention to how you're thinking, to the stories that you're telling yourself, the narrative that you've created or the narrative that's been modeled for you, the narrative that's so prevalent within our field. This is something that I feel is a big aspect of our culture as speech pathologists that I would love to see begin to shift. And the way that we do that is to begin to address and explore the way that we're thinking and look at the connection.
So--as you do this brain dump, right, I want you then to look at: "What am I thinking about this? What are my thoughts about my caseload size? What are my thoughts about my reports? And are they true? Would I have those same thoughts in another setting?" Right? You have to really think about this critically. And sometimes that's difficult. It's not easy to do this. This is not easy work. If it was easy work, everyone would do it and no one would be burnt out. It's not easy. That's why there's coaches. That's why there's therapists. Right? There are professionals that are out there that do this. And if this is something that you want help with, if this is something that you feel like you need support with, then reach out and book a consult. I would be happy to walk you through it. I'd be happy to tell you more about it. And I'd be happy to tell you whether or not I think we would be a good fit. So keep that in mind. The link is always in the show notes.
But your action step for today is to brain dump your thoughts. If you are experiencing stress, pressure, overwhelm, and approaching or already reaching burnout, brain dump your thoughts and start addressing them one by one. Okay? And as you do this, you'll start to identify what's true, what's not true, what's circumstantial, and this will help you identify the things that are the quote-unquote "controllables," the things that you can manage circumstantially, is that even a word? I'm so tired at this point. Those are the things that you can change and you know by switching to a different setting and going to you know reducing your hours XYZ and then look at the things that you maybe not maybe you can't control them so to speak in terms of changing them externally but you start to change them internally. Because if you don't do that, you're going to take those same thoughts, that same brain with you wherever you go. And you'll be just as stressed and just as burnt out. Would love to hear what you think about this episode. If you're not in the SLP Support Group, pop in, let me know your thoughts. I have a feeling some of you might really, this might really resonate with some of you. Some of you might really disagree, and I'd love to hear that too. I always love to hear other perspectives and thoughts. So feel free to share them in the SLP Support Group. That's all for today's episode. Next week, we're talking about systems for SLPs. I am crafting that specifically for one of the members of the SLP Support Group and I will see you all then. Have a good week.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.