A real estate salesperson I knew casually was the city’s top producer for several years running. His sales were well over $1 million per year, which at that time was a lot of money. He won every contest and received every top producer prize.
The other salespeople at the same firm were constantly badgered to keep up with him. He worked non-stop, day and night, seven days a week to ensure that nobody did. Then one day he just disappeared. He got out of real estate. He was mentally and physically burned out and incapable of continuing. Gold was turning to mud – a not completely unexpected happening.
Most senior executives and professional practitioners are susceptible to burnout. This includes real estate professionals, particularly the top sellers and highly productive brokers and managers who work day and night, every day and every night, never taking time off for family, relaxation or personal pleasures, as did this hotshot. They just fizzle out and are gone. It’s more common than many of us realize.
There are several definitions for burnout that are unrelated to jet airplanes running out of fuel and crashing. Still, that is a good metaphor. Burnout well describes the real estate professional who runs out of fuel and eventually crashes.
Burnout can be defined as being out of sync with one or more aspects of a person’s life. For the most part it is work related. This generates a loss of energy, enthusiasm, confidence and at times ability, all of which, when combined, bring about a deterioration in that person’s mental and physical well being. Burnout is not having a bad day or depression, although both could be contributors and forecasts of what comes next. It is the longer period of exhaustion, disillusionment, difficulty in handling routine tasks, loss of energy, loss of self confidence and the longer term effects of having an unbalanced life, with mental and emotional deterioration.
It is frequently found among high-pressure managers who drive their sales staff to greater and greater performance. Burn out, or its potential for happening, affects the star and borderline producers equally. The stars constantly struggle to remain on top of the heap. Many lower production listing and selling agents over-work and over-extend their capabilities, just to survive. Most of this class starve themselves out. They realize they are in the wrong occupation and move on.
Burnout seldom affects people who are basically lazy. It hits those who work non-stop, often beyond their market comprehension or ability to list and sell real estate. It’s trying to be or do too much, over-taxing one’s normal stressors for too long a period.
Although not everyone displays them the same way, the signs of a burnout, or a pending burnout, are usually obvious, even to the untrained eye. Being a workaholic, being unable to handle negative or conflicting influences, being unnecessarily critical of others, and the need to continue at a high pace are the first and most common signs.
Disillusionment and frustration probably come next. “I just can’t seem to get interested or get going.” Lack of motivation; loss of interest. “I’m ticked off, harassed. Nothing is working out. I’m tired all the time. I just can’t get a listing or make a sale”. “I feel like I’m being trapped in some psychological quicksand from which there is no escape”. A feeling of inadequacy is taking over.
There are several known cures for burnout, the most obvious of which is to get out of real estate! Do something different where there is less demand and far less stress. Strive for a better balance between work and home life. Strive to bring about a permanent cure.
Several years ago I was in Clear Water, B.C. While there I met a lady who said that she came from Colorado. She told me that one day, about four months earlier, her husband returned from work and said, “I quit my job and bought a truck. We’re going to Alaska!” She said Clear Water was as far as they had gone. “In Colorado my husband was a senior executive with an aero-space company,” she said. “He was constantly under intense pressure. Every night he came home tired, as bitchy as all get out and with a splitting headache. Here, he is working at the local sawmill, pulling lumber off the green chain, a common labourer. He has never made less money, or had fewer headaches or fewer worries. He has never been in better physical shape and happier. The daily stress that was killing him is gone. We are both enjoying life here in Canada.”
The cure for burnout usually comes down to getting a more balanced life; one more in tune with your abilities and capacity to withstand stress. Both vary from person to person. Some have a far higher tolerance level than others. This would include your physical stamina, not working beyond your mental and physical capacity and understanding yourself and your limitations.
It’s all about eliminating stressors. It’s about accepting your own limitations and working within them. In selling real estate it’s all about learning how to take “no” for an answer and not pushing it, hoping for a reversal. Were I writing this for an appraisal magazine, I would add; “Accept the fact that some clients will think you are an idiot who does not live in the real world.”
For you stars; slow down, smell the flowers, enjoy life. Eliminate or as best as you can, avoid the multitude of stressors. Being more active physically really helps. Golf more in the summer and curl in the winter. Burnout does not need to happen.
Lloyd Manning, AACI, FRI, CCRA, PApp is a semi-retired commercial real estate and business appraiser and broker who now spends his time writing for professional journals and trade magazines. He resides in Lloydminster, Alberta. Contact him by email.
