“It might be time to assess if it’s the right role for you. There’s no shame in prioritising your mental health.“

Creative Career Conundrums is the weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative world answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

I have been working at a small agency for over a year and a half. It’s been an overall good experience but I have found periods where I am on the razor edge of being completely burnt out – all for it to balance back out again. This has happened in multiple cycles and I’ve been working closely with my manager to get through it. There’s no rhyme or rhythm to it. On a sprint, not on a sprint, deadline, no deadline, regardless of the project. I can’t find the reason at all and I don’t know what to do. I got this sinking feeling that it might just be the job.

I bounce back from being burnt out regularly. Is it me or is it my job?

Katie Cadwell, co-founder of branding studio Lucky Dip and The NDA Podcast:

Let's start with a big kudos for prioritising yourself, and recognising that how you’re working currently isn’t serving you or your mental health. It can be hard to see the big picture when you’re in the weeds! I can suggest a few things to test out before assessing if it’s the right job for you.

Firstly, it might not be one phase of the project that’s the issue. I wonder if there’s a specific part of the creative process that is mentally more challenging. For me, I find that endless scrolling or taking in too much design reference burns me out. I can feel overwhelmed, and whizzing pages of bright images tires my eyes and mind. I’d question, is your burnout more related to what the project is asking of you?

Alternatively, it could be as simple as a resource. Try approaching your manager to find out if anyone can help out last minute. Putting your hand up in that moment and saying ‘is anyone free right now to take X off my plate’ can be really valuable. Even knowing that extra support is there can sometimes be enough to ease the load. Seeing as you can’t necessarily plan for when you’re going to feel burnt out, it’s worth exploring if they can build some resource reactivity or flexibility into the project.

I think if those fail, it might be time to assess if it’s the right role for you. There’s no shame in prioritising your mental health. The industry is cyclical in nature, deadlines will always exist, but delivering work should never be at the detriment of you.

Best of luck.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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