Most people who work in organizations with certain types of leadership are not exhausted by the workload. They are exhausted by everything that surrounds it:
Endless processes, priorities that change overnight, meetings that solve nothing but assign more responsibilities, emails that disappear into thin air without follow-up, ideas that are rejected as soon as they hit the table, and the feeling that you are doing three jobs at once (manager, receptionist, HSE) without knowing which one is really important.
It's strange:
The work is meaningful, the mission is important, the customer focus is good, and yet people feel overwhelmed and exhausted. They communicate passively-aggressively within CBRE. Because worrying doesn't protect you from stress. Your purpose doesn't protect you from organizational chaos. The impact the company claims to have doesn't erase the frustration that your talent isn't sufficiently rewarded.
Here's what I've learned:
You can love the mission and still feel exhausted by the system. That doesn't make you weak or ungrateful, difficult or confrontational. It makes you human.
A human who tries to do a good job in structures that are not designed for clarity or emotional well-being. Sometimes the most responsible thing you can do is take care of yourself first.We want strong communities, but we often work with exhausted teams.
We want to leave behind installed capacities, but we don't invest in internal capacities.
The impact doesn't start with customers; it starts with the team and the person at the helm.
Leaders should not try to squeeze or eliminate the first person who expresses a different opinion. Even if, in the end, they understand that power does not like to be questioned, let alone disobeyed.
The fight for rights is not always easy, and usually when those in power are questioned, the result is this: silence. Remove those who disrupt the system.
I must also say thank you for showing me the type of leadership I do not want to exercise in my career. If you are looking for flexibility and a balance with your life outside of work, this is not the company for you. Permissions are denied and monitoring is almost like you are a junior employee, as if your experience did not precede you.
