Exploring Delivery Fatigue
Why Delivery Fatigue and not burnout?
As someone close to me put it recently “Delivery fatigue is when you're still burning.”
The fire is still going and you're still turning up everyday, even though you're not sure how you still find the will to do so.
Delivery fatigue is a physical and mental response that occurs when working in a stressful environment for extended periods of time. It leads to chronic stress and burnout, when not managed effectively.
Wondering if this applies to you or someone you know?
I think of Delivery Fatigue as a negative feeling in your gut when you think about work, physical signs can be weight loss or gain, insomnia, irritability, and a lack of future planning.
Delivery fatigue doesn't just have a single cause, for everyone the causes can be a single overwhelming factor, but is more commonly a combination of pressures in and/or outside the workplace. Some of the broad causes can include but are not limited to
Being constantly challenged and having to come up with something new
Working in a conflict-heavy environment
Working against one's core values
Working in a space that consumes all other aspects of your life
For example, a software engineer may experience fatigue due to the strict deadlines, restrictions in how they can approach a solution and a lack of management support. While a project manager may experience fatigue due to the high pressure of deadlines, stakeholders and managing a team.
So what can I do about it?
The bad news is that the fire you're in, won't go away by itself unless something changes. To this it's important to observe the causes, orient oneself to the options and changes that can be made, decide on a course of action, and then act on that decision.
This is the OODA loop that was developed for combat pilots to be able to out-compete in literal life-and-death situations, it’s literally battle-tested. By observing the outcomes of your decisions, you can understand and make further adjustments to the situation and one's role within it.
To begin these observations, I would suggest that you begin a work log, before you login, check social media or set up for the day. Note down what you want to get from the day ahead, and at the end of the day, look back at your log and see how you actually spent the day.
For example, you may dread a call that happens every Friday evening and ruins your weekend with the conflict, can it be moved to Monday am? If you find yourself still spending the weekend worrying about the call, a more drastic action may be needed
The Delivery Fatigue Coaching I offer is a space to work through delivery fatigue, providing a confidential and secure headspace to deconstruct and work through the challenges being faced daily. Identifying root causes of their fatigue, explore options for addressing those causes, and help you to develop a plan of action to implement those changes.