COMPASSION FATIGUE: THE DANGEROUS DESCENT FROM HELPING TO HURTING

It is a workplace reality that caring too much for your colleagues can hurt you.

- Gary Martin

It is the essence of 'compassion fatigue', an increasingly common concern in workplaces all around us.

Consider a librarian stacking books on a shelf designed to comfortably hold 20 volumes.

Day by day, more books are added to push the load to 30 and then 40. Eventually, the shelf buckles under the weight of twice its intended capacity.

The shelf is no longer able to perform its primary function without repair or reinforcement.

This analogy vividly illustrates the dangers of compassion fatigue - an affliction of growing concern in many workplaces.

Compassion fatigue occurs when individuals, particularly those in supervisory, management or leadership roles, find themselves absorbing the emotional stress of their team members well beyond their personal capabilities.

In the modern workplace, individuals are increasingly expected to navigate high-stress environments themselves while providing support and maintaining a high level of empathy and sensitivity towards their colleagues.

This often means they prioritize the needs of others above their own.

Over time, this unsustainable cycle leads to a breakdown and renders them incapable of assisting anyone -including themselves.