Takeover Unfiltered

Brianna Rooney:
All right. Welcome to another amazing episode of talent takeover. Unfiltered. We are going, Hey,

Taylor Bradley:
Sorry. Hey, y'all excited. Y'all

Brianna Rooney:
I don't to ask how you are.

Taylor Bradley:
Um, clearly capitated.

Brianna Rooney:
We are going to tackle the 12 stages of burnout, but we're gonna do this, um, you know, part one part two. So we actually like nail it, talk about it and give our advice because, um, man, the talent world is crazy and in general you can get burnout in any job. But I think in recruiting with this roller coaster that we see, um, just in the economy and just in like, you know, just the candidate driven market switching, uh it's, it's difficult. You can easily get into burnout. What do you think Taylor? Absolutely.

Taylor Bradley:
Absolutely. Um, so I, I wanna get right into this one since it's a supered topic, but I want to just remind you guys, don't forget to listen, to stay, stay on and listen to our broke boss tip of the week. Um, this is all gonna be about burnout. Everybody's felt that at some point or another. So I think who can't take something away from this

Brianna Rooney:
Welcome to talent takeover

Taylor Bradley:
Unfiltered

Brianna Rooney:
When it comes to working hard and keeping it real. We know our, self care, happiness, inner peace and time. I'm Brianna Rooney. And this is Taylor Bradley. Hey

Taylor Bradley:
Y'all

Brianna Rooney:
And we have thrived in chaos and turned it into in art form. So Taylor, what are we doing here today? We're

Taylor Bradley:
Here to give you a raw under the hood view of all things recruiting and finally give credit where credit is due to a long underrated industry. That's full of quote unquote experts.

Brianna Rooney:
All right, well then let's take this show to the road,

Taylor Bradley:
So let's get right into it. Um, burnout. What is it? It's a term used to describe feelings of emotional, physical and social exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress typically from work. And it occurs when chronic stress is unmanaged and causes mental fatigue. So let's get that's the definition of burnout, but let's get right into the stages. So stage one, you feel there is a strong need to prove yourself. Stage two, you keep working harder and harder to achieve this stage three. You begin to neglect your own needs more stage four, you are conflicted and blame others, or the situation stage five, you change your values to focus on work more and stage six. You deny the problems that arise due to work stress. So, um, I've kind of just given us an overview, but I really wanna go and talk through some of these that, um, I know I've felt this personally. I know you have, um, mm-hmm I just don't know the exact stories of it. I feel like you've probably heard more about my burnout than I've ever heard about yours. So I'd love, I'd love to know out of these first six steps, have you gotten to any of these steps ever in your career? And if so, which one did you get to? What was the situation? Just tell me a little bit about that.

Brianna Rooney:
Yeah. I mean, I've, I've had all of them, right? Um, I think everyone probably has, at one point I, the one that I was was like, is my, is stage three. Uh, you begin to neglect your own needs more. That is like all the time. I even did a video a few weeks ago and this is something silly, but it's true where, um, I was really craving this salad from this particular restaurant. Right. But for some reason I feel like I didn't need to take the time to go get it for myself yet. I'm always like, if it's my kids, if it's Lincoln, if it's my friends, I'm was like, what can I go do for you? What can I get you? What can I make? You I'll always have that five to 20 minutes for somebody else, but you know, God forbid I do that for myself.

Brianna Rooney:
I mean, I don't even get out of my desk to have lunch. You know, it's, it's, what's, uh, we have, so we, even though we're remote first, we do still have this office that I had from techies. And there's just a couple people, you know, that, that are here. But like I, you know, supply them with food and drinks and all of this stuff. Right. And yet I don't even ask, like I don't even put in my order for that. It's like, that's ridiculous. And it's a constant. And it's something that I realized and I actually had to force myself. I'm literally, here's the grocery store right? Next door is the place that I get my salad. And I literally had to force myself, talk to myself, not no joke to go walk into the restaurant, to get myself a salad. And I had nothing else to do, but set, go home and put the groceries away. I didn't even have my kids that night. It's like, why is it so hard?

