Empathy Fatigue with Stoke on Trent City Council and Insight Academy, June 2024, “This course was by far the best that I have been on in many years."
A bit of a catch-up blog post today as I’ve been very, VERY busy! During the month of June, I delivered Empathy Fatigue training to staff from Stoke on Trent City Council. Yes, my old stomping ground. To say that the day was an extremely rewarding one for all who attended would be an understatement. It was wonderful to be surrounded by extremely motivated and compassionate staff.
The vast majority of the people who attended were from the housing and homelessness teams. Day after day they are dealing with very difficult situations and people experiencing trauma. It is understandable that staff members become inured and fatigued. Burnout is a real thing. We have to address it; we need to be open and honest about the stresses that we face.
The course looks at all of these areas and also explores what we can actually do to combat fatigue and burnout.
The assembled learners were certainly impressed and I have collated the feedback below.
As always 100% excellent, positive feedback.
What did you learn during this session?
“This training was excellent. Reminds you that you need to take stock and look at your work life.”
“Techniques on managing workload update on training.”
“More knowledge than I had before.”
“Ability to self-reflect when struggling mentally.”
“Lots of useful things - more really eye-opening facts!”
“The important / urgent opened my eyes how I do not do for myself and put effort in to others, I need to show myself more love.”
“The training was excellent.”
“Excellent training, far broader than I had imagined it would be, covered everything and more.”
“I wasn’t aware I needed this training but it was really valuable.”
“How to avoid procrastinating! How to protect myself to balance work / life and therefore offer compassion.”
“What empathy fatigue is, recognising signs.”
“No was very comprehensive.”
“Procrastination - and thinking about how urgent things really are.”
“About the way I work and how to improve upon it.”
“More awareness of what can cause stress in both workplace + personal life.”
How will the training you experienced shape your practice in the future?
“Will be beneficial in both my housing role & my counselling role.”
“I will ensure I take the advice & info forward into my work life / balance.”
“It will help me to prioritise workload and stop being so stressed.”
“Think things through a lot more.”
“Better insight into customers mindset.”
“It will help me implement strategies to manage my work load better so that I can spend time with customers really listening.”
“Definitely to put attentions to what matter, prioritise myself "and that’s ok.””
“Make me think more how I react.”
“It will help me with my day to day.”
“It will encourage me to make sure that I am looking after myself when at work.”
“A better understanding of how I work.”
“Be more productive and balanced.”
“Make me be more mindful if I am procrastinating too much or being too empathetic. Recognising signs of burnout.”
“I will try and implement straight away.”
Would you recommend this training session to others and why?
“Most def!!”
“Yes - because this helps remind of the benefit of looking after your mental health at work.”
“Definitely.”
“Yes - light hearted but got the information needed. Great trainer!”
“Yes absolutely! Training is varied and trainer is as usual excellent.”
“Yes - very informative and engaging.”
“Absolutely, thorough and relevant however delivered with fun.”
“Every time. Most definitely very enlightening.”
“Yes, definitely the trainer was knowledgeable.”
“Yes! Lots of useful content and very amusing.”
“YES - very engaging - the day flew by, and I have learnt a lot.”
“Definitely. It was fun & informative.”
“Yes, definitely, engaging trainer, well delivered very enjoyable training.”
“Very much so.”
“Yes resets how you think / approach work.”
“Yes, enjoyable, informative, good opportunity to reflect away from the work setting.”
“This course was by far the best that I have been on in many years... And I didn’t fall asleep Steven.”
“Keep doing what you’re doing! Thank you!”
“Brilliant you always manage to hit where necessary.”
“Keep it fun and interesting as it is.”