Most Days Episode #5: Burnout Part 2 - Make Work Human Again

Burnout doesn’t always come from doing too much. A lot of times it comes from feeling stuck, unseen, and disconnected, even when the workload looks “reasonable” on paper. I’m Courtney, and I’m sharing what I’ve learned after 10 years as a CEO running a medium, family owned company with about 30 employees, including the policies that have helped and the ones that surprised me. We get specific about how leaders can reduce employee burnout by giving people more autonomy and making rules we’d actually follow ourselves. I talk through unlimited vacation and why it can lead to people taking less time off unless leaders model it, encourage it, and protect fairness. We also get honest about flexible work from home policies, why fully remote setups can increase isolation, siloing, and office politics, and how hybrid overlap days can rebuild real connection. Then we move into what I think is missing most in modern workplaces: “purpose in,” the sense that your coworkers matter and you matter to them. I share simple, non contrived ways to build relationships at work, like weekly bagels and coffee, small routines that give teams something to look forward to, cross training and shadowing to build respect, and even reading the same fiction books together. We close with a leadership practice I’m actively working on: celebrating wins through gratitude, handwritten notes, and peer shoutouts so the team doesn’t sprint forever without ever feeling progress. If you want practical leadership strategies, workplace culture ideas, and real world burnout prevention tactics, subscribe, share this with a friend, and leave a review so more people can find the show.