Taylor Bradley:
Yeah, no, I completely agree. I've you've heard me say this before, but I pour from empty cups a lot. Mm-hmm um, I am a, I'm a giver. I'm like this, a problem solver. I'm kind of that, how they describe men, but I'm like, Ooh, why do they get that characteristic? Where that like, when someone brings something to me, I instantly wanna fix it or how can I help them or for sick, what can I do for you? But then I will literally let my whole world life, everything fall to while trying to pour from an empty cup and be what others need me to be and give to them. And so, um, you know, I had, I had some learning moments this year. Mm-hmm I think this year. Um, and I'm just gonna be really transparent with our audience this year. I completely just burned myself out so much so that I neglected my health. I had a lot of health issues that, um, in part two of this I'll really talk about, because I think it's really, really important to know. I definitely experienced every single stage of this before my health just took a huge decline and it, it gave me chills when I saw this.

Brianna Rooney:
So did you not realize it until your health took a toll?

Taylor Bradley:
It, I didn't realize it. Like I, I was like, oh, I'm working a lot, but I'm working towards this goal and I'm like, it's gonna be fine, but it's, it's really like the, the stuff that's like the stage four you're conflicted and blame others or the situation it's like, I literally can replay in my mind when I went from what I would view is maybe positive. Like stage one, you feel a strong need to prove yourself. I don't think that that's always a sign that you're getting burned out, you know, but it's stage one here. So I don't necessarily view that one as a bad thing. And then you keep working harder and harder to achieve this stage. Two. I, again, I never would've viewed or viewed that or my perception of it when it was happening was not a negative thing. And then, like you said, stage three, that's where it starts to go left and be negative is when you start to neglect your own needs more.

Taylor Bradley:
And then that's when I feel like it's like, it turns negative from stage three on it. It starts to go left where you're like, okay, I'm neglecting my own needs. I'm going above and beyond for everybody else. And I'm putting myself on the back burner and I always thought, I'm gonna do this short term. Like this is just to do this. This is just to meet this. This is just, and then it never ends up being that. And then you start to slowly get into the stage four, five and six, you know, where mm-hmm , you just, you change your values and you focus on work more. Um, and I totally did that. I was like, you know, in my time that where I wouldn't have my kids, I would just be working because I was like, it's all towards this goal. It's all towards accomplish something, whatever it was that I was trying to accomplish. Um, and I would deny problems and issues in my personal relationships and whatnot. Um, yeah, because I'm like, oh, well, they just don't understand I'm working and work is important in this, you know, it was, it was, I literally experienced every one of these stages. Yeah. So yeah. I go ahead.

Brianna Rooney:
No, no, I was gonna say, um, I love the trans the transparency on all this, um, because it's so important and everyone's going through this. Uh, and what I feel like is, is a whole different subject, um, is proving yourself. So I think what I would like to do is another episode on when you're starting your, your new recruiting job, or, you know, in TA in general, how do you have that fine line of proving yourself, but also again, not getting to stage five or you're changing your values to focus more on work. I think that's a whole other thing, but it's interesting that this is in burnout because you're right. Like there's some of these stages where it's like, well, that could be positive. Right. But it's positive until it's not.

Taylor Bradley:
Absolutely. Um, and I love that you wanna have like the proving yourself because, and this, again, I had never experienced this before, but I've never worked in a startup before. Yeah. But that's, this is exactly what I wanted to come do because, you know, as our bio says, we thrive in chaos. I live for this. I always like, I keep my financial advisors, like my God Taylor, you know, because I just keep a million things balls in the air and I can get stressed about it. But I also get bored if my life is too stagnant, if things I'm like what's going on, you

Brianna Rooney:
Know, a hundred percent, I actually had this, uh, talk with, well, uh, with a few people, um, my confidence. But, um, you know, I, I, everyone is, I sold, I sold techies and technically didn't have to work for a little while. Right. But I was like, Nope, starting two more companies. and there's that moment where you're like, I'm like Brianna, seriously, like, what are you thinking? And someone really close to me was like, that is you, you would have been bored out of your mind after like three days, you, you love this. And I'm like, yeah, but it's like that fine line between burnout and still loving that and filling my cup up.

Taylor Bradley:
You know what I think the thing is, and just like, boom, I had this light bulb moment and, you know, shocker got the chills, um, when you were talking, but I feel like one of the things that you and I are both terrible at, I'm just gonna be honest, celebrating our wins. Yeah. Like

Brianna Rooney:
I

Taylor Bradley:
Think

Brianna Rooney:
I, I used to don't that I used to be great at it,

Taylor Bradley:
But you're good about doing it for others. You're really good. But like you just said, and what made me think of this was like, you're like, I, you know, I sold techies, you had this successful business, you sold it. You technically didn't have to work for a while. You started not only one company, but then a few months into that one started another one. And then we started this podcast and it's like, we haven't really stopped to think about the, wow, what have we accomplished with talent perch? What have we accomplished with diversity? Mm-hmm and we're doing the whole podcast. That's also seeing its own success. And we have not stopped a single minute to just be like, holy. Look at what we've done in a year.

