When someone in a team begins to look worn down, the first offer is often a webinar on resilience. The invitation is kindly meant. It says: we see that you are tired, and we would like you to be stronger.
I have no quarrel with inner resources. People do need ways to recover, to notice strain earlier, and to ask for help before the week has emptied them. I do quarrel with the quiet conclusion that often travels underneath the invitation: if you were more resilient, this job would not feel like this.
A LONGER PATTERN THAN A HARD WEEK
Malaysia’s Department of Occupational Safety and Health, in its 2024 PRisMA guideline, describes burnout as a psychological syndrome and a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors at work. It points to exhaustion, cynicism and reduced professional efficacy.
That description is useful because it slows the conversation down. Burnout, in this sense, is not a dramatic afternoon. It is what can happen when strain has been interpersonal and ongoing: too much demanded, too little returned, too few places to put the difficulty down.
A person may still be coming to work. They may still be answering messages late. From the outside, resilience can look intact for a long time. Inside the week, recovery has already become thin.
WHAT GETS MISATTRIBUTED TO CHARACTER
In conversations about corporate mental health support, I often hear burnout discussed as a personality matter. Some people are said to care too much. Some are said to manage time poorly. Some are said to lack grit.
Those comments can contain a sliver of observation and still miss the working conditions around the person. A role with no clear authority will exhaust even an organised colleague. A team that cannot discuss priorities will turn capable people into private problem-solvers who never quite finish. A culture that praises endurance will make rest look like a lesser form of loyalty.
The PRisMA guideline reminds us that psychosocial risks arise from how work is designed, organised and managed, and from the social context of work. When I sit with findings from a psychosocial risk assessment, the patterns that accompany exhaustion are often of this kind: work demands that leave little room to recover, roles that are unclear, support that has worn thin, communication that arrives too late or not at all.
None of this removes personal responsibility from the picture. Adults still make choices about sleep, boundaries and how they speak to one another. It does relocate part of the responsibility to management, where it belongs.
WHAT SKILLS CAN STILL OFFER
There is a complementary mistake, and I see it too: the idea that if the organisation is implicated, individual skill becomes irrelevant.
People still benefit from learning to notice that tiredness does not always look the same. The point is not to hand someone a label. The point is to help them see that exhaustion does not have only one face, and that recovery may need to be approached differently in each case.
Energy crafting, which means noticing what drains and what restores and adjusting small things where the role allows, gives a person something to do on an ordinary afternoon. Relational crafting gives a team language for workload, priorities and requests for assistance. These are practical skills, approached through neuroscience-informed practice. They are not a cure, and I do not describe them as one.
They also cannot compensate for a job that cannot be done in the time given to it. Skills sit alongside suitable workload, clear expectations and organisational support. A corporate wellness or burnout prevention workshop in Malaysia is most honest when it says this out loud.
PREVENTION WITHOUT A PROMISE
Organisations sometimes ask whether a programme will reduce burnout, absenteeism or turnover. I understand why the question appears. Boards like numbers. I do not answer it with a promise.
What we can offer is clearer seeing and better practice. A psychosocial risk assessment can show which working conditions are asking for attention, and which responses belong to training rather than to tailored organisational intervention or redesign. Our two-day Workplace Mental Health & Brain Wellness workshop gives people time to work with energy, recovery and supportive relationships. When an organisation books the full two days, a complimentary booth is included, where employees who choose to attend receive a private educational snapshot and personal guidance; employers see only aggregated, de-identified findings. None of these replaces the employer’s psychosocial-risk duties, and none of them guarantees a particular recovery.
This work is carried by a team that includes clinical psychologists, occupational therapists, LKM-registered counsellors and three DOSH Psychosocial Trained Persons. I bring 15 years of practice as an Industrial & Organizational Psychologist (PSIMA Reg. No. 91090), Neurofeedback SBCIA Master Trainer, HRV Biofeedback (BCIA), HRD Corp Accredited Trainer (6871) and DOSH Psychosocial Trained Person (PTP-167/25).
If you are looking at a tired team this month, you might hold two questions at once. What skill would help this person get through the next working day with a little more steadiness? And what, in the design of the work, has been asking too much for too long?
The second question is less comfortable. It is usually the one that makes a resilience talk feel suddenly too small.
Warmly,
Dr Hiro Koo
Industrial & Organizational Psychologist · Neurofeedback SBCIA Master Trainer · HRV Biofeedback (BCIA) · New Mind
If this is close to the conversation in your organisation, you are welcome to write to me on WhatsApp at +60 16-715 4419. You may also read about psychosocial risk assessment and our two-day workshop on burnout prevention, recovery and working relationships.
