The Systems Are Not Working
Compassion fatigue is not a failure of your heart. Your heart is not broken. The systems are.
I seem to hear some version of this sentiment at least once a day: “The systems are not working.”
You are traveling, and there are a series of unexpected glitches. You are setting up a new workflow and must craft multiple workarounds for the system failures. You need something basic from the healthcare system and must use self-advocacy to get access. Things that previously worked no longer do.
I know you’ve noticed the growing cracks in the systems.
This is our new reality.
The systems we have relied upon are not meeting the demands of these times. In many cases, they never worked equitably for all.
The systems-level issues have a serious individual-level impact. As we head towards increasing systems failures, I notice the exhaustion and burnout at the individual level from the required troubleshooting, extra effort, and quick pivoting.
Yes, there is a critical opportunity for systems-level work. What will we do as we observe the ever-deepening or widening cracks? What is needed or possible in that space? There is room to imagine and to practice new ways of working and of problem-solving in the widening cracks.
As individuals who lead teams and provide frontline or client-facing work during an era of systems failures, I observe some blame themselves for the struggle or absorb responsibility for the fallout. We tend to internalize the side effects of systems failure as if we can metabolize the by-products on our own. (Of course, we will be accountable for our own mistakes and complicity and also continue to examine how we can do better.) Our exhaustion, frustration, and burnout is not a personal failing.
In the health care setting, some have borrowed from the field of Veteran’s Health to talk about the experience as moral injury - the inherent tension of working in failing or inadequate systems when also guided by or bound to a professional responsibility to do good.
Dr. Eric Reinhart writes in Doctor’s Aren’t Burned Out From Work. We Are Demoralized By Our Health System [NYT Opinion] “What’s burning out health care workers is less the grueling conditions we practice under, and more our dwindling faith in the systems for which we work. What has been identified as occupational burnout is a symptom of a deeper collapse.”
My friend and collaborator Mary Freer, Founder of Compassion Revolution, notes in her book of the same title that the phrase compassion fatigue is a misnomer. Mary relates that she has been leading Compassion Labs for years, where she asks participants to name what is giving them fatigue at work. People discuss the gatekeepers, systemic barriers, microaggressions, and insufficient resources. Not one person has added compassion to the list.
As if your heart was not up to the task.
Compassion fatigue is not a failure of your heart. Your heart is not broken. The systems are.
What freedom does this knowledge offer you when you reframe your burnout? How might it offer space for you to experiment with new ways? What permission does this give your heart to stay open, to stay wild?
Take good care,
Shannon Weber
Facilitator | Coach | Consultant
Things Expanding My Heart
The Double Cross Trail, the newest a path of the San Francisco Crosstown Trail. [Experience] I hiked the original trail in one day about two years ago. I hung LoveYou2 love notes along the way. For my birthday this year, I craved an ambitious experience I could conquer alone. I set out to complete the Double Cross in one day, also hanging love notes along the way. With over 42,000 steps and 17 miles I began my next lap around the sun. I love that these trails began as part of a group of people coming together in community and imagining, a powerful prompt for what is possible.
On Being Podcast: Janine Benyus and Azita Ardakani Walton — On Nature's Wisdom for Humanity.[Podcast] An expansive conversation on biomimicry and lessons from nature on how to repair and adapt. I’m inspired by learning the adaptive phases of nature following fire or disaster; how might that apply to individual and collective trauma?
As Long As You Need: Permission To Grieve by J.S. Park [Book] - Profoundly raw and vulnerable exploration of grief that breaks myths or norms about what grief * should * look like. I’ll be returning to this book again and again as I embrace being a Griever in this world.
What’s expanding your heart these days? I’m eager for recommendations.
From the Archives
Embody Your Nature Podcast with Candice Wu: SHANNON WEBER ON AGILITY IN GIVING AND RECEIVING + GROWING YOUR EMPATHY MUSCLE — EP85
“We risk falling in love. We risk feeling deep connection. We risk changing our own mind. We risk returning from this empathy adventure as a different person.” ~Shannon Weber on Empathy Adventuring
Shannon Weber believes you can thrive at the intersection of empathy and resilience.
Shannon leads efforts to end HIV by day and hangs anonymous love notes in public spaces with her three teenagers by night. She is a serial social entrepreneur, having launched several HIV-informed sexual and reproductive health initiatives that have served thousands locally and impacted tens of thousands around the globe. Shannon has a Master’s of Social Work from Tulane University, New Orleans, received the 2018 UCSF Chancellor’s Award for Public Service, and has taught on stages from Durban to Hong Kong. She is the author of Show Up Hard: A Road Map For Helpers In Crisis.
In this episode: From missed connections to vulnerability and intimacy, the craving for meaning in life, moving from enmeshed or co-dependent relationships to compassion in between, how Shannon has cultivated healthy dialogue with her son, reimagining our own true script for life, noticing white fragility and saviourism in all of us with gentleness, lead instead of saving people, and how “boundary creates connection in other spaces.”
The icing on the cake: a Love Note for YOU, the Listener. <3
Thanks for the beautiful reflections and recommendations. To add to your to-read list, check out Brad Montague’s Becoming Better Grownups, and his Substack The Enthusiast 😍