burnout in a small business

[Timothy J. allen]

I had the opportunity to study with Kenny Aronoff when he was playing drums for John Fogerty. Kenny has a history of making it look easy while playing with musicians that sound simple, but are VERY serious about their performances, and very demanding on their bands.

A classically trained percussionist, and longtime member of John Mellencamp’s band. Kenny has always risen to the challenge of finding that balance between being bored (from playing so-called “simple” music) and being overwhelmed by the challenges of playing for such stringent employers. It wasn’t easy, but that is his forte now – and it’s what keeps him in demand from everyone from Jon Bon Jovi to Johnny Cash… as well as many other well-musicians that are NOT named “John”.

It’s finding that balance between those two extremes of boredom and being overwhelmed that I still find to be the best solution for burnout. That… and a good vacation to a strange land every once in a while.

A few years back, I wrote an article about burnout for Creative Cow. It expands on this line of thinking a bit.

Here is the link: https://library.creativecow.net/articles/allen_timothy/burnout.php

[Chris Blair]

Philip Imbrenda: I was of the understanding that these blogs were to help educate one another, not criticize.

I don’t think anything I wrote was critical of anyone, especially the excerpt from your blog. Many people on these forums agree with what you wrote and subscribe to the “cut the grinder loose” philosophy. I’m just not one of them.

I’m pretty sure no one can claim that this philosophy is the de facto way to run a business of any size. It probably works for some people, and not others.

What good would these forums be if everyone agreed with everyone? How would that expand our understanding of our industy and promote different points of view?

I simply disagreed with the notion that cutting loose the big offenders is simply smart business. That’s not an indictment of you, your opinions or the way you run your business. It’s simply another point of view for people to consider who are interested in thread.

We’re all adults here and disagreeing with someone should not be mistaken for criticism. I’ve been disagreed with MANY times on these and other forums. I’ve even been criticized on them. I rarely if ever call the other people out for that. Most of the time I simply argue my side and in the end, agree that we disagree and believe everyone is smarter for seeing different points of view.

The larger point is that burnout is complicated. High achievers can experience it. Factors outside of work can exacerbate it, especially emotional and psychological problems. So while much of the stuff people have written is true in general, most of it is just that… generalizations. That’s the larger point I’m trying to make…that avoiding or overcoming job burnout is just not as simple as folks have made it out to be in this thread.

Chris Blair
Magnetic Image, Inc.
Evansville, IN
http://www.videomi.com