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当团队里有人开始显得被磨得很薄，第一个被提出的，常常是一场关于韧性的网上讲座。邀请的心意通常是好的。它好像在说：我们看见你累了，也希望你能更强一些。
我并不反对内在资源。人们的确需要方法去恢复，更早察觉紧绷，并在这一周把自己掏空之前开口求助。我在意的，是邀请下面常常悄悄跟着的那个结论：如果你更有韧性，这份工作就不会让你觉得这么难。
A LONGER PATTERN THAN A HARD WEEK
马来西亚职业安全与卫生局在 2024 年的 PRisMA 指南里，把倦怠描述为一种心理综合征，也是对工作中长期人际压力源的一种延长反应。它提到耗竭、讥讽疏离，以及职业效能下降。
这个描述有用，因为它让对话慢下来。这样理解的倦怠，不是某个激烈的下午。它可能出现在压力已经人际化、并且持续很久的时候：被要求的太多，被回馈的太少，困难也缺少可以暂时放下的地方。
一个人也许仍在上班，仍在很晚还回讯息。从外面看，韧性可以很久都显得还在。在一周的内部，恢复却已经变薄了。
WHAT GETS MISATTRIBUTED TO CHARACTER
在关于企业心理健康支持的对话里，我常听到人们把倦怠说成性格问题。有人被认为太认真。有人被认为不擅长管理时间。有人被认为不够有毅力。
这些评论里也许有一点点观察，却仍可能错过这个人周围的工作条件。一个没有清楚权力的岗位，会让即使很有条理的同事也感到耗竭。一个无法讨论优先级的团队，会把有能力的人变成私下解决问题、却总也做不完的人。一个赞美忍耐的文化，会让休息看起来像某种比较次等的忠诚。
PRisMA 指南提醒我们：心理社会风险来自工作被设计、组织与管理的方式，也来自工作的社会情境。当我看着心理社会风险评估里的发现，和耗竭一起出现的模式，常常就是这一类：工作要求几乎不留恢复的空间，职责不清楚，支持已经变薄，沟通来得太迟，或根本没有来。
这些话并没有把个人责任从画面里拿掉。成年人仍然要为自己的睡眠、界限，以及如何彼此说话做出选择。它只是把一部分责任，放回它本来所属的地方：管理。
WHAT SKILLS CAN STILL OFFER
还有另一种相对的误解，我也见过：一旦组织被牵连进去，个人技能就变得无关紧要。
人们仍然需要学习辨认：疲倦并不总是同一个样子。重点不是给人一个标签，而是帮助他们看见：耗竭并不只有一张脸，恢复在不同情况下，也可能需要不同的靠近方式。
能量塑造，是留意什么在消耗、什么能让人回来，并在角色允许的范围内调整一些小事，让一个人在普通的下午有事可做。关系塑造则给团队一套语言，去谈工作量、优先级和请求协助。这些是以神经科学为依据（neuroscience-informed）的实际技能。它们不是疗法，我也不会把它们说成疗法。
它们也无法补上一个在既定时间里根本做不完的工作。技能必须和合适的工作量、清晰的期望、组织的支持放在一起。马来西亚的企业健康或倦怠预防工作坊，若能把这句话公开说出来，会更诚实。
PREVENTION WITHOUT A PROMISE
机构有时会问，一个方案会不会降低倦怠、缺勤或流失。我理解这个问题为什么会出现。董事会喜欢数字。我不会用承诺来回答它。
我们能够提供的，是更清楚的看见，以及更好的练习。心理社会风险评估可以显示哪些工作条件需要被注意，哪些回应属于培训，哪些属于量身定制的组织干预或重新设计。我们为期两天的 Workplace Mental Health & Brain Wellness 工作坊，能给人时间去处理能量、恢复和彼此支持的关系。机构完整预订两天课程时，会配套一个免费摊位；自愿前往的员工能得到一段私下的教育性快照和个人建议，雇主只看到汇总且去识别化的发现。这些都不能取代雇主在心理社会风险上的责任，也不能保证某一种恢复。
这项工作由一个包括临床心理学家、职能治疗师、LKM 注册辅导员，以及三位 DOSH 心理社会受训人员的团队承担。我以 15 年的实务经验，作为工商与组织心理学家（PSIMA Reg. No. 91090）、Neurofeedback SBCIA Master Trainer、HRV Biofeedback (BCIA)、HRD Corp Accredited Trainer (6871) 以及 DOSH Psychosocial Trained Person (PTP-167/25) 带领这项工作。
如果这个月你看着的是一个很累的团队，也许可以同时握住两个问题。什么样的技能，能帮助这个人在下一个工作日里更稳住一点？以及，在工作的设计里，有什么已经太久要求得太多？
第二个问题比较不舒服。它通常也是那个会让一场关于韧性的讲座，突然显得太小的问题。
Warmly,
Dr Hiro Koo
Industrial & Organizational Psychologist · Neurofeedback SBCIA Master Trainer · HRV Biofeedback (BCIA) · New Mind
如果这接近你们机构正在进行的对话，欢迎通过 WhatsApp +60 16-715 4419 写信给我。也可以阅读心理社会风险评估，以及我们关于倦怠预防、恢复与工作关系的两日工作坊。
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