Brianna Rooney:
Well, let's high five right now. yeah. Yeah. I mean really? No, I it's crazy. I totally, I totally agree. And I, I actually have been reflecting cause I'm like, I need a course. Correct. Naturally I used to be so good at celebrating our wins. And I realized that when I stopped and this is kind of crazy. And again, I'm, I don't have the answer to this yet, but when I stepped down as CEO of techies, because again, I wanted to start, I wanted to start talent perch and I wanted to, you know, branch out and do more strategic stuff. Um, that's probably when I stopped, like I think when I reached what I deemed as successful enough, right. Because it's not like I'm retiring, but successful enough. I was proud of myself. That's when I stopped celebrating my wins yet preach that like nobody's business. I mean, we have a, an employee here that I, I coach all the time. I literally have her put a whiteboard in her office to put her wins up. So she doesn't forget. And it's like yet, what, what am I doing? What am I doing? You know, you're

Taylor Bradley:
Not getting salad. You're not gonna get yourself the salad. That's the analogy

Brianna Rooney:
Salad.

Taylor Bradley:
No, you're not, you're not get yourself the salad. That's the thing. It's like, Brianna, get yourself the salad, celebrate that win. I feel like that is, that's one of the things that I also can. I, when I really think about what I could have done differently in experience the burnout that I have, that's one of the things that I, I should have done and could have done a lot better at is stopping and reflecting and celebrating the wounds instead of just always keeping it moving mm-hmm cause that does result in burnout. And I could so easily tell anybody else that. But for me, it's like, like you, I, I don't apply these same things to myself in the same way in which I want others to apply them and celebrate and shout out. And you guys did amazing at this and that and the other. But for me, it's like, just keep going. Like that's what you're supposed to do is just keep going. You don't stop. You don't celebrate you. Don't shotgun beer, you move, you keep moving.

Brianna Rooney:
well, I think it's also because as you become more and more successful in your career, your idea and definition of success changes, but you do not relay that information to yourself almost. I mean, you think about love languages, right? Like definitely. If anyone has not done their love languages, you have to, regardless if you have a significant other or not, but I really think, and I I'm, I do this now, cuz I'm divorced now. Right. So trying, trying to be better. But uh, I do every year Lincoln and I will do our love languages together. Even every six months. If we feel a lull, you know, it's like, Hey, let's redo our love languages, changes all the time. But it's like, why don't we redo our, what, how we deem to be successful? Because if we don't know our definition of success, we're constantly failing.

Taylor Bradley:
Yeah, absolutely. And that's another one where I think I contributed to my burnout too, is like I didn't have clearly defined for myself. What was my definition of success in each of the things that I was doing or taking on or projects I was working on, I just kept going. And I feel like a lot of times in life that would probably be a good mentality. Like the Dory just keeps swimming, just, you know, just keep pushing. But I think it's a good thing to have. And it's part of resilience when it's negative to just keep pushing. But I think it can be a, a negative aspect whenever it's positive situations that you just keep pushing through and don't stop to celebrate if that makes sense.

Brianna Rooney:
Yeah. No for sure. And I think about the recruiter life, um, obviously we're in talent takeover of unfiltered, but um, as a recruiter, I think it's pretty easy to understand your goals. You have your KPIs, you know, how many out, how many outreach you're supposed to do, you know, what Rex you're supposed to fill. And I think as you go up the chain, I guess, of command or success, whatever you wanna call it, um, it becomes a little ambiguous. Yeah. And I think that's when the burnout starts and trust me, I've seen tons of recruiters burnout, um, for sure. So it happens at all levels. I just think for me in particular, I've noticed it as I've gotten higher into my career. Um, and that's why I crave sometimes going back and just, and being a recruiter. Like I love that because I know how to value myself.

