Beneath the Busy: Insights into Workplace Mental Health

Burnout and compassion fatigue are reaching crisis levels in HR and leadership roles. In this episode of Beneath the Busy, Lauren Davis explores the hidden emotional cost of being the person everyone relies on and why caring roles are breaking under the weight of constant demand.This conversation goes beneath surface level self care to unpack compassion fatigue, vicarious trauma, and the nervous system toll of people centred work. Lauren explains why self care alone is not enough, how emotional residue builds over time, and what sustainable care actually looks like for HR professionals and leaders.You will learn: • What compassion fatigue really is and why it is not a personal failure • Why HR and leaders are uniquely exposed to emotional overload • The difference between healthy compassion and self abandonment • Why supervision and reflective spaces are professional hygiene • How self preservation supports better leadership and decision makingThis episode is for HR professionals, senior leaders, people managers, and anyone in a role that requires constant emotional availability.If you are feeling exhausted, numb, or quietly overwhelmed, this episode offers language, validation, and a way forward.Links and resources mentioned: • Compassion Fatigue Self Assessment • Reflective Group Practice for HR • Leadership Coaching and SupportTake the Leadership Capacity Questionnaire: https://form.typeform.com/to/Ig3juEuISubscribe to Beneath the Busy for weekly conversations on sustainable leadership, mental health at work, and staying well in high pressure roles.Thanks for listening! If you’re ready to take this further, here are a few ways to connect or go deeper: Free Mental Health Check-in → Sign up here to receive a simple yet powerful resource to combat burnout and reclaim your energy. Join Laurens Newsletter → Thoughtful, grounded reflections on navigating workplace pressures, supporting mental health, and leading with impact. Sign up here. Say hi / share a takeaway → Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn. → Message Lauren directly here. Work with Lauren → See how Lauren supports senior leaders and HR professionals in building mentally healthy teams and organisations.

Why do high achievers struggle to feel “enough” even when they’re performing at their best?In this episode of Beneath the Busy, Clinical Psychologist & Leadership Coach Lauren Davis explores the proving mindset: the quiet pressure to earn your worth through achievement and the emotional cost of carrying that pressure for years.Through the story of Zane, a respected senior leader on the edge of burnout, Lauren unpacks how productivity dysmorphia, identity, self-worth, and workplace culture shape the way high performers work… and why so many leaders push themselves past capacity without noticing.If you’ve ever felt like your accomplishments “don’t count,” or that slowing down would expose you, this episode offers a compassionate and practical way forward.What you’ll learn: • What drives the proving mindset • Why high performers tie worth to output • How productivity dysmorphia keeps leaders feeling “behind” • The emotional cost of being “the reliable one” • Why overperformance often begins in childhood • How praise can intensify burnout • Simple tools to shift from proving → leading • Questions to rebuild a calmer internal foundationResources in this episode: • Proving Mindset Checklist • Leadership Self-Worth Reflection Prompts • Productivity Dysmorphia Mini-Guide • Season 2, Episode 1 – The Resilience Trap • Season 2, Episode 2 – The Cult of BusynessA gentle reminder: You don’t have to perform your way into worthiness. You are enough. And you don’t have to do this alone.Thanks for listening! If you’re ready to take this further, here are a few ways to connect or go deeper: Free Mental Health Check-in → Sign up here to receive a simple yet powerful resource to combat burnout and reclaim your energy. Join Laurens Newsletter → Thoughtful, grounded reflections on navigating workplace pressures, supporting mental health, and leading with impact. Sign up here. Say hi / share a takeaway → Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn. → Message Lauren directly here. Work with Lauren → See how Lauren supports senior leaders and HR professionals in building mentally healthy teams and organisations.

Why do so many high-performing leaders feel exhausted, overwhelmed, and strangely unaccomplished, even after incredibly busy days?In Season 2, Episode 2 of Beneath the Busy, Lauren Davis explores the hidden psychology behind busyness, burnout, leadership pressure, productivity dysmorphia, and chronic urgency.You’ll learn:Why busyness has become a status symbol in modern workHow leaders mistake motion for momentumThe nervous-system impact of “hurry sickness,” “busyness disorder,” and constant pressureWhy high performers struggle to slow downHow avoidance, fear of failure, and visibility pressures drive overworkThe subtle ways burnout builds in leadership rolesThe critical difference between capacity and capabilityA practical system to identify “meaningful work” vs “noise”A red/yellow/green audit to protect your highest-value workHow leaders and HR can design more humane, sustainable culturesSimple weekly practices to rebuild clarity, calm, and impactIf you’re a leader, HR professional, or high performer who wants to work with more clarity and less chaos, this episode gives you the mindset, language, and tools to reset your rhythm.Resources Mentioned:• Red/Yellow/Green Work Audit• Thinking Time Block Framework• Daily Review Prompts• Episode from Season 1: Busy is the New Lazy • Season 2 Episode 1: The Resilience TrapWho This Episode Is ForSenior leadersExecutives & foundersHR & People PartnersHigh performers navigating burnoutCoaches & wellbeing leadsAnyone holding a system together while feeling unsupportedThanks for listening! If you’re ready to take this further, here are a few ways to connect or go deeper: Free Mental Health Check-in → Sign up here to receive a simple yet powerful resource to combat burnout and reclaim your energy. Join Laurens Newsletter → Thoughtful, grounded reflections on navigating workplace pressures, supporting mental health, and leading with impact. Sign up here. Say hi / share a takeaway → Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn. → Message Lauren directly here. Work with Lauren → See how Lauren supports senior leaders and HR professionals in building mentally healthy teams and organisations.

