Belonging might get you on the team, but if burnout is a systems problem, then mattering is a systems solution. Cait sits down with Zach Mercurio, PhD, author of The Power of Mattering, to examine why engagement continues to decline even in organizations investing heavily in culture initiatives. If burnout is a systems problem, then addressing workplace burnout requires more than resilience training. It requires redesigning how leaders show up in everyday interactions.

Zach breaks down the difference between belonging, inclusion, and mattering. Belonging is being welcomed. Inclusion is being invited to participate. Mattering is knowing you are significant and needed. That experience is built moment by moment when leaders notice, affirm, and show people how their contributions make a measurable difference. These small interactions directly influence organizational health and shape the employee experience.

Cait brings a biological lens to the conversation, exploring how chronic workplace stress and cortisol are connected to feeling unseen or replaceable. Research shows that when people feel they matter, stress markers decrease and exhaustion drops. That insight reframes the structural causes of burnout. This is not just about mindset alone but systems, expectations, and leadership behavior.

The conversation also addresses leadership burnout. Managers are overloaded with KPIs, administrative demands, and hybrid communication that erodes psychological safety at work. When leaders rush, care disappears and hurry replaces presence, burnout culture takes root. If burnout is a systems problem, then culture is built or broken in the accumulation of daily interactions.

You will get a useful framework based on three main actions which are noticing, affirming, and needing. You can use these leadership skills on a larger scale to improve the health of your organization, reduce burnout at work, and make the employee experience better without starting a new project.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Zach Mercurio, PhD, on The Power of Mattering at Work

02:37 Belonging vs Inclusion vs Mattering

06:39 What Makes Work Meaningful

09:43 Mattering and Burnout

11:48 The Biology of Feeling Valued

20:57 How to Build Trust With Check-ins That Feel Authentic

23:14 Notice, Affirm, Need: Leadership Behaviors That Reduce Burnout

28:47 Why Hurrying Kills Care

42:13 The Myth of Being Replaceable

48:12 One Simple Question That Helps People Feel They Matter

Links

Mind–Body Skills Groups for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Palestinian Adults in Gaza

Connect with Zach Mercurio:

Visit Zach's Website

Follow Zach on Instagram

Connect with Zach on LinkedIn

The Power of Mattering

Cait Donovan is a keynote speaker, author, and host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, specializing in burnout, mismatch, and sustainable performance at work. She partners with corporate leaders, teams, and professional associations through keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions that treat burnout as data, not failure, to help organizations reduce burnout without blame or shame and build healthier, high performing cultures.

To bring Cait to your organization or event, book an inquiry call here.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Burnout does not get fixed by waiting for the workplace to change and it does not get solved by ignoring the biology of chronic stress either. Cait Donovan challenges the growing resistance to mindfulness in workplace and corporate wellness by asking a more honest question: what if the tools people dismiss as basic are misunderstood rather than ineffective?

Drawing on research from war zones, medical training programs, and high-stress professional environments, the conversation reframes mindfulness as a form of burnout prevention grounded in trauma and PTSD science. When practices reduce symptoms in active conflict zones, it raises an uncomfortable but important question about what they might offer people living with constant workplace stress.

At the center of the discussion is the nervous system. Chronic stress creates a dysregulated nervous system that stays locked in fight or flight, reshaping the brain in the same way PTSD does. Through the lens of nervous system regulation, the vagus nerve, and polyvagal theory, burnout is positioned as a physiological pattern rather than a failure of willpower or mindset. The episode pushes back on the idea that burnout belongs only to systems and leadership, without minimizing real workplace harm. Research shows that choosing a small number of practices that truly fit can restore clarity and agency over time, giving people the internal stability needed to decide what actually needs to change next.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Workplace Wellness, Burnout, and Chronic Stress

02:46 Why Practical Stress Management Matters at Work

06:05 How Mind-Body Skills Support Burnout Recovery and PTSD

09:08 Reclaiming Personal Agency in Burnout Prevention

Links

James Gordon's episode on Transforming Trauma

Cait Donovan is a keynote speaker, author, and host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, specializing in burnout, mismatch, and sustainable performance at work. She partners with corporate leaders, teams, and professional associations through keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions that treat burnout as data, not failure, to help organizations reduce burnout without blame or shame and build healthier, high performing cultures.

To bring Cait to your organization or event, book an inquiry call here.

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

Part of burnout recovery is learning when to respond to what your body and life are telling you, even when that response brings some discomfort.

In this episode, Cait and Sarah talk openly about a shift in how they work together and what’s ahead for FRIED. As their roles and priorities have evolved, Sarah is stepping back and Cait is focusing her work more fully on leadership, organizational, and systems-level burnout.

Cait shares how she came to see that her work is strongest when she is creating change at a broader level, working with leaders, teams, and organizations. Sarah reflects on realizing that supporting others through burnout had taken the place of rebuilding her own life, and what became clear once she chose to redirect her energy back toward herself.

The conversation reflects the longer arc of burnout recovery. It speaks to how clarity often comes later than expected, how rebuilding tends to happen in stages, and how fit becomes clearer through experience rather than planning. What Cait and Sarah describe will feel familiar to anyone who has had to respond to a change they did not anticipate but ultimately knew they could not ignore.

Episode Breakdown:

00:00 Conscious Business Uncoupling and Burnout Recovery Alignment

03:29 Why Burn Bold Shifted From Individual Burnout Recovery to Workplace Burnout

04:28 The Values Bridge Assessment and How It Exposes Misalignment

08:29 Codependency in Helping Roles and Burnout From Borrowed Purpose

11:18 Ending a Business Partnership Without Blame or Failure

18:59 Why You Cannot Force Alignment Through Planning Alone

28:34 Why Transitions Feel So Hard According to Chinese Medicine

31:43 Workplace Burnout vs Misalignment and Why Not Everything Is Toxic

38:16 Using Your Voice and Finding the Work That Fits

42:34 Why Burnout Recovery Still Requires Support and Guidance

Links

Book Cait to Speak at your Event or Org

Schedule a Speaking Inquiry with Cait

Cait Donovan is a keynote speaker, author, and host of FRIED: The Burnout Podcast, specializing in burnout, mis/match, and sustainable performance at work. She partners with corporate leaders, teams, and professional associations through keynotes, workshops, and leadership sessions that treat burnout as data, not failure, to help organizations reduce burnout without blame or shame and build healthier, high performing cultures.

To bring Cait to your organization or event, book an inquiry call here: https://bit.ly/bookcait

Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm