Burnt out, checked out, or barely hanging on? Inside Canberra’s quiet crisis
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With the year drawing to a close, plenty of Canberrans will welcome a moment to exhale. A break is finally approaching, along with a chance to rest, recover and re-energise.
For anyone barely hanging on after months of relentless pressure and symptoms that look a lot like burnout, the break couldn’t arrive fast enough. However, if this cycle feels familiar, leadership coach Kim Vella suggests it could reflect a deeper issue that will only return next year.
“Many workplaces reward stamina and over-functioning,” says Kim. “It’s a silent expectation, where leaders are seen as strong if they are always ‘on’. Always busy, always available.
“This is the environment or system people are operating in, and they respond in turn: working themselves into the ground and becoming frustrated when they – or their team – can’t continue rising to the occasion.
“Yes, we may be approaching a few weeks of break. But you’ll be right back where you started next year if you don’t take steps to change it.”
Instead, Kim encourages leaders to ‘widen their field of awareness’ so they can take in the broader system that often drives over-functioning.
“Public servants who attend my leadership workshops are typically surprised to learn that recovery is one of leadership’s most advanced capabilities. It’s a capability that’s not easy to attain, yet it can be learned and has immeasurable benefits.
“I call it leadership in motion. When we learn to build recovery into leadership, the system around us begins to reflect this change. Suddenly there is more space to think strategically, fewer obstacles weighing us down, and less friction slowing progress.
“It opens the door for sustained influence over short-term impact. Research also shows that leaders who recover well sustain clearer thinking, better emotional regulation, and more ethical judgment. In contrast, poor recovery can undermine cognitive performance, strategic decision-making, and interpersonal behaviour.
“As an added bonus, recovery supports leaders to meet their responsibilities under Work, Health and Safety by contributing to safer, more sustainable work practices. The ethics of recovery aren’t just about well-being or feeling good, but managing psychosocial risks and demonstrating strong stewardship.
“With such valuable personal and professional advantages, I’d suggest that any leader who feels a quiet desperation as the year winds down would benefit from learning how.”
Over the coming weeks, Kim recommends avoiding the temptation to simply checkout, and instead taking stock of yourself and the system you’re operating in.
“You might ask yourself and people in your team:
- What is one thing that served you well this year?
- What is one thing you will start doing in 2026?
- What is one thing you will leave behind in 2025?
“Make your final conversations this year about repair. Focus less on actions and outputs, and more on recognising what people – including yourself – have carried that might be invisible to others. Have conversations that help to normalise recovery or restore boundaries that might have been challenged.
“Lastly, avoid the temptation to fill January before you go on leave. Sure, there may be plenty to do…there always is. But you cannot learn leadership in motion if you don’t create space for perspective. It’s only in those moments that the solution to 10 actions becomes one, and the more strategic, less busy version of yourself begins to serve as a blueprint for others and the system to follow.”
To learn more about leadership coaching with Kim Vella in 2026, visit Kim Vella Coaching.
