Nearly every day, I receive solicitations in the mail from a variety of very worth causes. Mixed in with offer for credit cards that I don't want, my mail box yields requests for money from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), NARAL Pro-Choice America, Planned Parenthood, the National Network of Abortion Funds, Amnesty International, and/or Habitat for Humanity. On top of that, most of these wonderful organizations have local affiliates. Hence, New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), NARAL Pro-Choice New York, Planned Parenthood of New York City, among other organizations, also send me letters outlining the excellent work that they do and asking for my monetary support. Add onto that the political candidates who push progressive agendas, and a person could easily spend her rent money and more to help others do good work. Just thinking about all the work that needs to be done in the US - let alone the world - is enough to make me burnout. Actually, burnout is a very serious issue that people working in the non-profit/charity/do-gooder world face. Generally, people who commit to public service work for less pay than their equally experienced colleagues. Since, say, a Britney Spears album will generate an enormous profit, a producer of the album will make significantly more money than a music teacher in a low-income community. The trade-off, many of us public servants are told, is that we can feel good about what we do. Except that we often don't feel good about what we do. Dedicated public servants are undoubtedly very happy to make any dent, but many of us are acutely aware that there is so much more to be done. For every family with which we help find an affordable home, we know that there are many others living in unsafe buildings, doubled up with relatives, or homeless. For every animal that is rescued from an abusive situation, there are countless more suffering from cruelty and/or neglect. Any failure has extra meaning because not only did you screw up, but someone else is possibly suffering as a result. Plus, just because one works in an environment meant to foster good, there is no reprieve from political maneuvering, backstabbing, and idiot co-workers. People are people, and public servants can be as ruthlessly ambitious or clueless as anyone. The pressure is enormous, and burnout is a huge problem. I am all too familiar with the pressures, burdens, and guilt that come along this kind of work, which for the sake of simplicity, I'll just call "public service" because I believe that anyone who works to make the world a better place (including those in government) qualifies as a do-gooder. For the past 10 years, I worked at various organizations in a semi-futile attempt to create more high quality child care spaces to serve low-income kidsin New York City. By the end of that decade, I was angry, frustrated, and stressed out almost all of time. Why didn't people - including those at my own work places - understand and prioritize early childhood care and education? There was never enough money, public opinion support, or elected official interest to do all the work that needed to be done. Every inequity in society, like how NYC could somehow afford to finance a football stadium but not one stupid child care center, infuriated me. I was miserable at work and at home, until I realized that I needed a break. Then I felt guilty that I was not using my skills to help others. This catch-22 has a name: a martyr complex. How can public servants avoid burnout? Britt Bravo at Have Fun, Do Good has several suggestions. Most of these are not specific to public servants, but the advice is solid:

Fried Social Worker Blog recommends reading Banishing Burnout: Six Strategies for Improving Your Relationship with Work and taking their My Relationship with Work Test. The Test evaluates your relationship with work around 6 variables: Workload, Control, Reward, Community, Fairness and Values. According to Fried Social Worker, "The chapters are constructed in such a way that you can specifically define a problem, set goals to address the problem, develop an action strategy and track your progress in meeting your goal." Intensive Care for the Nurturing Soul blog has 8 ideas for how to avoid "Nurturing Burnout": 1. Prioritize by Your Core Values 2. Put Intensive Self-Care as a Top Priority 3. Practice the 3-D Principle (Do It, Delegate It or Dump It) 4. Learn to Say No 5. Learn to Let Go 6. Avoid Multi-Tasking 7, Slow Down 8. Realize That You Cannot Do Everything and Be Everything to Everyone The Centre for Emotional Well-Being blog suggests using the Life Balance Journal she created for her book, The Art of Calm. The journal has four categories: diet, recreation, nurturing and relaxation, with lists of activities beneath each category. Each night you check off which stress-reducing activities you did... In her article, "Set Limits at Work to Beat Burnout," Washington Post writer Mary Ellen Slayter has an interesting quote from an executive coach, Mike Staver, who says that, "Burnout is an internal issue. There's no real correlation between hours spent doing something and burnout because it isn't just about activity." He suggests that burnout is related to the lack of return for the amount of energy expended. Slayter's three tips are: 1. Limit the stimulation (in particular electronic stuff like email checking and instant messaging), 2. Limit the obligations, and 3. Limit the power mistakes have over you. Finally, Ken Goldstein of the Nonprofit Consultant Blog calls for a Nonprofit Selfishness Movement, "We all need to set aside certain times and days to do something entirely selfish. . . . A little 'me time' to guiltlessly get away from the stress of constantly being other-focused. Time for our own families, time to take a vacation, and time to recognize our own worth."

These resources are great, and I can't emphasize how much it helps to get away from it all every once in a while. Although I felt guilty about leaving my cause behind, it turned out that I was much happier. My loved ones and friends actually began to enjoy spending time with me again since I was not constantly ranting and raving. (This is not to say that I do not rant and rave at all, but the frequency and intensity is way down.) I focused on some things that I wanted to do, like write a book about unusual things to see and do in New York City, and in a little while, I was ready to return to the public sector, although not in the child care field. The point here is two-fold. Every time I become annoyed at all the solicitations filling my mailbox, email in-box, and answering machine, I think about how desperate people are for the resources it requires to help them do their jobs. I also remind myself that do-gooders need - and should take - breaks sometimes to rejuvenate. After all, if we don't take care of ourselves, it is very hard to effectively take care of the world's problems. Suzanne also blogs about life at Campaign for Unshaved Snatch (CUSS) & Other Rants, about yogurt at Live Active Cultures, and about feminism and gender at BlogHer.