Anxious News Cycles: Supporting Your Team Without Burning Out

Lately, many people I work with describe a fatigue that’s hard to put into words. The work is getting done, responsibilities are being met, yet energy feels fragile, focus is harder to maintain, and recovery is insufficient.

The news is not the main cause of workplace distress, but it acts as an amplifier of an already heavy mental load.

The good news is that we don’t need to control the news to better support our teams. We can act directly on the work environment and on how we support one another, day to day.

Whether you work in HR, sit on a wellness committee, manage others, or simply have influence within your team, supporting colleagues does not mean carrying everyone’s weight. In an anxious context, this distinction becomes essential.

Supporting Without Absorbing: Put Your Oxygen Mask on First

Supporting colleagues does not mean managing their emotions or becoming the container for collective stress. Listening does not mean fixing. Empathy does not mean self-neglect.

In many organizations, those who care deeply and want to help end up exhausting themselves by carrying too much. Yet putting your own well-being oxygen mask on first is not a luxury—it’s a condition for sustainability. We support others better when we protect our own energy, boundaries, and capacity to recover.

Taking care of the workplace climate often starts with a simple question: What is truly mine to carry—and what is not?

Protecting Attention: A Powerful and Often Overlooked Lever

One indirect but very real effect of anxious news cycles is fragmented attention. Constant notifications, frequent interruptions, and ongoing stimulation make it harder to concentrate. And fragmented attention is a stressor in itself, even when workload hasn’t increased.

Supporting deep work becomes a meaningful mental health strategy. This can involve respecting focused work periods, reducing unnecessary noise and interruptions, and normalizing the idea that being constantly available is neither realistic nor healthy. Protecting attention also means protecting energy and mental clarity.

Creating Stability When the Context Is Unstable

When the outside world feels unpredictable, the brain looks for anchors. Work can either become an additional source of pressure—or a stabilizing force.

Creating stability does not require major overhauls. Clarifying priorities, naming what can wait, avoiding a constant sense of urgency, and normalizing fluctuations in energy all contribute to a healthier, more sustainable way of working. These adjustments don’t lower standards. They support people’s ability to stay engaged over time.

Creating Moments of Distance - Away From the News

Another often underestimated lever is intentionally stepping away from the news, especially during the workday. Staying informed is one thing. Being continuously exposed to distressing headlines is another.

Micro-breaks matter here; provided they aren’t simply replaced by scrolling news or social media. Intentionally distancing ourselves from the news, even for a few minutes, allows the nervous system to settle and attention to reset.

Encouraging moments of mental distance can take many simple forms: phone-free breaks, news-free zones or times, or explicit permission to mentally disconnect between demanding tasks. These pauses are not a waste of time. They help preserve energy, focus, and resilience in an already demanding context.

A Simple Tool to Keep: Supporting Without Burning Out

Here is a short reflection tool you can keep handy, individually or as a team:

Before stepping in to support others, ask yourself:

• Is this situation part of my role or responsibility?

• Am I helping—or carrying this for someone else?

• Does my action support clarity, stability, or attention?

• What do I need to stay present without burning out?

• Have I built in real moments of distance from the news?

These questions often help us support more effectively—without losing ourselves in the process.

Taking the next step

These reflections are at the heart of my workplace wellness workshop Working Without Burning Out: Preventing Wear and Preserving Energy at Work.Workplace fatigue doesn’t stem solely from workload, but from cumulative wear that builds day after day. This conference focuses on managing mental, emotional, and physical energy to prevent overload and burnout before they take hold. Participants discover practical strategies to better pace their efforts, integrate micro-recovery into daily routines, and finish their workdays with greater energy and clarity.

In Closing

In anxious times, supporting teams does not require heroic solutions or complex programs. It rests on coherent, human, and sustainable choices: supporting without absorbing, protecting attention, creating clarity and allowing ourselves moments of distance.

In an unstable world, work can become either an added source of pressure… or a point of anchoring.

Each of us can influence that, in our own way.

Yours in health and wellness,

Nathalie Lacombe, M. Sc.

Health and Wellness Coach and Speaker