For Women Leading Remote Teams: Recognizing and Rebounding from Burnout

Are you a high-achieving leader of a hybrid or remote team? If so, the relentless demands of accommodating your employees’ work-life balance while trying to have some yourself have likely pushed you to the brink of burnout.

How are you expected to help everyone excel at work while also juggling relentless personal demands and uncertainty? No one seems too worried about the long-term impact on your wellbeing.

Do any of these thoughts sound familiar?

• “I can barely drag myself out of bed some days.”
• “I’m constantly misplacing things – my brain doesn’t work like it used to.”
• “I snap at my team and family over the smallest things.”
• “I just want to stare at the wall and zone out.”
• “My life is a sh*t show.”

No matter your specific circumstances, you’ve endured prolonged periods of being stretched far beyond your limits. Even the most resilient leaders can fall victim to burnout. Are you suffering from it right now?

Whether burned out currently or at risk soon, it’s increasingly difficult to outrun the overwhelming fatigue, frustration, and apathy stemming from chronic stress.

What Causes Burnout?

New research from Gallup studying workplace burnout found some striking drivers. Of the 76% of employees who indicated they experience burnout at least sometimes, the top 5 reasons were:

1. Unfair treatment at work (22%)
2. Unmanageable workload (21%)
3. Lack of support from manager (17%)
4. Unreasonable time pressure (17%)
5. Lack of communication and transparency (15%)

It’s no surprise burnout reduces productivity and engagement and increases absenteeism on the job.

The hallmark of uncertainty since 2020 will likely persist:

• Is my job secure?
• Will my workload keep increasing?
• Are my kids falling behind in school?
• How will the world handle ongoing challenges like climate change, politics, and social injustice?
• How much more can I possibly take on without a break?
• What will it take to rebalance work and life so I have time and energy for meaningful relationships and activities?

Watch for these burnout signs in yourself and others. Not everyone recognizes signs of distress, especially as pre-pandemic “normalcy” returns.

How Burnout Impacts Your Body

While each person responds uniquely to burnout, the physical effects are predictable.

Your body’s hardwired “fight-or-flight” response protects you from perceived threats by surging hormones like adrenaline and cortisol. But prolonged activation without relaxation means you constantly feel under attack. The longer this persists, the more it destroys your wellbeing through effects like:

• Keeping your mind/nervous system in a hyper-vigilant, unrelaxed state
• Triggering low-grade inflammation linked to autoimmune and chronic diseases
• Disrupting sleep quality, preventing your body/mind from fully restoring nightly

Unless you take action to restore and protect your wellbeing, chronic stress will inevitably lead to burnout. Let’s review the primary physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral burnout symptoms.

Signs You May Be Experiencing Burnout

This isn’t an exhaustive list, but look for significant changes in frequency, severity, and patterns compared to your typical pre-burnout baseline:

Physical Signs

• Frequent headaches or muscle pain
• Appetite changes
• Digestive issues or stomach upset
• Insomnia and fatigue
• Increased illness susceptibility
• Shortness of breath, chest tightness, racing heart

Emotional Signs

• Feeling constantly overwhelmed
• Loss of motivation
• Heightened frustration, irritability, or anger
• Persistent fear, sadness, or guilt
• Sense of failure and self-doubt
• Feeling helpless, trapped, or defeated
• Increased anxiety and depression
• Emotional detachment and isolation

Cognitive Signs

• Forgetfulness and poor concentration
• Persistent negative thinking patterns
• Obsessive or repetitive thoughts
• Diminished reasoning and problem-solving
• Difficulty absorbing and retrieving information

Behavioral Signs

• Procrastinating and reduced productivity
• Withdrawing from work/home responsibilities
• Less engagement in enjoyable activities
• Isolating from family and friends
• Increased food, alcohol, or substance misuse

Strategies to Recover from Burnout

Because chronic stress and burnout manifest uniquely, there’s no universal solution. The first step is taking stock of your current state and envisioning the rebalanced work and life you want aligned with your core values (not others’ social media highlights).

Depending on your burnout level, you may only have the capacity to start with one strategy. Ask yourself one of these simple questions and listen to your inner voice:

1. What do I need right now?
2. How am I really doing?
3. What feels nurturing right now?

The more you tune into your inner voice, the more you’ll rewire habits of self-care.

Can I Bounce Back?

Yes! Through my Rebalance Wellbeing coaching, I help overextended women leaders like you rebalance work and life without sacrificing career success.

If you’re burned out now or at risk soon, you aren’t alone. The relentless demands of supporting your team’s work-life balance while barely having any yourself have taken an immense toll. But recovering from burnout offers a pivotal opportunity.

You now have the chance to redefine work-life integration in a way that allows you to thrive as a leader while feeling happier, healthier, and more fulfilled in all aspects of your life — on your terms. Not basing “success” on what society, your colleagues, or social media influencers define, but what authentic wellbeing looks like for you.

Regaining that sense of balance will require patience, self-compassion, and grace. It won’t be a straight path. But I know no matter how depleted you feel right now, things can improve beyond what you ever imagined possible. You have the power to break free from the unrelenting cycle of sacrifice that enabled your burnout in the first place.

The journey starts by listening inward to what your mind, body, and spirit truly need to heal and recalibrate. I’m here to guide you every step of the way as you rediscover your path to thriving.