Battling Executive Burnout in the 24/7 Travel Business

In the couple of months before Lauren Westerfield resigned from her corporate hospitality job, she kept getting a sign. A tarot card reader in her spare time, she repeatedly pulled the card for death, which signifies change, a shedding of skin, or the closing of a chapter. “I was like: Gosh, could this get more obvious?” So she finally did it. The day after she resigned from her role as vice president of marketing at the Palms Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, she wrote a candid post on LinkedIn about her decision, hoping to show that it was possible to step down from a high-profile role in a graceful way. Westerfield's story is reminder for everyone in a hard-driving job, but especially for executives in travel, where it can often feel like a desperate 24/7 hamster wheel as competition grows and the stakes climb. Westerfield's decision left her feeling "1,000 pounds lighter" and put an end to the 2 a.m. wake-ups, nonexistent motivation to go to the gym, and the lack of presence with her family that Westerfield had been feeling for months. The post also hit a nerve, filling Westerfield's inbox with messages and comments from people earlier in their careers asking where she found her courage, to those further down the career path who had gone through a similar shift. In May of this year, the World Health Organization clarified its definition of burnout as an "occupational phenomenon," rather than a medical condition, noting it results from "chronic workplace stress that has not been successfully managed." It is characterized by physical and mental exhaustion, mental distance from one's job, feelings of negativity and cynicism and "reduced professional efficacy." The response to Westerfield's decision serves as proof — as if any was needed — that the modern definition of burnout is alive and well in the travel and hospitality industry. Of course it's true that thanks to online communication, the shrinking social safety net, and the the general precariousness of the global economy, burnout is present nearl