You can’t self-care away a toxic work environment. Professionally, I frequently work with individuals trying to cultivate a regular self-care practice in the name of healing from, and as much as possible, preventing future bouts of burnout. I’ve also had to do that work personally. And while there’s certainly value in encouraging people to focus their energies on what they can control (themselves, their responses, etc.), the reality is that burnout prevention at the individual level can toe the line between empowering and victim blaming.

Let me explain. If we consider the most common risk factors for burnout, especially in healthcare—high-intensity workloads, unclear outcomes or measures of success at work, insufficient rest during the workday, inadequate recovery time between shifts, limited recognition for effort, and a tendency to focus on mistakes instead of accomplishments—those are work environment-based factors that employees can’t control. They’re baked into the environment.

So even if someone is exercising, meditating, eating well, and getting enough sleep, those things help on the self-management side, but they’re not a cure. It’s treating a symptom, not the source.

That’s why it’s helpful to think of burnout prevention as a shared responsibility. Yes, individuals have a responsibility to tend to their self-care. But leadership has the responsibility to create environments that don’t actively work against it. Telling employees to “take care of themselves” while expecting them to navigate a toxic work culture is like telling someone to swim while holding them underwater.

Of course, the nature of healthcare doesn’t always allow for foolproof prevention. Client-facing staff are almost guaranteed to be exposed to secondary trauma or emotionally taxing environments. That’s the reality of the work. But knowing these risks are essentially unavoidable means leadership has a responsibility to build in protective factors to offset their impact. That’s what real prevention looks like. We can’t stop everything from happening, but we can avoid making it worse.

In practice, this might look like providing high-quality, consistent supervision. Supervision doesn’t stop clinicians from dealing with hard cases, but it gives them space to process challenges, gain perspective, and feel supported. Sometimes, just having their thought process validated or their autonomy encouraged can make a world of difference. Likewise, coaching on how to define success in ways that aren’t entirely dependent on client outcomes—especially in behavioral health—can be a game changer.

Encouraging staff to use time off, take mental health days, and engage with EAP resources when available is another protective measure. But beyond approving PTO requests, leaders can do even more by modeling their own healthy self-care practices. It’s one thing to tell people to prioritize their well-being. It’s another to actually show them what that looks like—taking time off without guilt, respecting your own work-life boundaries, and being clear about your capacity.

As a Midwesterner, I’m no stranger to grind culture. There’s this quiet, unspoken belief that you’re supposed to always be working. That if you’re not busy, you’re being lazy. And for Black and other people of color, there’s the added pressure of trying to outwork negative stereotypes about nonproductivity. In the counseling field, there’s an unspoken expectation that we’re always supposed to be accessible to clients, just in case of an emergency—otherwise, we feel like we’ve failed them. So employees are walking into the workplace with these harmful ideas already in the background, setting the stage for burnout before the job even starts.

But imagine how different it would feel if a supervisor said, “I see you’re having a hard time holding it all together. That’s part of being human. Take some time to care for yourself, and come back better.” That kind of support can improve morale, strengthen relationships, and even boost client outcomes. Nothing scares a hesitant client away faster than a burned-out clinician. But when leaders create a space that catches the fire before it spreads, they protect both staff and clients.

There’s also something to be said for trusting the investment of self-care. If you’re an operations manager, your job is to manage operations. It might feel risky to willingly reduce your available team members. But how effective are they if they’re on the verge of compassion fatigue? Chances are, they’re not. Investing in wellness on the front end can be the difference between consistent quality care and a malpractice suit due to fatigue-related negligence.

Leading by example in wellness maintenance matters too. When we’re well and lead from that space, it can (hopefully) be contagious. We’re more likely to notice when someone’s in need of support and to have the bandwidth to support them. We’re better positioned to be proactive instead of reactive. We’re also more likely to be accessible, intentional, and set a more comfortable tone for the workspace.

Burnout-proofing your business means more than keeping your team from burning out. It means making sure you’re not burning out either. Because a healthy workplace isn’t just one where people are productive. It’s one where they’re safe, supported, and seen.

Sustainable leadership means creating a culture where wellness isn’t a reward for hard work—it’s a foundation for it. And when you model that, support that, and protect that, you don’t just prevent burnout. You build a place where people actually want to be.

With Love,

Dr. Love Jordan