Hello, my name is Denisse and I’m addicted to dogs.
Growing up, I used to have hamsters, birds, turtles and even bunnies, but never a dog. When I first moved into my apartment, there was no space for pets, so I decided to volunteer at the local shelter, and after a while I got a full-time job there. I loved being part of such a great cause, but after just one year of having started, I got completely burned out.
I did some research and as it turned out, I wasn’t the only one. Two out of three animal shelter workers experience burnout and leave the profession for other careers. And burnout doesn’t only affect people involved in animal welfare, it’s a common thing among activists, regardless of the cause they are passionate about.
That’s why I chose activism burnout as the focus for this personal project.
Activism burnout: what does it look like?
The thing about burnout is that it affects most areas in a person’s life. Constant frustration, anxiety, anger and depression can lead to physical illness, along with a sense of isolation and feeling misunderstood by loved ones.
Activists are more likely to experience burnout compared to other occupations.
Why do activists experience burnout?
In an attempt to identify the main reasons why activists are more vulnerable to burnout, I made a list of assumptions based on my own experience. The initial hypothesis was that the potential causes for burnout could fit into one of four categories: Emotions, Habits, Resources and Community.
In 2016, Kira Schabram of the University of Washington and Sally Maitlis of the University of Oxford published a study investigating the challenges faced by animal shelter workers. The study consisted of interviews with 50 former and current shelter workers, mostly women (86%) around 35 years old, with an average experience of 5.5 years.
Using this study as a guide, I carried out my own research, conducting personal interviews with people with a similar profile to the one on the study mentioned above, but expanding the scope to include both workers and volunteers, with passion for a variety of causes such as animals, environment, children, workplace inclusion, diversity and accessibility.
As a result, I learned that a key factor that sets activists apart from other professions is that the cause they are passionate about is deeply ingrained in their everyday life. They link it directly to their identity as a person and it gives them a sense of purpose.
All of them faced physical restrictions for in-person activities as a result of the pandemic, or from having to move to a different city. However, they all remained connected to the cause, in a different way.
Four out of the ten people interviewed had experienced signs of burnout and stopped the activity they were performing at the time. The main reasons they mentioned were: getting overwhelmed, feeling undervalued, a negative environment, or a combination of all of the above.
My findings confirmed that most challenges faced by activists could be grouped into four main categories, but there was still no one clear factor that caused burnout.
How come people facing such similar challenges, were having different outcomes?
At this point I decided to focus on the individuals who hadn’t experienced burnout and what they’d done differently.
Why do some activists don’t experience burnout?
Schabram and Maitlis reported that they identified one successful path among the animal shelter workers they interviewed.
Unlike the ones who experienced burnout, these participants did not initially consider themselves to be particularly gifted or skilled when it came to their jobs. The challenges made them feel tired, yet motivated.
On the other hand, the workers that left their profession had one characteristic in common. When being asked “Why do you do this?” they responded in terms of “having a calling”.
The “calling” mindset
The problem with this mindset is that it leads activists to unrealistic expectations both about themselves and the task at hand.
Feeling “called” can make someone believe they have superpowers, and a unique responsibility for fixing a problem.
So, when the work starts to prove physically and emotionally challenging, surrounded by misconceptions and lack of economic and social support, activists start questioning themselves and their commitment to the cause.
The “journey” mindset
Activists constantly face the challenge of managing their passion, so that it remains alive without turning to burnout.
The first step is to have a different approach towards passion, from “it’s a calling” to “it’s a journey” where wins and losses are milestones to be celebrated and learned from.
Managing expectations allows activists to set challenging but realistic goals and pay attention to all four areas involved in their long-term well being.
How to help activists achieve long-term goals?
Spark is a mobile app designed to identify early signs of burnout and provide activists with useful tools in little time to avoid overwhelm.
My initial approach was to have some sort of panic button that users could press when feeling overwhelmed. After testing this concept with potential users, they pointed out that using words such as “panic” with people who are already stressed, wasn’t such a good idea. I decided to keep this feature but refine the wording and visual elements with a more soothing style.
The prototype
The main goal of Spark is to put the “journey mindset” in action, taking the user step by step.
- Managing expectations
As new users sign up, they are required to define what cause they are passionate about, and to perform a self-assessment in four areas: physical, emotional, social and economic. This information will help set goals that match each user’s current circumstances and restrictions.
2. Setting goals
The app helps the user set goals that are easy to measure within a time frame, and take into consideration each user’s challenges and potential ways to face them.
3. Monitoring emotions
The original “panic button” turned into a “mood button”, where users can identify the main emotion being experienced, and the level of intensity. Users can then enter a challenge they’re facing at the moment, or a win they’re celebrating.
4. Tracking progress
Using tags to organize the content by categories, goals, challenges and wins, users can measure their progress on the dashboard.
Additional features and integrations
a. Personalized recommendations
Initially, I wanted to provide tools like a custom calendar with motivational quotes and a list of resources for events, but after some comparative analysis, I realized that there are some apps that already do it very well. So, instead of reinventing the wheel, integration with other apps will support this effort.
Users will be able to link their accounts from other apps to get personalized recommendations based on their specific preferences and needs at the time.
b. App customization
Once users get familiar with monitoring their performance across all four areas, they’ll have the chance to customize their journey by relabeling categories and tags, and adding their own images.
c. Potential new users
While activists are the group most affected by burnout, stress and overwhelm has expanded to a great percentage of the population.
According to Microsoft’s 2021 Work Trend Index, more than half of the world’s workforce feels overworked and nearly 40 percent feels exhausted.
Gen Z and Millennial workers are being particularly affected, struggling more than older generations.
Hopefully, Spark will prove useful to anyone willing to manage stress to avoid the point of burnout.
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