In this episode, Lauren Davis unpacks The Leadership Paradox — why today’s leaders operate under Olympic-level expectations with almost no built-in support. We explore the hidden cost of resilience, the emotional labour leaders and HR carry, and how high performance quietly becomes burnout in slow motion.Through psychological insight and decades of coaching high-performing executives, Lauren reveals why coping isn’t leading, the early signs of leadership burnout, and what it takes to build sustainable capacity in a culture addicted to busyness.If you’re a leader or HR professional navigating decision fatigue, emotional overload, or the pressure to “hold everything together,” this episode offers a grounding pause and a practical reflection tool to help you check your capacity before burnout checks it for you.Take the Leadership Capacity Questionnaire: https://form.typeform.com/to/Ig3juEuIWhat You’ll LearnWhy resilience is quietly becoming a liabilityThe difference between coping and leadingSigns of leadership burnout and capacity erosionThe emotional and psychological load HR carriesWhy leaders need support structures similar to elite athletesHow psychological safety and recovery fuel performanceA simple reflection tool to assess your leadership capacityKey TopicsLeadership burnoutHR burnoutEmotional labour at workHigh-performance psychologySustainable leadershipCapacity buildingResilience vs recoveryLeadership mental healthOrganisational wellbeingPreventing burnout in leaders & HRMentioned in This EpisodeThe Leadership ParadoxDecision fatigueCompassion fatiguePurpose fatigueThe Olympic analogy for leadershipSeason 1: “Busy Is the New Lazy”Season 2, Episode 4: Caring Without Crumbling (teaser)Who This Episode Is ForSenior leadersExecutives & foundersHR & People PartnersHigh performers navigating burnoutCoaches & wellbeing leadsAnyone holding a system together while feeling unsupportedHighlights“Leadership may be the only high-performance role where support isn’t built in.”“We reward depletion and call it dedication.”“Coping isn’t leading — it’s a holding pattern.”“You’d never send an athlete onto a field without support; why send leaders into complex systems alone?”“High performance isn’t built on coping alone — it’s built on support.”Thanks for listening! If you’re ready to take this further, here are a few ways to connect or go deeper: Free Mental Health Check-in → Sign up here to receive a simple yet powerful resource to combat burnout and reclaim your energy. Join Laurens Newsletter → Thoughtful, grounded reflections on navigating workplace pressures, supporting mental health, and leading with impact. Sign up here. Say hi / share a takeaway → Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn. → Message Lauren directly here. Work with Lauren → See how Lauren supports senior leaders and HR professionals in building mentally healthy teams and organisations.

If rest makes you restless, this episode is for you.In the Season 1 finale of Beneath the Busy, we look beneath the polished surface of high performance to explore a quietly harmful dynamic: work addiction. It often looks like dedication—but underneath is a loop of anxiety, avoidance, and a relentless need to prove.You’ll learn:What work addiction is (and isn’t)Why it hides in plain sight—especially in ambitious, high-achieving peopleHow to spot the loop, interrupt it, and begin to step outWhy separating your work from your worth is the real workMaya’s story: a real-life example of unhooking from the cycleThis is not a list of hacks. It’s a gentle call to reflect—because you don’t have to quit your job to quit the loop, but you may need to stop earning your self-worth one task at a time.Download the free Work Addiction Self-Screen & Reflection Guide Want a nudge when Season 2 goes live in October? Add your name to this formThanks for listening! If you’re ready to take this further, here are a few ways to connect or go deeper: Free Mental Health Check-in → Sign up here to receive a simple yet powerful resource to combat burnout and reclaim your energy. Join Laurens Newsletter → Thoughtful, grounded reflections on navigating workplace pressures, supporting mental health, and leading with impact. Sign up here. Say hi / share a takeaway → Connect with Lauren on LinkedIn. → Message Lauren directly here. Work with Lauren → See how Lauren supports senior leaders and HR professionals in building mentally healthy teams and organisations.