Food for thought...

© ASTRON

It is rather sad to say but at ASTRON, and also at the R&D department, there are some people (almost) burn-out. On a regular basis in the R&D MT meetings attention has been paid to this: How do we prevent people from getting a burn-out? How do we recognize if someone is reaching the dangerous zone? And how can we help this colleague to recover? Even more important: how do we ensure that we won't get in that zone anyway? Important questions to be answered...

Recently, Ruud Meulenberg, whose job it is to coach (almost) burned out people, has been invited for a special R&D MT meeting. The whole team went outside with him, his colleague and a trainee, as the coaching sessions with Ruud Meulenberg are always in the beautiful woods and fields of Drenthe. The R&D MT has been briefly informed on signals, necessary actions, etc. which was highly appreciated and eventually resulted in an one hour extension of the meeting in the open air. One of the things the R&D MT members learned was that a lot of people suffering/recovering from a burn-out are hard-working people, very dedicated to their job and always striving for the best results. However, not only workload will cause a burn-out. Also other factors, like impressive events in private life, personality, etc. can play a significant role.

A clear advice is: stay as close as possible to who you really are instead of trying to become just like someone else. "An oak will never become a beech".