Career burnout, balance and what we really value

The pace of the tax and legal profession has been relentless since 2020, with the global pandemic bringing unprecedented personal and professional challenges for us all. Transfer Pricing has always been a fast-moving industry and with the introduction of hybrid working, the question for this year is "how do we balance work and life in a healthy way?"

With the boundaries between work and home becoming increasingly blurred for most of us, our ability to switch off, let alone do what matters in our lives, is impacted when we can't keep work out of our personal lives.

With career burnout on the rise, I like to think that January can be a great month to set intentions for managing a host of things on the list that may have fallen by the wayside last year. In 2022, I was absolutely adamant that I was going to drag myself around the Brighton Half Marathon (I'm not a runner!) with a certain finish time in mind. But, training got side-lined, work and other life demands got in the way, the year whizzed by and what was important to me got bumped down the list.

A big part of intention setting is about really asking yourself "what matters to you?". Burnout and high stress may involve areas that you don't feel you can control but there are so many aspects that we can. So, given the inevitably of stress, what can we do about it when we notice it starts to take us away from the life we want to be living or the person we want to be?

For me, I found it very powerful to put some time aside to connect with my personal values, using these to make a commitment to myself to create more opportunities to express these in my daily behaviour - whether it be "self care" or "connection".

The Christmas period can be a wonderful time off for the professionals that we work with but it can also be one of anxiety and uncertainty in terms of the work environment that you're returning to after your break. Whether you're considering a change in roles or thinking of ways in which you can better align your own values in your work role, I hope you can all carve out the time and space to commit to doing more of what brings meaning to all aspects of your life.

Next month, I'm going to write about 'change' and why this is something that we all as humans, struggle with. The core aim is to then focus on the specific roadblocks that we face, whilst working towards or alongside the skills and strategies that we can all benefit from to better bend with life's challenges.

I would also love to hear from you regarding what may be helpful or of interest for future posts!