Taylor Bradley:
Right? What your expectation, uh, expectations of yourself, like you said, the higher you get up in your career, whatever it is, but your expectations of yourself increase and, or I know for me, they do, they increase. And so it's like something that I maybe would've celebrated five years ago, 10 years ago. I'm like, you know, Nope. Not even close, not in close to where I wanna be. Not even, not even scratching the surface of what I want, you know, so I know my expectations continue to increase for myself, but I still do not do a good enough job. Um, until I got sick, I had this reflection of like, I need to stop and be like, wow, like you did that. We started a podcast. I mean, we did, we branched out into something we've never done before. We're having a great time. People are actually getting value out of it.

Taylor Bradley:
That's a win. It's something fun for us. Yeah. It's, it's all, it's positive all around. So I think really stopping to celebrate your wins can also help with some of these in between some of these stages of burnout. It's like, you feel a strong sense, need to prove yourself. You keep working harder and harder to achieve this and that's stage one and two, but maybe pausing between stages two and three. If you had this graphic that we would gladly share with the audience, but yeah. To be like, okay, I've been working towards these accomplishments towards all the that I wanna get done. Right. But what are the wins that I've had? Even if I haven't met my big goal yet, what are the wins that I've had in between? And I think that will help to be like, okay, I'm not doing all this for nothing. You know, it helps to kind of be like, okay, I am getting somewhere, I'm making some headway. So yeah, for me, I know that's, that's been a learning lesson this year.

Brianna Rooney:
So I think the fine line is efficiency and burnout. It's like, they're almost together in this like sandwich. You have to have like this lettuce in between to kind of separate the two true. It's like how, how can you, um, actually I think about I'm doing this masterclass today on how to be an efficient, organized recruiter like that. Like that's a cool part, but you can go into so many different tangents about efficiency mm-hmm um, and then very quickly you can get into burnout. And if you have burnout, the creativity is not there. It's gone. Mm-hmm because you're literally just heads down. And um, I know we had this talk, you know, as a company, keeping your head up, I know heads down to work, but then put your head back up to see what's going on, to see what someone else is doing and to grab opportunities and all that stuff. And you cannot do that if you are burnt out because you are just in this like cloud of heads down.

Taylor Bradley:
Absolutely. And I think we're all guilty of doing that at some point. Yeah. So I think that's where I think those social connections we talked about with resiliency really come into play is like really helping each other like us right now. Like me saying Brianna, we've done a lot of because I know you don't always give yourself those wins, but from the person, you know, outside looking in, I'm like, look what you've accomplished, you know, monthly annually, like you've done some amazing things. We started essentially like three businesses in a year, you know? Yeah. This TTU has become one of 'em and it's all amazing, exciting things, but it's like, yeah, you did that. And we just kind of keep moving. And so I think that's one of the things that I would advice I'd give to myself. It was a learning lesson for me. But I would tell any leader out there too, is that you still have to celebrate your wins.

Brianna Rooney:
Yeah. Not only preach them to your team, but then preach them to yourself and take your team's wins as your own wins because that does change. And I think, um, when you're wanting to like, Hey, do I wanna go up higher? Do I wanna do I wanna remain an IC? Like what, like what, you know, keeps me going, what gets me excited? You have to realize those are two completely different things and your cup gets filled differently. And you have to give yourself that for sure.

Taylor Bradley:
Absolutely. Um, so broke to boss tip of the week. Um, and this is another more insightful one. So not a call to action. It's just, I saw this and it gave me chills. Cause I love the way that it was explained, but the sense of burnout and being overwhelmed is a signal, not a long term sentence.

Brianna Rooney:
Hmm. That's interesting because I think a lot of people think that the word overwhelmed is negative. I put that as a positive, I work my best when I'm overwhelmed, but may you know, maybe it's because it's how I phrase it to myself. Interesting.

Taylor Bradley:
I like that. I think it, yeah. The sense of burnout and being overwhelmed. So for you, you, you could just say the sense of burnout is a signal. Yeah. Not a long term sentence. So, um, I, I think most people do apply that like the sense of burnout being overwhelmed, which is so many things going on personal professional, it could be all of it at once, but it's not a long term sentence you can get out of burnout. I think that's a critical one for people to know. It's, it's, it's a signal for you to do better, switch some up, change something. But, um, it doesn't, you don't have to stay there and you don't have to progress in the stages of burnout. You can stop it and it's tracks.

Brianna Rooney:
Yeah. Love it. Ooh, nice. Ugh. This is a good one. It was a good one. Thank everyone for listening as always. And we'll definitely do that part two, uh, next week.

Taylor Bradley:
All right. Thanks guys. See y'all soon.